The Way We See It: mammals

Showing posts with label mammals. Show all posts

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Costa Rica 2013 - Black and White Portraits

Portrait of a Jaguar - Rehab Center, Costa Rica
Canon 5D mark iii + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Some faces look better in black and white!

Lurking Howler (Alouatta paliatta) - Selva Verde, Costa Rica
Canon 5D mark iii + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS + Canon 1.4x

Paca (Cuniculus paca) in Rehabilitation Center - Costa Rica
Canon 5D mark iii + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Sunday, August 25, 2013

What’s in a Blur (In Search of Creativity)

Green violetear hummingbird (Colibri thalassinus) - Savegre, Costa Rica
Canon 5D mark iii + Canon 300mm f2.8IS L + Canon 2x mark iii

I recently took a look at my neighbor / wedding photographer’s website (see http://brandonwerth.com) and thought to myself... “man that guy is so damn creative!” Being far removed from the portrait/wedding world, this type of photography seems as foreign to me as working with clay.

Flying Monkey (Cebus capucinus) - Hacienda Baru, Costa Rica

Rather than art, I often describe my work as conservation photography or nature photojournalism. While I always strive to produce the best possible images, I know “creative” is not the first word that comes to mind. At times my work is technical, compelling or emotive, but the word creative is reserved for the artists of the world.

Lapa Lapa Lapa (Ara macao) - Rio Quatro, Costa Rica

To break my current photo-funk, I’ve been on the hunt for creative nature photographs. I know it when I see them, and sadly, this is not what I observe in most of my work. While searching for inspiring photographs of nature, I’ve found many self-described creatives and creativity in post-processing, but the real artists in my discipline seem far and few between. The well-known humanitarian and photo-educator David duChemin is at the precipice of creativity with his portraiture and recent works in nature, but the one I find most compelling is Nick Brandt. Call it retro, but Brandt continues to shoot large negative black & white film while the rest of us toil with our pixels and memory cards. The structure of his images are evocative and expressive in a way that few can extract from their nature and wildlife subjects. There is a depth and emptiness to his images, yet each is filled with the essence of its subject. I call this work creative because Brandt manages to combine the key moment with brilliant technical skills that makes for much more than a journalistic representation of time. I can stare at his pictures for hours.

Flying banana (Ramphastos swainsonii) - Hacienda Baru, Costa Rica

So, what’s with all the burry pics in the blog, you ask?

During every prolonged shoot, I will break from my tendency towards technical perfection and try to escape from my self-imposed constraints. While I won’t be so bold to call any of these images creative, I might describe each as a purposeful attempt at making art from a bit of nature.

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.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Practice your Craft

Portrait of a Bear (Ursus arctos) - Radium Hot Springs, Canada
Canon 7D = Canon 300mm f2.8L IS @ f2.8

It's not often that I have the opportunity to make a tight portrait of a large predator. In fact, other than my safari experiences in East Africa, I have found the pursuit of carnivores to be among my greatest challenge. Large predatory birds always seem to be just distant enough to frustrate, while mammalian carnivores rarely reveal more than a glint in the eye. So when faced with a fleeting moment, I want it all to be automatic. Here, automatic is not a dependence on some predefined camera mode but, rather, a reference to mechanical memory. The way I see it, the difference between maximizing success and minimizing failure is practice.

I was a photo-newbe in the 1980's. Those were the days of photo magazines, books and film. Magazines and books were cheap, and film was expensive. As result, I spent more hours reading about photography and playing with jewel-like cameras than taking pictures. When I did shoot, it was like driving with my foot on the brakes. Fearful of wasting money and making poorly exposed images, I was a paralyzed by the process. As my income and knowledge expanded, so did the willingness to experiment. My skills and my vision are a product of the past, but the quality of my work has everything to do with the present. While there is little doubt that I've benefited from a thousand rolls of film, shooting medium format negatives, and laboring over a light box, this is not a requisite for today's aspiring photographer. What took years to make ten-thousand images can now be done in months, weeks or days. Digital is the great liberator and equalizer because each image is as disposable as it is precious. Once you've made the primary investment, picture making is free. So, if you want to be prepared to make the shot of a lifetime, work the trigger finger and practice your craft.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

High Key Deer

Young Buck (Odocoileus virginianus) - Tamarack Nature Center, MN
Canon 50D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

On Saturday morning I took a hike looking for signs of spring. The crisp pre-dawn air bit at my hands as if to remind me that this winter was less than a distant memory. With each step I sunk into the saturated earth rich with autumnal leaves discarded and relegated to the decomposers of the world. There is a smell to early spring, and while it is mid-May, the late snow and unseasonable cold conspired to stretch winter beyond its normal limits.

So as I walked, I watched for the signs. Migratory birds sang throughout the leafless forest as crows mobbed an owl pair looking for shelter. The animals were on the move. Herds of deer froze as I crossed their paths. Stealthy in wolf country, they seemed more like pets than something wild and untamed. I would stop, stare into their obsidian eyes and project their thoughts into my own. Nearly 20 deer later, I challenged myself to see them in a different way. The sunrise bathed their weathered bodies from behind, so I chose to capture the dawn of spring juxtaposed by broken bodies that struggled to survive this winter.

Backlit and Wary (Odocoileus virginianus) - Tamarack Nature Center, MN
Canon 50D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Deep Knowledge

Wet Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) - Banff National Park, Canada
Canon 7D + Canon 300 f2.8L IS

Cliché warning.... the world wide web is the great equalizer.

New information streams at a unattainable rate, so I resort to summary sources to fill the immense cognitive vacuum; born is the literate poser. Original works take too long to digest, are cluttered by their obtuse detail, and often mask the bottom line. A three hour investment on the source yields deep knowledge of minutia and little else. Science Daily and Science News are my crutch, I am a poser.

Crane Lake - Lake Country, MN
Canon 7D + Tokina ATX-II 12-24mm f4.0

Today’s world of bits, bytes, and data create an opportunity for many while diluting greatness that might be lurking among the throngs of web participants. In the near past, it was easy to sort through the trash and find nuggets of gold. Outstanding works of art, literature and science seemed to radiate from within the pile, but today’s trash heap is so dense that the singularities are buried too deep to see.

Spring Crane (Grus canadensis) - Manning Trail, MN
Canon 40D + Canon 300 f2.8L IS + Canon 2x Converter Mk II

Like many, I am web junky. I frequent the usual sources like the NYTimes.com, Politco, HuffingtonPost, ScienceDaily, TechNews, and DPReview. Far from knowledgeable, I know a little about everything and a lot about nothing. Knowledge is good, but deep knowledge is better. In teaching biology, I find that my years of investment in the field, lectures, and labs are the platform for my classroom creativity. Deep knowledge serves me well when working with neophytes, but the farther I am removed from my formal training, the shallower I become. I try to leverage my losses with a voracious appetite for the ubiquitous glossy summaries available to us all... the web is the great equalizer for a homogenizing society.

Gondola Sunrise - Venice, Italy
Canon 5D Mk I + Canon 24-105 f4.0L IS

The context for my lament points directly towards my passion for seeing nature and being a participant in this world. The skills I developed with film are the foundation from which I now work the digital platform. Exemplary work, once relegated to the few willing to invest the sweat to learn, is now readily available to the masses. Like the world wide web, digital is the great equalizer. Average shooters become experts in months instead of years, and images that once took years to conceive are produced and shared freely every day. Deep knowledge serves us well when striving to be the best, but remedial skills coupled with amazing technology now makes fools gold glitter with brilliance.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

An April Diary

April 28, 2005
Canon 1D + Canon 200mm f2.8L @ f2.8Average Temperature 45 ℉, No Precipitation

As winter yields to spring, the vernal equinox foreshadows an inevitable change. The long nights become long days, and the repressed are free to bask in the warmth of spring.

April 5, 2008
Canon 1D mark ii + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS @ f2.8
Average Temperature 45 ℉, .1" mixed Precipitation

Having spent my adolescence on the west coast, I was not prepared for the schizophrenia that is April. In California, April is just another month of warm days and cool nights. The equinox was an irrelevant date on the calendar, and spring was cooler than summer. In contrast, the oppressor, winter, punishes the plebeians who reside in the middle of the continent. April is our reward for endurance, but we mid-continentals, are nothing more than April fools.

April 16, 2011
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS @ f2.8
Average Temperature 35.8 ℉, .11" Precipitation

Today is April 14th, it snowed, hailed and rained all day. My income taxes are due tomorrow, and the high school prom I coordinate is on April 27th. My students now behave like caged rats, and the drive to work has more pocks, cracks and shifts than the San Andreas Fault. I hate April! April is the greatest fallacy there ever was. Spring is not relief from winter, spring is just winter after winter.

April 7, 2012
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS @ f3.2
Average Temperature 50.3 ℉, No Precipitation

April is as schizophrenic as my rant; it is unpredictable, unforgiving and a wild ride. Every year I look forward to April’s migrations, buds and renewal and each time I am bewildered by its unpredictability. Who is this deviant we call April?... your guess is as good as mine.

April 14, 2013
Canon 5D mark iii + Canon 17-40mm f4.0L @ f14
34 ℉, Rain, Sleet Snow

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

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Winter Diary (Post VI)

North American Mink (Neovison vison)
This little guy was working itself silly hunting for crayfish through a maze of mallards.
Captured during my pursuit of its more aquatic cousins, this small
mustelid appeared after being skunked by otters ;-p
Canon 7D + Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS

Mink #2 (Neovison vison)
Canon 40D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS + Canon 1.4x Converter

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me!

River Otter (Lutra canadensis) - Minnesota
Canon 7D + 300mm f2.8L IS

I’m the guy who preaches, “get it right in camera!”

I tell my students and friends to practice exposure theory, “know what the meter says,” and “add light to white.” Yet, when faced with a critical moment, fear of loss consumes my process and I find faith in technology.

I’m not a faith type of guy, so why does a logician suddenly find religion when knowledge and experience should suffice? Call it fear of failure, chicken shit or misplaced confidence, but when the chips are down, I tend to trust the meter.

River Otter Pair (Lutra canadensis) - Minnesota
Canon 7D + 300mm f2.8L IS

Fool Me Twice, Shame on ME! Last week I blew a fleeting moment when I underexposed a great-gray owl in twilight. I knew the meter would get it wrong, but I had faith... I was wrong!

This morning I was at it again. As the sun slowly spilled over the horizon a pair river otters (Lutra canadensis) emerged from an ephemeral hole in the ice. Knowing their intolerance for people, I had less than five minutes to work. Should I trust the meter? Hell NO! Snow-covered lake ice will never be exposed correctly by a camera that interprets its world at 18% gray. Yet, the little voice in my head kept saying... “in five minutes they’ll be gone, trust your meter.” I shrugged off the doubt added light to white and overexposed the suggested “correct” exposure. Trepidation and fear of failure lost this round, while logic and experience ruled the day.

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.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Tip #99: Make the Connection

Jasper National Park - Canada
Canon 5D mkII + Canon 50mm f1.4

There are fleeting moments where time stops and the essence that is the photographer becomes one with the subject. These are ephemeral experiences, intense bursts of focus that I can only describe as Zen. It might seem a contradiction for this empiricist to describe an experience in nature that is something less than science, yet I find that Zen philosophy can inform my mind without imbuing a religious conviction.

Eddy - Canada
Canon 5D mkII + Canon 24mm TSE f3.5L

Slot - Canada
Canon 5D mkII + Canon 50mm f1.4

Id, the scientist... “life is a continuum that began with a single cell competing for limited resources, motivated by the programmed need to replicate. Competition inspired organic innovation that led to a branching tree of life that extends into every ecological niche. Selection is the mechanism, and chance events in the environment separate the winners from the losers. The evidence of this rich evolutionary history is written in molecules and preserved in stone.”

Nanny and Kidd (Oreamnos americanus) - Canada
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS + 1.4x converter

Leading Lines (Oreamnos americanus) - Canada
Canon 40D + Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS

Zen, the artist... “Reality seems sterile and non-emotive. Art is a human pursuit, a mode of self-expression, and Zen helps me to explore my place in nature. I am the ripple in a pond, a wave in the ocean, a drop of rain cycling through the atmosphere; I am one, a part of the continuum.”

Reflecting Jasper - Canada
Canon 5D mkII + Canon 50mm f1.4

We are the Rock (Oreamnos americanus) - Canada
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS + 1.4x converter

Schizophrenic in the literal sense, photography is a split of the mind; it is art and it is science. White light emanates from solar fusion, reflects off an earthly mass and photons are captured by a Silica wafer. Transformed into a binary code, this is the picture. In contrast, a careful search for leading lines, colored abstractions and tonal gradients shape our art. Lost in the moment, the photographer is one with the place and sees what others will not. Whatever your mind, accept that you are a part of the nature that you seek to capture, and you will make art from the science that is our reality.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Tip #98: Rule #6

Black Bear and Dandelions - Jasper National Park, Canada
Canon 7D + Canon 300 f2.8L IS @ f2.8

Are you a working photographer or a photographer who works? If the title matters, then you really need Rule #6. Regardless of your profession, love of the process and the adventure should be motivation enough. Block the inputs that promote self-doubt or diminish the sense of worth. When you can't embrace what you enjoy, it's time remember Rule #6.

Rule #6
Don't Take Yourself So @#&! Seriously

A Grasshopper's Nightmare - Jasper National Park, Canada
Canon 7D + Canon 300 f2.8L IS @ f3.2

Monday, October 8, 2012

Tip #95: It Might Be Your Only Chance

Steep Climb (Ovis canadensis)
Icefields Parkway - Canada
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Is it half empty or half full?

I won’t bore you with this tired cliche, but I do believe that the tension inherent in the question offers a photographer some pause for thought. Photography is fraught with compromise, especially when considering the stark contrasts that life has to offer.

Should I expose for the shadow or for the highlight?
Do I select a slow shutter speed to convey the motion of a moment, or do I shoot it fast to stop the action?
Could a shallow depth of field isolate my subject, or would it be best to capture the infinite space of a landscape.

Salt Lick and Grit (Ovis canadensis)
Icefields Parkway - Canada
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

While I might lack a religious conviction, I am a Taoist photographer. I see balance in nature and seek to understand the contrasts inherent in this world. I see the yang at a peak moment, and the yin as the sun begins to set. Taoist accepts the contradiction between light and shadow and sees this as a part of the whole.

Watch for Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis)
Icefields Parkway - Canada
Canon 7D + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

When you approach a novel subject do shoot as if you’ve reached diminishing returns or do you immerse yourself in the cornucopia of a limited opportunity. I suggest that you shoot as if every encounter might be your last, and you approach your subject from diverse perspectives. By accepting the contrasts inherent in nature, you make the most every every photographic opportunity.

About the Images: The posted photos are of Canadian bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) captured along the Icefields Parkway and Kootenay National Park. We spent several hours with the sheep seeking to capture a diversity of perspectives and behavior.

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

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Trip Alert #4: Canada's Got Bears!!

American Black Bear - Kootenay National Park, Canada
Canon 40D + 100-400IS L

We've seen 3 to 5 bears a day since making it to the Rockies... here's an unprocessed, but cropped shot... more to come when the editing is done!!

Cheers from Radium,
bruce

Monday, November 7, 2011

Tip #10: Get out of the Car

Tropical Doe (Odocoileus virginianus) - Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
Canon 7D + 300 f2.8IS L

Tip #10: Get out of your car and take a walk

The car point of view is now ubiquitous with "wildlife photography." So common are these images on the web, I make every effort to avoid the classic "from the car shot." Images taken from a vehicle lack intimacy, are poorly composed, and exhibit a top-down perspective.

Think before you take another image of that roadside elk! Get out of your car, take a hike in the woods and learn how to approach your subject. Many miss amazing photographic opportunities because so few are willing to carry their gear. Images from a trail evoke the emotion of the moment and offer your viewer the feeling of "being there."

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 27, 2011

Juxtaposition (I)

...an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.

Compulsion for a compulsive,

...a play on words or “clever” juxtaposition between a noun that describes an obsessive state of being with the adjective that describes one who can’t stop. Much like my dog who is compelled to chew her bully-stick to the bitter end, I (the compulsive) am compelled to experience the nature of nature through a lens.

A lifetime of conflict between my left brain (the empiricist) and my right (the whimsical imp), has forced an uneasy truce. Though anatomically similar, these two halves connected by the fibrous corpus callosum respond to the world in very different ways. The right brain feeds on the abstractions in life, the color of nature and the risk in adventure. In contrast, the left seeks order, calculates outcomes and clings to rules.

Two adjacent halves cooperating to meet the needs of the one, while competing to define the identity. The brain is the ultimate juxtaposition, ...pair of a kind but of a different suit.

Henri Cartier-Bresson (HCB) is a master of juxtaposition. Single images with multiple elements tell a story about a moment in time. Famous for capturing the decisive moment, HCB juxtaposed action with geometry, and emotion with time. Far be it for me to emulate Cartier-Bresson’s style, as his genre is very different from my own. Yet, the goal of seeking a juxtaposition within and between images is a compelling idea. Throughout the week, I will share some juxtapositions, these images will appear as triplets, pairs, or isolated pictures. In some cases the stories will be painfully obvious, while in others, they will be obtuse. Nonetheless, my goal is to challenge myself and stimulate you to see the juxtapositions in photography and life.