The Way We See It: September 2012

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Tip #94: Don't Trust the LCD

Flight of the Dinosaur (Grus canadensis)
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS @ f4.0
Shot in IS Mode 2 to optimize Sharpness while panning

That TV screen on the back of your camera is a great invention, but never use it to separate the winners from the losers. The details of distant objects will be blurred to nothingness, while subjects shot close will seem to be brilliant. In the end, you’ll be disappointment by your premature winners and surprised by the loser that you nearly trashed. While the LCD is a great tool for assessing composition and reviewing histograms, I suggest you leave your sharpness checks for quiet moments with Lightroom™ or Aperture™ on the “Big Screen.”

Crane Migration (Grus canadensis)
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS @ f4.0
Shot in IS Mode 2 to optimize Sharpness while panning

Shoot the Moon (Grus canadensis)
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS @ f4.0
Shot in IS Mode 2 to optimize Sharpness while panning

I'm not a Pteradactyl (Grus canadensis)
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS @ f4.0
Shot in IS Mode 2 to optimize Sharpness while panning

Landing Gear Down (Grus canadensis)
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS @ f4.0
Shot in IS Mode 2 to optimize Sharpness while panning

About the Images

These are Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) during the Fall migration. Crex Meadows Wildlife Refuge is an ephemeral stop to roost, fuel up on corn and reunite with old friends. The birds arrive as the sun begins to set, and they will roost through the night. At dawn and dusk the refuge echoes with the ruckus of these extant dinosaurs. They arrive at dusk in the thousands and exit the dawn with explosive burst of activity.

Photographically, I am challenged by their flight that begins in the bright sky and terminates in the shadows of marsh. As throngs of birds glide over head, selecting “the one” often seems like an impossibility. They are the bombing raid that I imagine in my minds eye, and I am the gunner shooting for my own survival.

A check of the LCD always ends with disappointment and a feeling of failure. Each year I photograph these birds, believe something is wrong with my gear, and I swear in a way that embarrasses my own ears... and thus, a Photo Tip is born.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Requiem for a Summer

September 22, 2012
Tamarack Nature Center - White Bear Lake, MN
Canon 5D MarkII + Canon 24mm f3.5L TSE

As is customary with the onset of Fall, I mourn the summer that was.

September 23, 2012
Manning Trail - MN
Canon 5D MarkII + Canon 40mm f2.8 STM Pancake Lens

A biologist who teaches to inspire and to survive, this man's passion resides out of doors with the harmony in nature. Work is what I do so I can do what I want; gone is the freedom that feeds my creative eye.

September 22, 2012 Number 2
Tamarack Nature Center - White Bear Lake, MN
Canon 5D MarkII + Canon 24mm f3.5L TSE

It was a frosty morning with a cool breeze that shakes leaves. The wind blew past much like the time wasted in this summer last.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Tip #93: Edit Your Images Ruthlessly

Dispersing Dandelions - Kootenay National Park, British Columbia
(Ursus americanus)
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS @ f3.2

The title says is all. Be an honest critic and divorce yourself from the experience. Save the almost's for a spouse or good friend and learn from your mistakes. Edit ruthlessly because poor pictures will detract the impact of your goods ones.
Only show the world "the good stuff!"

Friday, September 14, 2012

Rant: (3000) - (400) = 2600

Timber Wolf - Canis lupus
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS
Jasper, NP Canada

Where to begin...?

In 1986 I took my first trip to Denali National Park. Our group met near Savage Creek, camped in the open air and prepped for a long back-country hike. Cocooned by the down of our bags, we kept the tents packed and hoped for a quick start. That was the night when I heard them for the first time. With eyes closed I can still hear the prolonged cries echoing across the sub-arctic sky. I watched the Northern Lights dance, and listened for competing packs staking claims to parcels of land. I didn’t see any ghosts that year, nor the next during a trek through the Kenai, but I knew they were there.

I live in Minnesota, the land of 3000 wolves... soon to be 2600. I am a teacher, biologists and nature photographer. I’ve traveled across my state, headed west to Yellowstone and northeast to the Wisconsin borderlands. I search for the ghosts who meander through forests, hunt in packs and hide in plain sight. I hear them while camping in the North Woods, can track them at a nearby refuge and have caught a glimpse of their hollow eyes during early morning drives. Yet, these midwestern wolves, immigrants from Canada, have been an elusive target.

Hiking along the bed of the Toklat, we saw our first mated pair. One black the other white, they are my metaphor for the rugged beauty that is Alaska. Black and white were famous, stars of tourist videos, seen by many and hunted by a wayward shooter looking for game near the National Park border.

So begins and ends this poetic rant. Minnesota, the land of “NICE,” has painted a target on the wolf. Some call it a sport, I call it a tragedy. With 23,000 applicants in a lottery for 6000 permits, the wolves better plan a retreat into the quiet of a deep wood. The Department of Natural Resources hopes to cull the pack by 400, but like many, I think their judgment is flawed. Deer populations continue to outpace our capacity to reduce the herd, and the DNR now endorses a hunt for the one animal that can control the browsers that overgraze the state. Years of hunting prohibition, land management and funding has restored the state’s wolf population and rather that exuding pride in our success, the state sanctions a hunt. This logic defies my own. They celebrate the wolf hunt... what’s next?... the Bald Eagle?

Enough said. Should you be interested in reading more about this upcoming tragedy, you can learn about future wolf hunts across Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming at: The Associated Press and Scientific American .

About the leading image... this wolf was photographed during our recent travels to the Canadian Rockies. After a long day of hiking and wildlife viewing we were heading back to the campsite as the sun was setting. We were surprised by the wolf that emerged from the forest, it walked a few paces towards us and disappeared. I shot only 9 pictures and all but one were total blurs. The image pictured is from a treasured moment that rivals my experiences with African Predators and Exotic Costa Rican Birds.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Tip #92: Balance

The River - Stillwater, MN
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Simpler to say than articulate the way,... strive to produce a balanced image. One individual’s interpretation of balance will likely differ from another and this difference often defines a style. When given the opportunity, I visit the same place many times throughout a year. I try to view it from above and squat to get low. I look at light and shadow and study the way these change throughout the day. This is how I begin to define balance in my images. Maturity follows experience, and balance is a characteristic of the mature.

Rock -kcoR
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

When seeking balance, consider the compositional elements in the frame and use these assets to lead your viewer into the picture. Tonal gradations, abrupt shifts in contrast and motion will also define your subject and convey a sense of balance. Balanced images suggest balance in nature and, to the optimist, balance in life.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Few Words...

All Images America Red Fox - Vulpes vulpes (Vulpes fulva)
Canon 7D + Canon 300 f2.8L IS @ f2.8 - 1/30 second shutter - ISO 1600

We surprised each other at sunrise.
I was an uninvited guest for breakfast, but this young one was too hungry to care.
With scarred legs and a swollen left eye, the kit ignored pestering crows as it devoured its prey.
What was a muskrat is now a fox and so the cycle continues.