Spirits of Winter
G’day Everyone,
While I consider myself a druid of sorts I’m not prone to numinous tendencies. Then again, I have my moments.
I was photographing snow geese at the Dead Creek Wildlife Preserve in Addison, VT on a bitterly cold morning a few autumns ago when I happened to glance away from my camera. My eyes were tearing in the biting wind and I had to wipe them every few moments. As I turned to swipe the sleeve of my fleece jacket across my face, I was confronted by the transfixing stare of a snowy owl.
Solstice, 2011
G’day Everyone,
For the time being, a book deadline, home improvements, my part-time gig at the local college, and my HO trains provide ample reason for getting out of bed every day during the winter. Going outside, apart from snowshoeing with the boys and bringing in more firewood, least of all to take photos, is not part of my daily routine between December and March. I was never cold-hardy and am becoming even less so as, well, my father pointed out to me during my last visit with him, my hair takes on a more distinguished look. Though, there are those occasional photo opportunities when I simply have to bundle up and brave the frostbite, say, when there’s a brilliant display of northern lights or the rare ice fog creates the enigmatic Truhin’s Pillars or there’s an eruption of great gray owls or pine grosbeaks. About every other week, Jeff Parson’s and I trudge out on our snowshoes to check our game cameras. An article on how to use game cameras for wildlife photography which highlights our adventures over the last several winters as we attempted and finally succeeded in capturing a magazine-quality image of a bobcat appears in the current (Winter, 2011) issue of Northern Woodlands magazine. You can see an online version of the article on the Northern Woodlands website here:
http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/camera-trapping-how-to-get-the-shot/
Rob’s Hot Shots: PEI Set 2 – A Little Less Simple
I wonder how many thousands of tourists walk by North Rustico Beach in PEI National Park on a yearly basis? During high season, I suspect that 1000s of snapshots are taken on the beaches of the park, and you figure that North Rustico Beach, being right at one of the entrances of the park, would mean that many other photographers have captured these scences. Yet, a 15 minute Google Image and Flickr search yields no images even remotely similar to these two.
Read MoreRob’s Hot Shots – PEI Set 1: Simplicity
During our June vacation in Prince Edward Island, we were greeted with rather foul weather for the first 6 days – heavy cloud cover, strong winds, drizzle and rain. The light was flat, and the beautiful colors of the PEI landscape were not to be seen… Typical Maritimes weather, but not in mid-June! This weather forced me to get a bit creative, and gave me a great opportunity to test out my latest filter: the Lee Big Stopper, a 10-stop (!!!) neutral density filter, which slows down exposures by a factor of about 1500.
Read MoreGetting High in Glacier National Park
G’day Mates,
Several years ago, a client purchased all the spaces in our Kenya tour for the privilege of having an exclusive experience, to have me all to himself as it were, and learn all the field technique and digital processing he could absorb during the two-week safari. It was a sublime adventure for both of us; Peter, the client, felt he got his money’s worth (He could be driving a nice sports car for what he paid for that exclusive experience.) while I regarded the tour as a magnificent, once-in-a-lifetime event. Let’s be honest, being in the company of kindred spirits in some of the world’s most remarkable natural locations doing what we love to do is always a precious gift. I never take it for granted.
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