Project 101: Tip #1

Acaciascape in Black and White - Tanzania, Africa
Canon 5D + 17-40L w/ polarizer

With over 140 posts and three years devoted to this blog, I’ve decided to mix things up a bit. The Way We See It has been a gallery to me and a writing exercise. It is a place where I’ve discussed our biological heritage and the importance of respecting the evolutionary history of life on Earth. This blog is my soapbox and my place to vent; it has been a cathartic experience and an abject failure. For all the things that this blog is, it has not tapped into my key skill. 

I make the abstract simple. Both a learner and an educator, my life is devoted to teaching. While biology is my subject and photography is my art, I excel in finding the easy where others see the hard. Here lies the core objective of Project 101. While I may not be the best nature photographer on the web, among my readers, or in my town, I am a store of ideas, knowledge and experience. This information, bottled-up and under pressure, is crying to released. So I’ve decided to uncork the fountain and share 101 Tips for the beginning and experienced nature photographer. My goal is to share one image and one tip every other day... 

Tip #1: 

There are no rules in photography and no one person can be the “Rules Police.” Photographic “rules” are suggestions based on compositional patterns and exposure preferences that appeal to the average viewer. Breaking these rules can transform a photograph into an artful image. 

Tip #1: Break the Rules
Looking out of the Frame - 'Ol Pejeta - Kenya
Canon 7D + 300 f2.8IS L

I have decided to begin Project 101 with “breaking the rules” because many of my tips are suggestions. If you don’t like them, don’t use them. Be the photographer you want to be, rely on your experience to define your vision. 

I’d love your feedback as this tips list progresses!

©2000-2011 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.

Grasping with Hands

Binocular vision - Upright posture - Generalized skeleton - Facial mobility - Grasping hands  - Large brains

Sound familiar? 

Kenya 2010: We are the Ape Family

The physical similarities are unmistakeable. If you accept the premise that lions and tigers are cats or wolves and foxes are dogs, then it is no leap of faith to claim that chimpanzees and humans are apes... we just happen to be more naked than them.

While our posture, mode of communication, and diet may differ, our physical anatomy and biochemistry are remarkably similar. A comparison of genetic similarities between our two species suggest that there is no living organism more like a human than a chimpanzee or bonobo. In fact, our genetic code, which consists of over 3.2 billion base pairs (3,200,000,000 bp), has a 98.6% overlap with that of the chimpanzee. On average, 3,155,200,000 bp of our DNA is the same as the DNA found in the common chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes.  Either we are both apes or we are both humans... I’ll let you decide where you’d like to draw the line.

I begin here with a biology lesson to underscore the purpose of today’s thoughts. Chimpanzees are routinely hunted for bush meat, medical experiments, circuses, and pets. This cousin of ours is often extracted from the environment in which it evolved and is forced to live under inhumane conditions across the planet. Native to rainforests and savannas of East and West Central Africa, this closest living connection to our own evolutionary heritage lives under the threat of an ever-expanding human population. 

In 1993 the Kenya Wildife Service (KWS) and the Jane Goodall Institute negotiated an agreement with the Ol Pejeta Conservancy to establish a 250 acre chimpanzee sanctuary for orphaned and abused chimpanzees. The sanctuary was first established to provide a protectorate for animals trapped within the civil conflict that was occurring in Bujumburu, Burundi.

Today, the conservancy is home to two groups of chimpanzees separated by the Ewaso Nyiro River. These rehabilitated chimps live much like wild troops in their own native habitat. Unlike truly wild groups, Sweetwater’s chimps are offered food provisions, vaccines and routine medical care. To control the inevitable population growth, females are fed contraceptives to reduce fertility. While it is possible to see the chimpanzees during brief periods of the day, they spend most of their time in the woods and tree canopy. Living as far from human eyes as possible, these chimpanzees appear to view us with suspicion. They are rescued apes, they wear the scars of their captivity, and they appear to see their captors when they look at us.

It costs between $4000 and $6000 to support a chimpanzee in Sweetwater for one year. This conservancy survives as a result of government aid, the Jane Goodall Institute, and other non-profits. You can help support a chimpanzee at Sweetwater by “adopting a cousin”... we did. The Chimpanzee pictured on the right is Naika. Naika was abandoned by a circus, but now lives as the 3rd ranking female in her group.

©2000-2010 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission