The Way We See It: National Park

Showing posts with label National Park. Show all posts

Monday, April 22, 2013

Happy Earth Day

Greetings from Moro Rock - Sequoia National Park, CA

Monday, February 4, 2013

The Hammers

Summer Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) - Badlands NP, South Dakota

The life of a mid-continental inhabitant wears on the psyche. Cold nights and cold days are our way of life. Sure I live south of the border, but it’s no party in Minnesota on a typical winter day.

This Sunday past Tamy and I visited the “Swan Lake.” It was 5 ℉ when we departed the warmth of our home, and the temperature edged upwards to a whopping 7 ℉ after hours of photography. During the shoot, we both experienced “the hammers.” For those not in the know, “the hammers” are the mind-jarring pain that accompanies an intense exposure to the arctic air flowing across exposed extremities. So intense is this stimulus that I liken it to a mallet striking bare fingers and toes against an iron anvil.

Summer Day in Black and White - Badlands NP, South Dakota

I exclaim, “it’s unfair!,” The arctic air is no impediment to the fowl who winter at the lake. They bathe and tussle in the frigid water as if it were a hot tub on a summer day. We, the featherless, lack the down and plumage that repels the cold. With toes and fingers adapted to touch and fine motor coordination, our asset is now the enemy. Densely packed sensory receptors become overloaded by the intense cold stimulus and, unlike our feathered friends in their Turkish bath, we suffer.

American Bison and Flower (Bison bison) - Badlands NP, South Dakota

There it is,... the REAL Life and Times of a Wildlife Photographer. To be honest, I’d love to show you some work from the shoot, but my hands are too cold to process the images. Once they thaw, I’ll post the shots... until then, enjoy this summer day at Badlands National Park.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

The Devil's in the Details

Medicine Lake - Jasper National Park, Canada
Canon 5D mark II + Canon 24mm f3.5L TSE
5-shot bracket - HDR

Geek alert... this post focuses on the digital techniques I used to produce the leading image. So, if you’re just interested in the picture, here are the liner notes... you are looking at the long view of Medicine Lake in Jasper National Park. The photo was captured around 4:00 p.m. on a summer day just as the light began to soften.

I wish this image was as easy to produce as it is to describe, but in practice, it required a lot more forethought. Tamy and I spent 16 days exploring the Canadian Rockies. During our travels, we focused on wildlife, flowers and landscapes. I had seen so many amazing images of Lake Louise, I knew that this was something I had to have for myself. After spending many early mornings and late evenings working the iridescent blues of Canada’s most famous lake, and getting the shot in “the can^*,” Medicine Lake was next on my hit list. We visited the Medicine Lake area at least four times during our four-day shoot in Jasper, and each stop was more disappointing than the last. We’d arrive early and shoot the pre-dawn light and stay late into dusk, but we just couldn’t get the conditions that I had envisioned. My attempts were fraught with complications like overcast like, cloudless skies, or choppy water. During the final pass out of the Medicine Lake area, I impulsively stopped and dragged out the gear to make one last attempt. It took about 30 minutes to set up this shot, as I wanted to position the tripod as close to the ground as possible, level the horizon and build the composition. It was around 4:15 in the afternoon and, being a mid-summer day in Canada, the sun produced many deep shadows and bright highlights throughout. To counter this impossible situation, I produced a 5 stops series of bracketed images in order to capture all of the details from shadow to highlight.

In the initial edit, I was pretty disappointed with my Medicine Lake series. All of the images had serious flaws that I couldn’t see past, so I relegated the photos to my increasingly large pile of non-selects. Thus, a blog-post is born. I need something to say or something to share, and this challenge and frustration seemed as good as any idea I’ve had in the past.

I pulled up my five shot series from Medicine Lake in Aperture 3.4.3, examined the histogram for each shot, and exported the files as tiffs into my “HDR folder.” In general, I am not overly fond of HDR (high dynamic range) images, and when using this technique, I lean towards the side of realism. The five shots were then imported into Photomatix Pro v4.2. Here I decided to “align the image according to features,” “reduce noise in shadows,” and “reduce chromatic aberration.” The program did it’s magic and spat out a cartooned version of what I had hoped to see.... this is why I generally dislike HDR! Rather than accepting the tone-mapped surreal product that greeted me, I used the program’s “Exposure Fusion,” option and began to tweak the black and white points. After adjusting the luminance and saturation, I saved the file and imported it into Photoshop CS5. In photoshop, I created a layer mask, adjusted the levels and then began to question whether the final image would be worth the effort. Looking at the post, I’m not sure that it is, and that’s why I think my process is worth these words in this blog. With the levels set, I created another layer mask where I adjusted the shadows and highlights. The global adjustments were over the top, so I painted back the dark tones except for the trees in the foreground. The use of the shadow tool often produces a flat image, so I needed to bump up the contrast. Because a global adjustment would wipe out the shadow mask I just made, I created another layer and used the Unsharp Mask tool at 20 sharpen, 80 radius, and 0 threshold to create some pop. The effect was overwhelming, so once again, I decided to “paint in” the contrast where it was needed. In a final step, I applied a minimal Smart Sharpening to the image and prepped the file for printing and web output.

Post-processing is a necessary evil of the present. The film guy of the past would have taken the shot, edited the slide and tossed this image into the bin. The blown highlights and black shadows would have made for a lousy film shot. But hey, it’s 2013 and computers can do magic with troubling light. Digital now offers the opportunity for a hack like me to challenge my vision and capture a moment that I would have avoided in the past. Here’s to the “modern era!”

For you photo-noob’s, the phrase “in the can,” is a reference to film. Film, much like the LP, is ancient history. Film is a thin flexible piece of plastic or other material coated with a light-sensitive emulsion like silver halide. When you finish a roll, it goes in “the can,”... a metal or plastic film container ;-{> .

Friday, November 30, 2012

Altered Reality

Pink in Black and White - Voyageurs National Park, MN
Canon 5D mark II + Canon 100 f2.8 USM macro

This showy lady's-slipper, Crypripedium reginae, is the Minnesota's state flower. Residents of northland bogs, the bloom is as ephemeral as summer. Soft shades of pink haphazardly caress the pitcher while bright white petals are billboards to potential pollinators. Lost is the color in my monochromatic interpretation, an altered state that I seem to prefer on this raw November evening. Here, the emphasis is on form, tone and shadow rather than the vibrant character the orchid typically exhibits.

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!"

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Tip #90: Wait for the Interaction

I'm the Boss, Got It! (Cervus Canadensis) - Jasper National Park, Canada
We watched a lazy elk herd for over an hour waiting for an Interaction
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Sometimes is pays to wait it out. Patience and endurance are a key part of every wildlife photographer's toolkit. Give it time, and you just might transform a good photo op into a great one.

Meddling Mom! (Cervus Canadensis) - Jasper National Park, Canada
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Tip #77: National Parks

Badlands NP Series - South Dakota
Canon 50D + Canon 17-40mmL @ 17mm

“WANTED”

Solitude - Space - Time

Photographer Seeking Unique Landscapes

Space to Wander

Wildlife to Discover

Light

Waiting for creativity and inspiration to emanate from the abyss often feels like an eternity. Vision mongers, artisans and seers seeking the creative muse can succumb to feelings of hopelessness that perpetuate the void. Breaking your creative fast is only a short road-trip away. Nearly every country, state or province is dotted by national parks, monuments or refuges. These relics of a pre-settlement past will jumpstart the muse, inspire the lost, and refresh your vision.

Find your park, pitch a tent, paddle a kayak and chase some light.

Dreaming of Ferns - Fern Canyon Redwood National Park
From Life in A VW Campervan 2007
Reprocessed in Topaz B&W Effects (soft diffusion)

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Tip #54: Familiarity Breeds Success

Saguaro Sunset - Saguaro National Park
Nikon D100 + 300mm f2.8 AFD

Knowledge and experience can increase the likelihood of a happy accident. Web research and forum friends can get you “there,” but the opportunity to photograph wildlife, dramatic light and climatic conditions are ephemeral. “The revisit” is a practice to which I subscribe. Frequent travels to Costa Rica, Badlands and Joshua Tree National Parks have paid dividends. Familiarity breeds success, and I measure this success by the diversity of wildlife I see and the images I make.

Ocotillo Study - Saguaro National Park
Nikon D100 + 20mm f2.8 AF

In 2003 I purchased a Nikon D100, 6mp DSLR. I sold three film bodies and ponied up nearly $1500 to make, this, my first digital buy. Intended to be a companion to my medium format Pentax AF645n bodies, I held my nose and entered the digital revolution. The Nikon was paired with a 300mm f2.8 AFD and 20mm f2.8 lens. It was an expensive experiment, but it also had the potential to breath new life into my art. Intended to be a supplement to the large negative landscape photography, I knew I’d love the immediacy of digital but was not prepared for the improved image quality.

Saguaro Study - Saguaro National Park
Nikon D100 + 300mm f2.8 AFD

In February 2003, the year I waded into the digital waters, Tamy and I journeyed to Saguaro National Park in Southern Arizona. The images that accompany Tip #54 were made with that D100 and they changed the way we now approach this craft. Nearly ten years later, Tamy and I are returning to Saguaro National Park. We look forward to our evenings on the edge of a wilderness and developing a fresh intimacy with this unique desert ecosystem.

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

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Tip #8: Fill the Frame

Don't Touch - Porcupine - Pine Barrens, WI
Canon 1D MarkII + 300mm f2.8L @ f4

Want to make your images more compelling? Here's a tip... move in, change your lens, or crop it tight. The way you get there matters less than the overall effect. If you've got the pixels to burn, the focal length to narrow your perspective or the skill to make an approach... do it!

Tip #8: Fill the Frame with your Subject!

Bison Bison - Yellowstone, NP
Canon 7D + 300mm f2.8L @ f4
Cropped Vertically to Tighten the Composition

Thursday, August 11, 2011

My Twist On Icons

In short, today’s post is a brief interpretation of icons. Our brief road-trip to Wyoming and Montana collided with the peak travel season. There’s no irony here, I’m a teacher and most of my adventures overlap with this peak. I’m off, my students are off, the weather is moderate and we all want to get away at the same time. So, as I’ve shared previously, we hitched the pop-up (mobile photo-lab) to the Jeep and raced west for 1500 miles. Our campsite bisected the road between the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, and we were prepped for some amazing photographic opportunities.

Road Tripping Through Ecosystems #7

Incoming Storm - Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND
Canon 5D MarkII + 17-40L @ 17mm

This will be my final post in the "Road Trip" series. With so many images produced in a short period of time, it's been a challenge to select a few to share. Ironically, the final image is among the first taken during our most recent trip West. After eleven hours of pulling the pop-up across Hwy 94, we arrived at the campground in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We were beat, but the RV required our attention, and the rains were quickly approaching. By the time the trailer was set and coffee brewed, the Park Ranger knocked on our door. "You know about the severe weather, right?" she asked whimsically. We looked at each other and then at her with tired eyes and said, "no." Looking around the campsite, I queried... "where's the shelter?" The ranger paused, glanced at the Missouri River, the mountains to the rear, and road to the campsites, and stated... "We don't have one."

No time for small-talk, she walked towards some other campers to share the hollow warning. Unfazed, we finished our coffee, and grabbed the gear. I'm no fan of severe weather, but I love the soft light produced by the sun's rays bouncing throughout an ominous sky. The winds were whipping, and my tripod was whistling a tune as air passed through its legs. I braced rig with the weight of my body and took fewer than ten images that evening. The wind was so intense, it almost toppled my gear. As rain began to pelt my face, I succumbed to fatigue and retreated to the camper. The picture above is a composite of three exposures. The wind-whipped grasses serve as a contrast to the rigid mountains that stand fixed awaiting the impending storm.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Road Tripping Through Ecosystems #3

Pre-Dawn on Jackson Lake - Grand Tetons National Park
Canon 5D markII + Canon 17-40L Lens shot @ f11

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

On the Fringe

Joshua Tree National Park has been an inspiration to me in more ways than I can articulate. Shortly before my 13th birthday I moved to 29 Palms California, and I... a New York City kid, had to learn to love a place that was foreign. The Mojave was relentless. It was a dry sparsely populated fragment of rock, dirt, and tumbleweed. I hated my new world. I craved the odors of Manhattan, street vendors, and sewers... I just wanted to go home.

Like any lost kid, I adapted. I looked for anything to help me waste away the endless hours of boredom. I took long hikes into the desert, investigated abandoned shacks, and fished for lizards (yes... we use to call it fishing!). By the time I left JTree in 1979, I'd fallen for its charm. In this seemingly simplistic world, I discovered complexities.

My studies in college led me back to the Mojave... This barren landscape that was the place of my youth was also where I found my wife. While I no longer call the desert home, I am a frequent visitor. I have camped, hiked and photographed this harsh landscape for more than two decades, and have spent hours searching for elusive creatures. During a recent outing to Joshua Tree National Park I had a brief encounter with the herd pictured throughout this essay. While I've seen Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis) across montane regions of the U.S., I had never observed them here. The herd traversed rocky outcrops as they ushered their lambs up and over the mountain pass. Their cryptic form allowed even the largest rams to disappear into the mountainscape like a desert mirage on a sunny day. I am forever amazed by the complexity of life and its capacity to evolve and adapt to marginal habitats across our planet. The desert is a beacon for the evolutionary process... competition for limited resources drives change and allows only the most fit to thrive, reproduce and contribute genes into the next generation. If you want to see evolution, look to the fringe... in the desert, the footprint of biology is too large to be ignored.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Species Profile: Yucca brevifolia

When Mormon settlers crossed the Mojave in the mid-19th century they "saw" the hands of Joshua reaching towards the heavens... so goes the origin of this tree's colloquial name.

Home Coming

On March 7th, two days prior to yet another predicted "snownado" (adj: sno-nado, a term used by the weather terrorists to inspire fear in the masses about upcoming snow events) Tamy and I boarded a plane for sunny California... the place we still call home. While Minnesota is where we live, work, and play we have been reticent to call it "home." Although our visit to California was primarily relegated to family, we managed to steal a few days and immerse ourselves in the craft of photography. The moderate temps and coastal breezes were all that I needed to get the creative juices flowing.

A Change of Pace

Having spent the better part of winter and summer chasing wildlife throughout the Midwest and East Africa, Tamy and I decided to break from this compulsion and slow down the photographic process.

I often say that we are “nature generalists.” We like to tell stories about ecology, evolution and conservation with our pictures. Lacking the discipline of fine-art photographers, bird specialists, and macro lovers, we are about serendipity... capture the moment, tell a story and invoke an emotion.

While it might seem counterintuitive, landscape photography plays into our strengths. Although many of the best landscape photographers I know spend their lives seeking iconic vistas, we prefer to discover and rediscover the lesser known locals. This feeds into the serendipitous nature of our pursuits. Unlike the frenzy of wildlife photography, we can work at quarter speed... which just about matches the pace of my own internal processor.

I'd like to offer you five simple steps we use to seek and photograph novel landscapes:

Get out of the car and take a walk

This is not the time to shoot, it is the time to survey the area. Take a hike, look around, and make some mental notes about when and where you want to be. Think ahead and predict how sunrise and sunset will impact your vista.

Vary the perspective

I like to climb on boulders or walk into valleys in order to change my point of view. I prefer to shoot from some non-traditional vantage points whenever I can. I enjoy tripod gymnastics... seeking ways to plant the tripod in improbable locations to influence my perspective.

Construct a mental image

Try to build a mental picture of your landscape. Seek out the interesting elements and dream about the potential of the final image.

Be at your spot in the “right light”

While this can be quite subjective, the most dramatic landscapes are shot in sweet light. Revisit your spots at dawn and dusk and take advantage of the sun’s low angle, reflected light, and dramatic clouds.

Take a risk

Try to break from the cliche. Shoot in a new place, shoot in an old place, and shoot in a different way.

About the Posted Image

Top:

Voyagers National Park, MN

This is a lesser known national park located at the boundary between Minnesota and Ontario. It known for open expanses of water dotted by rocky islands. We made this image during a recent (8-2010) camping/canoe trip with our dog Sequoia.

EXIF: 1DsII + 17-40L @17mm. Exposure 10sec @ f16, iso 100

Monday, August 17, 2009

Badlands National Park 2009: Wildlife Landscapes

My favorite genre of nature photography is the wildlife landscape. When I look at nature images by modern masters like Jim Brandenburg, Frans Lanting, John Shaw, and Art Wolfe, it is their wildlife landscapes that I find most compelling. Wildlife that is artistically framed by it’s surroundings conveys two essential messages to the viewer. The first message is about basic biology and the second is about conservation.

In biology we use the term niche to describe an organism’s role in its environment. This role includes food, predators, spacial requisites, temporal characteristics, and reproductive needs. These five niche characteristics are a small subset of the thousands of traits that could be used to describe the needs for any organism’s survival. As such, the definition of a niche might best be framed as an “n-dimensional space.” Here “n” represents all of the variables that can influence the way a given organism lives in its environment. Life adapts to where it lives through countless generations. In each generation, those that are best adapted to their environment survive to reproduce, while poorly adapted individuals die or produce fewer offspring. Through this process, living organisms increase the way they “fit” into their environment.

In the current age of technological change and human expansion, the biology of non-human life is in conflict with our egocentric needs and desires. Here lies the importance of conservation. If we value non-human life, then we must also value the space where these plants and animals live. It is through the conservation of habitat that the complexity of each niche can be preserved.

Wildlife landscapes carry a message and tell a story. They expose the beauty of wild spaces, and reveal the key requisite to sustain the biodiversity. The best wildlife landscapes educate us about biology and communicate the need for conservation.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Badlands National Park 2009: The Past

Tamy and I recently completed our annual pilgrimage to Badlands National Park in Western South Dakota. This year we visited the park with Tamy’s sister and my nine year old niece. While a family trip may not sound conducive to photography, nothing could be further from the truth. We are all repulsed by the consumerism that grips our every waking moment and revel in the opportunity to slow down, breathe clean air, and ponder what once was. I am very fortunate to have a patient family that supports my need to hike in the woods, stare into emptiness, and make art.

Tamy and I have visited the Badlands nearly every year since 2000. Although I curse the monotonous drive and swear that I will never do it again, I’m sure that I will contemplate the ten hour trek from Minneapolis into the great plains for “just one last time,” in 2010. There is something captivating about the Badlands for me.

This national park is not iconic... there are no geysers, famous peaks, or permanent riverine canyons. Furthermore, the wildlife, while omnipresent, is not as diverse as the game that can be found in Yellowstone, Glacier, or Denali. Nonetheless, the Badlands holds a mystery for me. The park tells a vivid story about our planet’s ancient past. Buried deep within the crumbling mountains are rich fossil beds that reveal the details about a prehistoric inland sea. There was a time when reptilian “sea-serpents” swam throughout an ocean that once swelled across our continent. These whale-like reptiles left reminders of their dominance in the form of petrified remains that are unearthed each day. As the sea retreated, it was replaced by a dense sub-tropical marshland that was the site of a great mammalian diversification. Thirty-five million years ago, this vast landscape was home to the saber-toothed cat (Haplophoneus) , hyenadon, giant omnivorous pigs (Archaeotherium), two-horned rhinoceros (Subhyracodon), and prehistoric three-toed horse (Mesohippus). When you hike or drive through the canyons of this park, you can see yourself moving through time.

But there is more to this barren landscape than prehistory. Badlands National Park also tells a story about biologically modern humans, their survival, and their destruction. This was indigenous land, a place where the first Americans lived, hunted, and survived. The Badlands was a place for the great herds, “a Serengeti for the North.” It remained this way until Europeans tried to tame the land; their failure is why the park exists today.

More than ever, the Badlands has endeared itself to me. This park with it’s striking landscape and big blue skies, hidden stories of what once was, and elusive big game holds a mystery for me that I just need to resolve.

The Way We See It