The Way We See It: Africa

Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Simple Images - Simple Themes

If you are Looking at me Here, Check Out how Great I Look on the new Blog

The Way We See It has Moved! You can find our musings about wildlife, travel and the environment at our SquareSpace Blog at: BruceLeventhal.com
Our gallery of images and upcoming events and workshops are also now on SquareSpace... check it all out at: BruceLeventhal.com

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Impressionism II

Wildebeest B&W (Connochaetes gnou)
Canon 1D mark ii + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

This wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou) is a tight portrait I made while on safari in Tanzania. We were immersed in a sea of ungulates when I realized that I was too close to make the images I wanted. With dust everywhere and the feeling that the moment was I about to end, I chose to continue working with my 300mm lens rather than waste time switching out cameras. Below is the original pic that has sat in the reject bin until now. I decided to rework the photograph for this post by applying a "creative" black and white digital filter. Here the emphasis has been placed on the tonality in the fur rather than the actual animal. All processing began with Aperture 3.4.3 and was finished in Photoshop CS5. The lead image was further manipulated with Topaz B&W Effects II to produce the painterly-lik output that is pictured above.

Wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou)
Canon 1D mark ii + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Friday, January 25, 2013

Species Profile: Kirk’s dik-dik (Madoqua kirkii)

Kirk's dik dik (Madoqua kirkii) - Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania
Canon 1D mark II + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS w/ Canon 1.4x converter @ f4.5

Dik-dik’s are unique members of the family Bovidae. Like their more famous Bovid cousins, the dik-dik is a ruminant with unbranching horns and paired toes. Smallest among the antelope, these diminutive wide-eyed creatures can top out at 42 km per hour to evade monitor lizards, caracals, leopards and lions prowling about the brush-lands of East Africa. A preorbital gland lies ventral to large lashed eyes, and secretes a sticky substance used to mark territorial boundaries. The elongated nose with bellows-like musculature is an adaptation to the extreme heat on the savanna. Expansions and contractions by the snout increases airflow across blood vessels thus maintaining a constant body temperature. Famously monogamous, dik-dik males deposit dung or urine directly on the excretions produced by their mate. Such behavior is likely to deter intruder males from invading the tightly guarded territorial boundaries.

The male dik-dik pictured here just “over-marked” his mate’s feces prior to being photographed. Captured in Lake Manyara National Park, we found this dik-dik during our search for leopards in the tall brush.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

The Queen's Land

This Queen's Turf (Panthera leo) - Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
Canon 1Dmk II + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Stuart Pimm, professor of environmental ecology at Duke University has collected data suggesting that the African savanna is shrinking. Much like the North American prairie, human expansion is to blame. According to Pimm, "Savanna Africa is in deep trouble and it's in worse trouble in fact, than the world's rainforests..."

Guarding (Panthera leo) - Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
Canon 1Dmk II + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

More about shrinking savannas and near-catastrophic impact on the “king of the jungle” can be found on PRI (Public Radio International).

Saturday, November 17, 2012

An African Retrospective II

Bull Elephant (Loxodonta africana) - Serengeti, Tanzania
Canon 1Dmk II + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

One more look back... and now it's time to move on.

Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) - Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
Canon 1Dmk II + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Three Warts (Phacochoerus africanus) - Masai Mara, Kenya
Canon 40D + Canon 100-400 f4.5-5.6L IS

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Tip #87: Wait for the Moment

Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) - Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

The most valuable tool in my kit cannot be purchased in a typical shoppe; in fact, I’ve never seen one for sale. Sadly, this tool does not fit in my bag nor can it be passed on to another. It is a tool of the mind and must be acquired through deliberate practice.

Many years ago I traveled to Denali National Park with little more than a point and shoot camera and ten rolls of film. My little Pentax had a fixed 35mm lens, shot less than one frame per second and lacked the ability to adjust the focus or shutter. It was a “PhD” (push here dummy), a tool for the masses. I was a poor college student doing research in Alaska, and this camera was on loan from my family.

I learned a lot about photography during my eight weeks in Alaska, yet none of the lessons had anything to do with optics, exposure or digital noise. In 1986 modern photography was a magazine, and digital referred to the numbers on an HP calculator. Memory cards and LCD screens weren’t even science fiction, they were unimaginable. Yet, with little more than the ability to load the film into that crappy camera, I managed to find THE key tool.

Sunset from Moro Rock - Sequoia National Park, California

After spending six weeks on an island in the Bering Sea documenting seabird behaviors at five minute intervals, one learns to be patient. Long days in the sub-arctic, where the sun barely sets, offers the opportunity for focused and deliberate study. It was there, in a blind suspended over breaking waves, where I learned how to wait for the moment and see beyond the obvious.

There are many essential tools available to the modern photographer; some are fantastically expensive while others are more modest. However, the key tool for the Nature and Wildlife Pictorialist (see Gavin Seim) is endurance and patience. During a long hike through Denali with my PentaCrap point and shoot I stumbled upon a pond, I previsualized the way the sun might set, and I put down my pack and waited. That was the day I made my first image, it was the day I became a photographer.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Tip #71: The Purposeful Photographer

Wizened (Loxodonta africana) - Tanzania, Africa
Canon 1D Mark II + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

I photograph wildlife, ecosystems and natural subjects because I am drawn to evolution’s “imagination.” Elegance in this life with its fantastic adaptions inspires my obsessions. Far from simple, the elegance I see suggests a deep complexity of process and time that has produced life’s infinite variety. The ultimate cause of this rich diversity is rooted in the most primordial and universal purpose ...self-propagation. It is the need to perpetuate the self, the vessel for a genetic code, that drives life’s creativity and the endless diversity I seek to capture.

Peaceful Pause (Loxodonta africana) - Tanzania, Africa
Canon 1D Mark II + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

I've Got Grass (Loxodonta africana) - Tanzania, Africa
Canon 1D Mark II + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Red Clay (Loxodonta africana) - Tanzania, Africa
Canon 1D Mark II + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Be a purposeful photographer, find your theme and embrace the obsession.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Tip #60: Yin & Yang at the Intersection of Gear & Art

Big & Little - Samburu National Reserve, Kenya
Canon 7D + 300mm f2.8L IS

The following has been written during the heat of the Nikon - Canon wars. The decades long battle is now reaching a feverish pitch as the two photo innovators have just introduced a pair of long anticipated image capture devices. Interestingly, the war is not waged between the manufacturers, but is a proxy war being fought by zealots and fanboys. Camera keepers and toy lovers unite... the battle is on.

Wonder Lake - Denali National Park, AK
Hasselblad xpan + Hasselblad 45mm f4.0 @ f16

The type of camera war to which I refer is a subset of the debate that began a millennium ago. It is the sport of the non-photographer techno-geek who prefers an argument about gear over creative expressions and the making of images. Ten years ago they argued about film v digital and prior to that, it was about the inferiority of small negatives when compared to the large. Before my time, I am almost certain that the argument was about black and white versus color, or the purity of chromes when when compared to negatives. Whatever the difference, near the core of this maddening discussion is something about theoretical limits and optimal image quality...

Black & White Colobus Monkey - Lake Navaisha, Kenya
Canon 40D + Canon 100-400mm f4.5L IS

Lost in the point and counter-point of the debate is the image, the making of art, and the expression of feeling. Yang, is the bulky intrusion that preoccupies the mind and sparks feelings of envy and inadequacy. Yang is the camera in your hand, it is both an obstacle and facilitator of your vision. Yin, is the unobtrusive and petite object. Yin is light, airy and whimsical. As with Yang, Yin can distract or enable your art. The generations long debate about the Yang you use can inhibit your Yin. Yes, your Yang is important, but seek a balance. While a little Yang goes a long way, we need to make equal room for the Yin, the creative imp in us all.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Tip #58: The Anthropomorphic Image

Something Stinks Around Here - Collard Peccary (javelina), Pecari tajacu
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS + Canon 1.4x Converter
Saguaro NP, AZ

An·thro·po·mor·phic, adj: ascribing human characteristics to nonhuman things

It is the “cardinal sin” of the sciences, especially in zoological and botanical disciplines that require pure objectivity. The anthropomorphic biologist fails to see the adaptive nature of a behavior, lacks a clinical assessment of an interaction and allows emotion to betray the implications of the data. I can still recall the red marks on my first undergraduate thesis. Years of research produced pages of data that were written by hand and analyzed with primitive computers. My experiment was controlled, the statistics were accurate and my conclusions were sound. However, the analysis in my discussion lacked the scientific approach that stressed objectivity above everything else. I was reprimanded and forced to write and rewrite the thesis until it was devoid of humanity.

The Old Man - Savanna Elephant, Loxadonta africana
Canon 1D markII + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS + Canon 1.4x Converter
Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Twenty-three years later, this aging biologist and educator is also a photographer. The scientific mind is the objective mind, while the high school educator is the master of anthropomorphism. Atoms want to embrace as they form chemical bonds, prey strive to avoid predation, and plants try to grow towards the light. Claiming that hydrogen is the “slut” of the atomic world to oxygen, the “player,” who does nothing but take-take-take in the pursuit of electrons, I console myself that these sins are for the greater good ... the education of the next generation.

Broken Jaw - Mantled Howler Monkey, Alouatta palliata
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS
Selva Verde - Costa Rica

As in education, anthropomorphism is the wildlife photographer’s friend. It is human nature to see ourselves in nonhuman beings, as this is how we build meaning from what we observe. The technical skills of the nature photographer fulfills my scientific mind. The pursuit of the subject, the assessment of phenology and the research of behavior are my science, but my goal is to transcend the technical and find the hints of humanity in my prey. Anthropomorphic images allow the viewer to see their nature in nature, and suggest the importance of conservation. When pictures define humanity with the absence of humans, we help others to see ourselves as just another biological being. Tug at some heart strings, promote conservation and search for yourself in your subjects.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

On the Road...

The Flock - Lake Manyara, Tanzania
Canon 1DmkII + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

We're on the road chasing the fleeting moments of a desert sunrise. With little time to sleep and only a laptop at my disposal, tip #56 is on vacation too. Like us, project 101 and Tip #56 will return on Sunday.
Get out of the house and chase some butter light!
Cheers from the desert, bruce and tamy

To Hunt or To Sleep - Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
Canon 1DmkII + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Spooked - Serengeti, Tanzania
Canon 1DmkII + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Rush Hour - Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
Canon 30D + Sigma 120-300mm f2.8 HSM

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Tip #46: Love What You Have

In Dawns Light - Samburu National Reserve, Kenya
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS @ f3.5

G.A.S.

noun: Disease of the mind and heart. An obsession leading to irrational decisions. Suffered by many, conquered by few. Acronym for Gear Acquisition Syndrome.

Tree House - Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
Canon 1D Mark II + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS w/ 1.4x converter @ f4.5

Learn to love the lenses your have. Shoot them often, be a scientist and experiment with them. Discover how the image will change depending on your point of focus. Use it wide open (largest aperture), closest focus, or stopped down (smallest aperture). By experimenting with your optics, you will know how they respond when you need to get “the” shot!

After the Burn - Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
Canon 1D Mark II + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS @ f3.2

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Tip #45: The Correct Exposure

Impala on the Mara - Masai Mara, Kenya
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

There is no one correct exposure in nature photography. Understand how “over-exposure” can excite an image by isolating your subject and underexposure can deepen shadows and add drama to an image.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Tip #36: Study Images

Black Rhinoceros - Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
Canon 1D MarkII + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS + 1.4x Converter

This may be cliché, but I’ll say it anyway... study lots of photographs.

Seek out the images that inspire wonder and compel you to ask the big questions:

“Where was it taken?”

“When was it shot?”

“How’d they do it?”

When I began making photographs in the late 1970’s, I became a book seeker. I’d visit local shops, used book stores, swap meets, libraries and garage sales in search of old books and magazines about photography. I was the bargain book boy compulsively looking for images to study. A connoisseur of texts by nature photo masters like Adams, Rowell, Lanting, Muench, Wolfe and Brandenburg, I also reveled in unearthing the work of obscure or lesser known photographers. It wasn’t the personality that I was seeking to emulate, it was the imagery being produced by talented seers of the nature.

Winter Spring - Marine on St. Croix, MN
Canon 7D + 300mm f2.8L IS

With the ever-rapid expansion of the internet, photo web-galleries, photo-streams, and photo-social network sites, it has never been easier to find amazing work to study. As a photographic enthusiast for more than thirty years, I am still on a mission to study the images produced by masters of this craft. I am forever amazed by the things people see, the way it is interpreted and passion inherent in their work.

Tip #37: Study Images - The work that precedes you - The work of your peers - The work yet to be done.

Fall Migration - Crex Meadows, WI
Canon 7D + 300mm f2.8L IS

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Tip #33: Be a Documentary Artist

The Watering Hole - Nairobi, Kenya
Canon 5D + Canon 70-200L f4.0

It is all too easy to claim that photography is an art for those who lack the skills to be “real” artists. Millions of images captured each day on portable handheld computers are posted to photostreams across the globe. The purist of journalistic motifs, the photograph conveys the here and now, and tells a story about the moment captured. Yet, the photojournalist - the point-and-shooter - is the decider. The choice of what to extract and the noise to omit is at the heart of documentary photography. We image makers are documentary artists. The pre-capture decisions we make about the lens, camera, shutter speed, and aperture determine our point of view, point of focus and interpretation of time. Often described as the art of exclusion, the documentary artists will become invisible as they survey the landscape, make the key decisions and convey the essence of the story.

Pacifier - Nairobi, Kenya
Canon 40D + Canon 100-400L IS f4.5-5.6

Note: The Images from Tip #33 were originally used in a prior blog post from June, 2010. Follow the link to read the original entry titled "An Elephant Story."

Foster Dad - Nairobi, Kenya
Canon 5D + Canon 70-200L f4.0

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Tip #32: Set Goals and Dream Big

Young Male - Ngorongoro, Tanzania
Canon 1D markII + 300 f2.8L IS + 1.4x Converter

Tamy and I met each other in a field research camp in 1986. Back then, we were students of biology, ecology, and evolution and working towards B.S. degrees at UC Irvine. Both passionate about all things nature, we bonded during a feverish discussion about travel, Africa and conservation. Nearly three decades have past since the day we met, and I still recall that first conversation... we were dreaming big.

Where's Dinner - Masai Mara, Kenya
Canon 7D + 300 f2.8L IS

It took twenty years to do it, but we managed to see East Africa... twice! We set the goal by planning the safaris, and made it happen by saving the money. We never fought the obstacles that blocked our progress, but rode them like surfers on a turbulent wave. Our goals were targets without clear paths to follow.

Beauty - Serengeti, Tanzania
Canon 1D markII + 300 f2.8L IS + 1.4x Converter

For many, dreaming big is all about getting stuff, climbing the ladder and being noticed. We continue to dream big, but to us, the goals are about how to live and not the stuff we have. Travel enriches our life, and photography helps us fulfill the compulsion to live the journey. We set goals so that we can document nature, make art and share our vision about the tenuous state of our planet.

Tip #32: Set Your Goals and Dream Big

Solitary Vulture - Masai Mara, Kenya
Canon 7D + 300 f2.8L IS

Friday, December 23, 2011

Tip #30: Focus on the Eyes

Kirk's Dik Dik (Madoqua kirkii) - Lake Manyara, Tanzania
Canon 1D MarkII + Canon 300mm f2.8 + 1.4x converter shot at f4.5

When photographing wildlife, we will typically shoot at the widest aperture possible. A long telephoto with a shallow depth of field will allow you to isolate your subject against a busy background. The drawback of this technique is the narrow zone of focus. At maximum aperture, there is little room for error between nailing the focus and producing an unsharp image. Because the human brain is drawn to the eyes of others, we seek eye contact when viewing images of nature or people. This need to see the eyes is deeply rooted in our evolution, and failure to capture eye detail will cause the viewer to dismiss an otherwise beautiful image.

So Tip #30 is a simple one... Given the choice of the Nose or the Eyes, Focus on the Eyes.

Banded Mongoose on Alert (Mungos mungo) - Masai Mara, Kenya
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8 @ f3.2

Monday, December 19, 2011

Tip #28: Gear is Good Travel is Better

The Herd - Lake Lake Manyara, Tanzania
Canon 1D MarkII + 300mm f2.8L IS @ f4.0

What value is a bag full of gear when it has no place to go? Rather than sink more of your hard earned cash into a shiny new bauble that is obsolete the moment you buy it, look towards the future. Fight back the “gotta-have-it” impulse, and plan your next photo adventure. Sure cameras and lenses are treasured tools that facilitate our art, but travel feeds the vision, stimulates creativity and inspires the mind. Vision monger, travel and humanitarian photographer, David duChemin, has made a living by claiming that “Gear is Good, Vision in Better.”

Tip #28 builds on the framework that duChemin has constructed... Use the gear you have, spin the globe and be there with your camera.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Tip #26: Intensity in the Moment

Dominance - Lake Manyara, Tanzania
Canon 1D MarkII + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Have you experienced the rush? It is a primordial flood of emotion, tension, and excitement triggered by the release of adrenaline. Beats reverberate the walls of the thoracic cavity with each contraction, palms sweat, and the little hairs stand at attention. It is the thrill of the hunt, a connection to a less civilized past, to a time when we were one with nature. This is the intersection between fear and passion, the point where anything can happen, it is the endorphin... the wildlife high. Conservation, preservation and education are the public tagline, but our pursuit of art in nature is fueled by the thrill of the experience. Make images that convey the intensity of the moment.

Ssssnake! - Selva Verde, Costa rica
Canon 5D MarkII + Canon 180mm f3.5L Macro

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Tip #23: Include the "Hand of Man"

Black and White Colobus Monkey - Kenya
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8IS L

Include the "hand of man" when it contributes to the story you want to tell. Not all nature images need to be void of humanity. Like the flora and fauna that populate the planet, we too are the product of biological evolution, subject to ecological processes, and impact environmental stability.

Keepers of the Crater - Masai walking the Rift Valley, Tanzania
Canon 5D + Canon 17-40L @ 20mm and f11

Monday, November 28, 2011

Tip #19: When You Include the Landscape, You Tell the Whole Story

Bison Panorama - Grand Teton NP, WY
Five Image Pano-Stitch - Canon 5D Mark II + 50mm f1.4 @ f11

While animal portraits excite the shooter, a landscape conveys the ecology of your subject. When photographing wildlife, put down the long lens and become a landscape photographer. Use leading lines to frame your subject, wait for a unique composition, and tell a life story by including the land.

Solitude
Masai Giraffe - Serengeti NP, Tanzania
Canon 20D + 300mm f4.0 IS L