Jul 6, 2012 | Field Reports
Spent the evening in the office at the computer and wanted something playing. I grabbed the iPad and hit the HBO Go app and clicked on Documentaries. That’s when I saw Dark Light: The Art of Blind Photographers. This 2010 piece is simply marvelous, you can’t help but learn and be inspired. And it removes all excuses bringing to light the true joys of being a photographer. You can find it on HBO GO and probably other HBO outlets or you can order it. It’s a must see: it’s totally humbling!
Jul 6, 2012 | Field Reports
It’s been a long week, even with the holiday, full of ups and downs. I was just about to sit down and write a boring post titled, “The Frustrations of a Blogger” about how many, not all look at the photo in the blog and that’s all. They don’t read the post but treat the photo like a book cover and judge its contents accordingly. I put a lot of time into my posts but this week, I was getting beaten up for not helping the right folks at the right moment, for free. Then I read an email like this and all those negatives go away and I know why I blog…..
Subject: Truly Grateful
Moose,
I’ve nearly written this email 5-6 times and have finally decided to drop you a line, if for no other reason than to give you something other than “What do you think of the new D4?” to read.
About 1.5 years ago I was given a DSLR as a gift. I was super thrilled, but what I couldn’t anticipate was how happy it would make me.
The turning point came when I also received a gift card to Barnes and Noble. At the time I was having some car issues and was interested in trying to do the repairs myself so I was planning on using the gift card to purchase a repair manual for my vehicle. I wandered the aisles in B&N and turned a corner into the photography section. I glanced at a few “how-to” books, but my eyes were fixated on the nature/wildlife photography books. I picked up a couple, my mouth agape at the beauty of the photos, but returned them to the shelf for various reasons. Then I saw your book, “Captured,” peeking out towards the back. I grabbed it, flipped it open, started reading some of the text, turned on my heel, went to the counter, handed the lady my gift card, declined a plastic bag (to quote my father, “That’s OK, I’ll eat it here”), walked to my car, drove home, and spent the next two hours reading and re-reading sections of your book. I was captivated! Over the next several weeks I read your book cover to cover, taking notes along the way.
I hate bullshit and you’re a no bullshit guy. I love swear words and you dropped a few in the book (I’m pretty sure you did… I could be making that up!), which earned you major brownie points with me. But the way you wrote the book clicked with me. I’m a fisheries scientist by training and a nature lover at heart. Your stories and anecdotes of working with biologists rang true with me. One year ago (almost to the day) I was assisting a post-doc as she played surgeon and implanted acoustic transmitters in a popular fish species (walleye) and between surgeries (2-3 mins/surgery) I was grabbing my DSLR and snapping pictures like a madman, dropping it when I had to to get back and transfer the fish to recover chambers. The biologists I worked with were super grateful that I was there to document the study and be available to help, and I was elated to have the experience! I LOVE documenting research projects. It would be lovely if I could make a career out of it, but I digress.
Fast-forward a few months and my life quickly changed. I rolled the dice and decided that I would accept a job as a fisheries biologist and move from where I was living in Ottawa, Ontario to Chicago before completing my Master’s degree. This turned out to be a HUGE transition. My time in Ottawa was the best two years of my life: I made wonderful, life-long friends; was knee deep in some fantastic fishing (I’m a fisherman through and through); and met the woman of my dreams. I left all of that (still have the girlfriend, fortunately, though she’s doing a PhD on Prince Edward Island some 1,600 miles away). Culture shock hit me when I moved to Chicago, despite having lots of family around. Before photography, I used to eat, sleep, and breathe fishing; it was all I could think about and was my only hobby and my only escape. The fishing opportunities are limited in Chicago and those that are a available require specialized techniques that take years to develop.
Photography saved me. That may sound cliche or over the top, but in a sense it’s true. It made the shock of moving from a place I loved to a place I was less than enthused to be in (in this economy, you take what you can get), particularly since I couldn’t get out and fish easily. Though I missed fishing, I turned my attention to photography. I read everything I could get my hands on. I watched tutorials online. Perused various photographers’ portfolios to get ideas for my own images. Signed in to Facebook just to see if you’d posted something on your page and blog. Bought gear, bought software. Took my camera nearly every place I went, including with me to work (documenting research!). Spent and continue to spend more time at work looking at photography websites than I probably should! I still do all of these things (just finished reading your D4 settings and BT Journal iPad blog posts) with gusto.
I see the world differently around me. I look at a lone light fixture hanging off my apartment building and think, “How could I capture an image that would convey what my minds eye sees when I look at that light?” I look at sunrises or sunsets and think “This would be great light to shoot in!” I look at reflections in my parents’ dog’s eye and think of catch lights. I look at buildings and think of textures. I look at a red fire hydrant poking through a snow bank and think of the juxtaposition of an all white scene with a prominent red object intruding. I drive over a rickety bridge and think of wide-angle lenses and vanishing points. I look at a scene and assess what kind of dynamic range is there. I look at a plane and think, “What would Moose do?” :)
I have you, your teachings, and your willingness to share your knowledge and images to thank. My new-found love for photography has been a gift and blessing. I am so thankful to have something else to look forward to in life, particularly with my girlfriend living 1,600 miles away, and a creative outlet. It all started with your book!
If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for reading. It’s something I’ve wanted to write for a long time. Hopefully someday I can join you on one of your workshops and I can get to shake your hand!
Sincerely,
Sean
Jul 3, 2012 | Field Reports
One of the best, most affordable for ink, fastest printers, the Epson 3800 has a $300 rebate going until the end of the month. The main stay in our office until the 4900 appeared, this is a money making machine! If you head to Moose’s Print Lab and read the PDFs, you’ll find out even more about what I think of this printer and how I use it. Hurry though, rebate ends the end of the month!
Jul 3, 2012 | Field Reports
How to bring movement to stills? There are actually many ways with some being combined for even greater impact. The most basic, simplest and requiring no special tools is panning. Panning is the art and technique of moving your camera body in sync with a moving subject and therefore nullifying any movement in the frame. Now that should make you scratched your head. How can moving the camera with the subject nullify movement while being the best method for communicating movement? Answering the first part of this, how does panning nullify movement? If you take a picture of a rock (one of my favorite subjects), the rock in relationship to the film plane does not move. So we get a sharp photo of the rock. The same thing is happening when we pan (as long as it’s done correctly). We move the film plane at the same speed as the moving subject so as far as the film plane is concerned, the subject is not moving so we can stop movement in our frame with movement. You gotta love that geometry!
If this is the case, we are stopping movement with movement, how then do we communicate movement? We do it by blurring the background. In these two examples shot with D800, 600VR2 swung on a Gitzo, the top frame was shot at 1/40 and the bottom frame at 1/125. If you look at the two frames, the top frame has the illusion of speed greater than the bottom and that’s because of shutter speed. While the film plane is keeping up with the moving object, the background is not moving at all. When you pan and shoot with a slower to slow shutter speed, you blur the background more and more creating that illusion, the illusion of speed.
Jul 3, 2012 | Field Reports
K&M Adventures is heading to Churchill, Canada, 27 May – 01 June, yeap, shorebird mecca is our spring/summer destination! You’ll fly into Churchill the 27th and fly out the 2nd and in between you will be welcomed by some of the best bird photography on the planet! I’ve not been there for breeding season since ’98 but prior to that, I was there for years! My “worst” trip was 60 difference species of birds, photographed! While world renown for Polar Bears (and we’ve had those in the summer as well), Churchill is not as well known for summer bird photography but that might just change. We are taking only 6 folks with us, the price is $2795 which includes once you arrive in Churchill, transportation, guides and instruction.
The top photo is of a great bird you just don’t see elsewhere like this, the Hudsonian Godwit, and this isn’t a perfect looking male as the full, brick, red breast isn’t fully in. Then there is the Pacific Loon you see here, a sweetie that for four years nested in basically the same place and would pose for us all day. Then there is the bird that nearly no one knows who it is when I throw it up on the screen, that’s because we only see it in its winter drab colors. This is the spectacular Dunlin, another of the great birds of Churchill.
Of course, there is no guarantee of any species or birds at all because, well, weather and life is what it is. But my worst day in Chruchill with birds blows away my best day ever in the lower 48! Here’s just a couple of other species I photographed in Churchill in years past.
Don’t know who these species are, or better yet you do know and want to photograph them yourself? Well then, you need to join us. Worried you need a big lens (because you do) but don’t own one? Well, we’ve arranged with BorrowLenses.com for a special deal for you so you won’t miss out! Give us a call 760.924.8632 / 661.204.1506 to register or to find out more!
