Yawnin’ in the Rain

In my picture story & photographic essay class at the Missouri School of Journalism, we have been asked to find some examples of what can make for an effective sequence of images.  While I ultimately will be required to produce one that is more about people than wildlife, I did think this sequence of images of a Galapagos Giant Tortoise from this summer was an entertaining and appropriate.

Additionally, the idea of the “sequence” can be interpreted broadly.  A sequence could be two pictures (a diptych), three pictures (a triptych), or it could be hundreds put together into a time lapse.  Timescapes.org is an example of the latter.  They are working on what will eventually be a full-length movie composed of video and time-lapse photography.  One example they have produced–a series of time lapses–is shared below.  Interesting stuff!

Timescapes – Mountain Light:

Tags: Galapagos, multimedia, nature, sequence, time lapse, wildlife
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Trees and hoar frost, Burlington, Wis. | Canon 5D II and 70-200mm f/4L IS lens @ 150mm; exposed 1/320 sec. @ f/8, ISO 200.

While I was driving from Racine, Wis. back to Columbia, Mo. last Sunday, 17 January, a I found that the “freezing fog” advisory we had heard about the night before had given the branches of all of the trees along the way a white glow.  Much of the drive was on the interstate, but before I could get out to I-43 to shoot to Beloit and drive the length of Illinois via Rockford, I had to drive on two-lane highways.  Here, on Wisconsin Highway 11 in Burlington, about one mile short of the on-ramp to I-43, I decided to stop and make a few pictures.  It was a supremely overcast day, so the 11:30am sun did not hurt the pictures at all.

Fortunately, while all of my equipment was loaded in the trunk of the car, it was not entirely inaccessible.  I pulled over to the side of the road, switched on my hazard lights, popped the trunk, and reached for my 5D Mark II and a couple of lenses before walking about.  The only thing I didn’t take the time to do was switch out my shoes for boots.  Those snow drifts on the side of the highway are a little deeper than they look!

More photos after the jump!
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Tags: EOS 5D Mark II, landscapes, nature, weather, winter
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While I’ve already obsessed on these pages about my photojournalism portfolio, which in many ways was also a “best of 2009″ as the majority of the photos I selected were made recently, I felt that it would be a good idea to revisit my nature images from 2009.  Along the journey back in time through my Lightroom library, I also found a lot of quirky images that I really enjoy, but that I don’t always have an opportunity to show.  So here, then, are two portfolios from 2009: the best of my nature work, and some of my more off-beat frames. I’m anxious to see what 2010 will bring!

My Best Nature Images of 2009

More after the jump!
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Tags: nature, photography, retrospectives, slideshow, Year in Review
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Christmas Meadows, Mirror Lake Scenic Byway, Utah (Aug. 2009) | Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens @ 35mm; three exposures combined for HDR.

I’ve been going through my photographs from Utah, and found a few images I intended to blend together to form high dynamic range photographs.  The above is one such image, made on a tripod at 100 ISO and f/16, with my shutter speed going from 1/2 second in the first exposure to 1/4 second, and finally 1/8 second in the third and final image.

I blended them together in Photomatix last night, and then applied curves and selective color, as well as a healthy dose of “local contrast enhancement” (Unsharp Mask @ 15%, Radius 60).

Fittingly, it was made at a place along the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway in Utah named “Christmas Meadows!”

Update: Here’s one more from the same evening and location.  Oh, and I’ve got a panorama or two (finally) coming together to post here as well.

Christmas Meadows, Mirror Lake Scenic Byway, Utah (Aug. 2009)

Tags: High Dynamic Range, landscapes, nature, Utah
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First of all, I’d just like to wish all of my readers happy holidays.  Up here in Wisconsin, where I am with my family for Christmas, the weather has brought us some snow but will be back with rain tonight.  Looks like our white Christmas will be washed away soon!

José Luis Rodríguez's The Storybook Wolf

My dad just sent me a link to an article I thought I should post on here concerning the winner of what used to be called the BBC Wildlife’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) competition for 2009, José Luis Rodríguez and his photograph “The Storybook Wolf.

The WPY is possibly the “best,” certainly one of the very biggest nature photography competitions that is held annually.  I was thrilled when one of my images from Bosque del Apache NWR became a finalist two years ago, as 32,000 entries had been submitted!

This year, the top award went to an image that, while visually interesting, always struck me as odd.  Rodríguez never said that  “The Storybook Wolf” was not baited–indeed, the story behind the image on the WPY Web site explains the process that he said he went through to acclimate wolves to fresh meat left for them in a corral, and gradually setting up a remote flash and camera.

However, at issue now is whether the story itself is factual–was this a wild wolf, as Rodríguez stated, or a captive animal,and was it really photographed on a rancher’s private land, or at the Cañada Real Center zoological park near Madrid?

These are the questions that the contest itself is now asking, according to Suomen Luonto (Nature of Finland) magazine.  The full article is available here: http://www.suomenluonto.fi/bbcs-nature-photo-competition-judge-admits-winner-photo-investigated-due-to-fraud-allegations.

Nature photography contests like WPY insist that images not be made of captive animals.  The staged situation in this image has bothered me, but was not in violation of the contest.  While manipulation of the image in post bothers some people, I think that manipulation of the scene and subject is a far greater offense.

Tags: contests, ethics, nature
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Patterns in the sand along the shore of the Great Salt Lake, Saltair, Utah. Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens; exposed 1/125 sec. @ f/9, ISO 1000 Copyright 2009.

One of the photographic conditions that I never had too great an appreciation for before I switched to digital capture in 2003 is the classic, cloudy day.  Overcast skies can yield striking images because the light is delightfully even, not “flat” as too many casually dismiss it.  Working to minimize shadows by photographing on sun angle (with the sun 180 degrees from your lens) or on a cloudy day does not mean that you’ll be working without shadows.  However, it certainly lets you study the shadowed areas much more closely, and the gradation between dark and light tones becomes far greater.

It’s the reason people love the “Shadow/Highlight” tool in Photoshop, or the “Fill Light” slider in Camera RAW / Lightroom: we like shadow detail.  So, consider how much more shadow detail you get on an overcast day, and reconsider any bias against the giant diffusers in the sky known as clouds.

In this case, along the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake in Saltair, Utah, I was actually photographing on a brilliantly sunny day, and the light was about as harsh as can be.  I achieved the soft light by using my body as a gobo, and I photographed in my own shadow. It’s a useful technique that I had forgotten about until I saw Artie Morris using it in the Galapagos to photograph a Lava Lizard.

Tags: lighting, nature, photography, techniques
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