The Way We See It: Biodiversity

Showing posts with label Biodiversity. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Costa Rica 2013: My Ficus

The Strangler (Ficus insipida) - Hacienda Baru Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica
Canon 5D mark iii + Canon 17-40L @ 19mm / f16

This giant of the secondary forest began its life after a clearcut, and has meandered its way towards the sky for the past forty years or so. With buttresses that top out at six vertical feet and a girth of five man hugs, the tree shares all the characteristics of a typical mid-successional species. It’s a nutrient hog that is pre-programmed to strangle its elders in an attempt to fulfill a biological destiny. Much like the cottonwoods and tulip trees of North America, strangler figs (Ficus insipida) grow fast and large in a race to the top. Once there, they bask in the light of day and propagate effusively with a productivity that feeds a complex tropical web.

This particular ficus has been a favorite photographic subject. Located along a mangrove trail in the Hacienda Baru Wildlife Refuge, the fig tree is a landmark between the lodge and an egret rookery. I am drawn to the curvaceous buttress, asymmetric branches, and its largess. The challenge of capture is my muse. I dream of perfect light that is so rare below a rainforest canopy and am always forced to yield my preconceptions in search of a compromise between what is offered and what I can take. This tree has been pictured here in the past (see “Road-tripping Through Ecosystems #4“) and I am certain that I will shoot and show it again. Ok... so it’s not really my ficus, but I wish it were.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Costa Rica 2013 : Pre-trip Post #2

Three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegatus) - Hacienda Baru, Costa Rica
Canon 40D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS + Canon 2x converter

This three-toed sloth was photographed in 2009 at the Hacienda Baru National Wildlife Refuge and Lodge. After days of looking for sloths on our own, we spent an afternoon with rainforest naturalist, Carlos Jimenez, searching for these omnipresent and elusive animals. We've discovered that nearly any basketball sized growth of fuzz looks like a sloth when staring into a forest canopy. Slow and deliberate, the hairy blobs are surprisingly challenging to find and photograph. While this image is far from perfect, it is among the best three-toed sloths we have on file. In 2013, we hope to have another opportunity to see and photograph these iconic symbols of the neotropics.

Monday, June 10, 2013

In The Right Light

In the Right Light - Glencoe, MN
Canon 5D Mark iii & Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

A dark roast is the only thing that looks good at 3:30 a.m.; so when I left my home for Schaefer Prairie twenty-minutes later, a strong cup of joe was my most valued traveling companion. On this Saturday morning, I was breaking with tradition. It was “the day after,” but I wasn’t sleeping in. The academic year ended on Friday, and the day after is reserved for mindlessness. Foolishly, I accepted an assignment to photograph the “Birds and Blooms” event at Schaefer Prairie Preserve, and I wasn’t about to let mental fatigue stand in the way. I pointed the Cooper due west and drove one hundred and twenty miles in a sleepless stupor.

I committed to the project because I love a prairie sunrise. The sea of grass reminds me of safaris in Africa and feeds my imagined conception of pre-settlement North America. The American prairie is one of many threatened ecosystems. Fragmented by farms and urban development, less than three percent of indigenous grasslands remain. On this morning I chose to document a restored habitat instead of sleep. So, it is with great irony that I post this image of Taraxacum, the dandelion.

Pest to lawn-lovers across United States, the dandelion is a perfect model of evolutionary success. Adapted to disturbed habitats, the forb blooms fast, and can produce from 54 to 172 seeds per flower head. One estimate suggests that as many as 240,000,000 seeds are produced per acre of dandelion (http://fyi.uwex.edu/weedsci/2002/11/12/dandelion/). It was during the final stretch of my drive to Schaefer Prairie that I began to feel the photographer’s panic. The light was brilliant and I wasn’t on site. I was listening to the pings of gravel striking the undercarriage of the Mini, when I decided to slam on the breaks. This wasn’t the prairie, but the light was too good to pass up... I ran with the lens mounted to the tripod, lied prone on the edge of a farm field and shot into the dawn’s haze. In the end I seemed to have confirmed an oft uttered statement in photography, “almost anything looks good in the right light.”

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Biodiversity

Tropical Deer - Odocoileus virginianus
Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Wanting to break from reality, I'm diving into the archives in search of orphaned work. Trapped between travels and obligations for the "A" job, I need my past to see my future.

Peanut Head - Fulgora laternaria
Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Mantled Howler Monkey - Allouatta palliata
Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Variegated squirrel - Sciurus variegatoides
Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

All images in this post are from Costa Rica. The pictures were shot in 2011 and they represent a fraction of what we saw that year. During the summer of 2013 we travel back for our 8th visit and are looking forward to enjoying the experience with good friends who share our passion for photography, biodiversity and the evolutionary process.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Tip #56: Same Subject Different Light

Saguaro During Sunset - Saguaro National Park, AZ
Canon 5D Mark II + Canon 17-40L @ 17mm

The pleated green trunk, patterned spines and enormous columnar body define the iconic tree for which Saguaro National Park is named. Ubiquitous across southern Arizona, the saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) is a keystone species in this borderland region of the Sonoran Desert. Sinks for drenching rains, the pleated bodies expand as roots absorb ephemeral bursts of water. Gila woodpeckers (Melanerpes uropygialis) and gilded flickers (Colaptes chrysoides) peck at the soft flesh excavating nesting cavities that serve as a refuge to numerous birds and small mammals. Fragrant hints of ripe melon lure bats to white nocturnal blooms, while bees pollenate saguaros throughout the morning hours. Damaged flesh becomes a meal to collared peccary (Tayassu tajacu) and a source of water to any that chews the soft “meat.”

Midday Sonoran Desert - Saguaro National Park, AZ
Canon 5D Mark II + Zeiss ZE 35mm f2.0 1 @ f/11
Three shot-HDR stack processed to capture detail in both the highlight and shadow

A model for a lesson in community ecology, botanical inhabitants of the Sonoran clearly illustrate the way plants compete for limited resources while restricting the impact of invertebrate and vertebrate herbivores. Saguaros grow in the shade of old acacia and mesquite trees, while shading the growth of Opuntia, ocotillos and smaller plant species. Vestigial leaves form sharp spines that protect the tree from herbivory, however once penetrated, a wounded cactus will seal the damaged flesh with a tough tissue called a callus.

Saguaro Night - Hacienda del Desierto, AZ
Canon 5D Mark II + Canon 17-40L @ 20mm
240 second exposure @ iso 400

For this tip, I suggest that you look to photograph iconic subjects in different light, times and locations. The saguaro is synonymous with Tucson, Arizona. Like white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus), it is an over-photographed subject in nature photography. Rather than despair about what has been done in the past, seek to define the icon for yourself. Search for angle and composition that pleases eye, and don’t fear the work that precedes you. It may be a familiar subject, but if you have not done a careful study, it remains to be novel and open to your unique vision. On these occasions, it is important to state the obvious...

Light makes the photograph and the photographer captures the light.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

INTP: Introverted - Intuitive - Thinking - Perceiving

Lone Yearling Buck - Tamarack Nature Center, MN
Canon 7D + 300mm f2.8IS L

Living a life of theoretical possibilities, where obscured patterns are made vivid, and logic trumps emotion. This is the loner that tolerates others but bristles with discomfort when forced to interact. We try to create large personal bubbles and process our realities in the comfort of our own minds. We like others, but can’t express the warmth they seek and thus retreat to the solitude of home and nature.

Where's Wilburrr? - Manning Trail, MN
Canon 5D MarkII + Zeiss 35mm f2.0

I do my best photography when I’m alone. While I crave the companionship of my wife and photo-friends, I am lost in my thoughts despite their presence. I envy those who thrive on personal interactions and can work a crowd with ease. To me, the noise of human banter is the distraction; big ideas are derived from the quiet of my thoughts, the melody in birdsongs, the repetition of falling water.

Burning off the Fog - Tamarack Nature Center, MN
Canon 7D + 300mm f2.8IS L

Siblings or Friends - Tamarack Nature Center, MN
Canon 7D + 300mm f2.8IS L

My students now visit me each day in their patterned entrance to their classroom. Enthusiasm emanates from their youthful exuberance as they excitedly recount their summer exploits. The noise is everywhere. It clouds the clarity I crave. I am distracted by my responsibilities and I feel the photographer in me giving way to my real reality. I am an introvert who now is a poser. I will act the role of the extrovert and pretend to seek pleasure from this noise. But every five days, I will seek the solitude of nature, ground myself in my photography, and purge my thoughts in this blog. ...end of summer 2011.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - Tamarack Nature Center, MN
Canon 7D + 300mm f2.8IS L

Saturday, August 13, 2011

A Life Cycle in the Rainforest

Dendrobates auratus - Canon 5D markII + 180 f3.5L

Organisms adapt to the environment as a result of selective pressures. Here the phrase, selective pressure, refers to the sum of ecological factors that influence the survival of an individual. These individuals exist within a finite niche. Ecologically, a niche includes an organism’s conspecifics (members of the same species), competitors, predators, mates, food, space, and so on. These factors define the “n-dimensional space (niche)” of the organism and influences the way a population adapts and evolves through time.

Green and Black Poison Dart Frog - Canon 5D markII + 180 f3.5L

The green and black poison dart frog, Dendrobates auratus, is uniquely adapted to its rainforest habitat. Skin secretions contain a potent venom, pumiliotoxin-C, which cause unsuspecting predators to regurgitate the distasteful meal. Rather than wearing a cryptic camouflage, this frog announces its presence with bodacious color. Like the monarch butterfly whose bright orange and black patterns are impossible to ignore, the neon green frog with black stripes hops unencumbered throughout the forest understory. Ubiquitous within the leaf litter, once you find your first green and black frog, you begin to see them everywhere.

How can this be?

Montane Forest - Canon 40D + 300 f2.8IS

Unlike most frog species, this frog is diurnal. Ever present during the daylight hours, the bright colors are a key adaptation. Known in evolutionary biology as aposematic coloration, high visibility acts as a warning. The neon green yells, “Don’t mess with me ...I’m poisonous!” Yet, the eggs and tadpoles of this species are quite tasty. Given the opportunity, fish, turtles, snakes and birds will snack on the protein-rich larvae and thus reduce the overall fitness of egg-laying adults. Unlike their parents, the pre-frog progeny lack the poisonous trademark of mom and dad. In biology, Biological success is defined by fertility, and those who have babies that have babies are considered to be evolutionarily fit.

What is the poison dart frog to do about its tasty eggs?

Flowering Bromeliad - Canon 7D + 300 f2.8IS

In a world where role-reversal is rare, the male poison dart frog bucks the trend. Male frogs call out to females and induce the ladies to lay a tiny clutch of eggs in an ephemeral pool of water. With each new day, there is a new female and new eggs. The male tends to each clutch waiting for the tadpoles to emerge. As eggs hatch, the tadpoles climb onto the back of their father where they will hitch a ride. One by one the male ascends a tree and transports the froglets to a place where no fish, turtle, or bird will hunt. He seeks a pool of water within the leaves of a bromeliad. These epiphytic relatives of the pineapple attach to branches of trees and are repositories of the daily precipitation. It is here that the tadpoles emerge and feed, hidden from the eyes of hungry predators.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Tropical Eye Candy

Shangri La Valley - Selva Verde, Costa Rica
Canon 5D MarkII + 15mm Fisheye - HDR Processing of three images @ +1, 0, -1 stop intervals

Our second day at Selva Verde began with an ass-whooping hike into the primary forest. We met our guide and friend, Michael Sevilla, at 5:30 a.m., shared a quick cup of café con leche, and crossed the Sarapiquí River. At first, the walk seemed somewhat pedestrian as we traversed the suspension bridge and hiked the river trail. Walking along the Sarapiquí, the birdsongs at first light was a chorus for the musical river that crashed along the rocky shore. Michael stopped at what appeared to be a random point, withdrew his machete, and hacked at a palm that was blocking the poorly worn path up the mountain. Barely awake and feeling the heat of a tropical morning, we began our ascent. It wasn't that the hike was particularly challenging, steep ...but not too bad; the disconcerting part of the journey was in the unknown. We had just swept a poisonous viper off the trail, and now we were hiking through thick vegetation. Our path was unmarked and seemed to be worn down by the feet of a peccary, coati, or some other small animal. We climbed higher, but I had no clue as to our final destination. Thorny vegetation, colorful palms, and spider webs slapped against my sweaty arms with each step into nothingness. At some point I turned to the rear and realized that Tamy and my sisters were gone. We all began as one, but now it was Michael and I. Sucking in the thick air, I yelled... "Marco...," and listened. "Polo, we're here..." So we continued the climb. All along, I couldn't help but think, "Where the hell are we going?!" I didn't dare ask the machete wielding man who had so kindly awakened on this Monday after Father's Day to take us on an adventure, but I couldn't help wonder "...would it be worth the hike?" Just as the doubt crept in, I gazed, breathlessly, into the valley. The sun was now peeking above the horizon, the thick virgin forest was to my back, and dew filled the landscape. This vista was my mornings' reward, this was my 'Shangri La.'

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Fifteen Years Later

Red-eyed Tree Frog (Agalychnis callidryas) on Heliconia Flower - Selva Verde Lodge, Costa Rica
Canon 5D MarkII + 180 f3.5L - June 2011

Tamy and I made our first trip to Costa Rica in June 1996. A photo excursion to the tropics had been among our many travel dreams, and memories of this first visit continue to linger today. In preparation for this adventure to the rainforest, we viewed endless National Geographic videos, books about the Amazon, and watched the movie Medicine Man. If you've since forgotten or are too young to know, Sean Connery was the Medicine Man. He was the ecologist who famously propelled himself through the canopy in search of yet to be discovered drugs. Hoping to emulate his research methods, we spent a week in Rara Avis. This deep jungle eco-lodge is continuous with Braulio Carrillo National Park and only accessible by tractor. Rara Avis is the research facility and lodge where the "real" medicine man, Donald Perry, did his pioneering research on tree-top ecology. After four nights at Rara Avis, "the tractor from hell" dragged us down the mountain, and we headed towards the Selva Verde Lodge near the Sarapiqui River...

Hognose Viper (Porthidium nasutum) - Selva Verde Lodge, Costa Rica
Canon 5D MarkII + 180 f3.5L - June 2011

So here I am, fifteen years later recalling our first adventure to the tropics. Since that time, we've returned to Rara Avis, been to Costa Rica on six occasions, traveled to Africa twice, camped throughout Alaska, and road-tripped across the Californian and Washington Coasts. In all of our travels, we never planned a return trip to Selva Verde... that is, until Tamy said, " hey let's go back..." So we did.

Blue Jeans (Dendrobates pumilio) Poison Dart Frog - Selva Verde Lodge, Costa Rica
Canon 5D MarkII + 180 f3.5L - June 2011

The images displayed are ones that we've always hoped to make. They are some of Costa Rica's signature species in soft light. All of these herps were found throughout the primary and secondary forests that are contiguous with the Selva Verde Lodge. During our most recent visit, I've rediscovered the beauty of the Caribbean Slope and realized the amazing insect, amphibian, and reptilian treasures waiting to be discovered.

Red-eyed Tree Frog (Agalychnis callidryas) on a Wire - Selva Verde, Costa Rica
Canon 5D MarkII + 180 f3.5L - June 2011

Green & Black (Dendrobates auratus) in a Banana Flower - Selva Verde Lodge, Costa Rica
Canon 5D MarkII + 180 f3.5L, June 2011