September 15, 2009
Hey all – Rob here…
Since starting photography in 2004, May to August have always been my most productive months. There are plenty of subjects to choose from: birds, amphibians, flowers, insects, landscapes… On weekends, I’d often head out before dawn to the Ile Bizard marsh to photograph birds, frogs, turtles, otters or other marsh residents. When I don’t feel like getting up before dawn, I’d set up for macro photography a little later in the morning.
This year? Man, oh man… May, June and July were cool, very wet and windy. Montreal had record amounts of rain in July (4.6 inches), with some rainfall on 26 days out of 31 days. You can forget about going to the Ile Bizard marsh for bird photography in these conditions, as it will be very quiet. And windy or very sunny conditions make traditional macro photography extremely difficult.
With changing weather patterns, bird photography has been getting inconsistent at the marsh. I cannot control this. But there are always insects to photograph, and these critters are what I turn to in order satisfy my need for photography. This summer, with either too much wind, rain, too much cloud, or (ironically) too much sun, even insects were hard to photograph.
How bad has it been? Well, excluding the images taken at the Green Mountain Workshop in June, my number of “keeper shots” from start of May to end of July was 19… Only 19!
Mating Japanese Beetles
Canon EOS 5D MkII
Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro lens with Canon 500D diopter
Canon 550EX flash with Micro-Apollo diffuser
f/16, 1/100s, ISO 400
Hand-held
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Posted by Rob under Equipment,Flash,Lenses,Macro,Summer,Technique | Comments (10)
July 6, 2009
G’day Everyone,
For those of us sufficiently aged to remember the music of the seventies, you might recall the tongue-in-cheek song by Dr. Hook, “The Cover Of The Rolling Stone”. Whether you’re a “big rock singer with golden fingers” or a nature photographer with a keen eye, a cover shot, in particular, on a national publication, is about as good as it gets. You’d think, being a professional and all, getting one’s images published loses its allure after a while. Not for this pro. What with the competition these days, it’s more important than ever to stand out and there’s not much that spotlights one’s work better than a national cover. Well, ok, there’s winning the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award and the Pulitzer Prize, but let’s keep it real.
My image, “Sunrise at Otter Rocks” (below), appears on the front cover of the current issue (Summer, 2009) of Nature Photographer magazine. I’m offering a signed 18″ x 24″ print, matted and framed in solid oak of the cover image, along with an autographed copy of the magazine with free shipping to all Sojourns In Nature subscribers for $195.00. Simply email me at gustav@sojournsinnature.com if you’re interested. You might also consider joining me in Maine on the Tom Jordan Memorial Boreal Coast Tour next summer. Who knows, if you stood right next to me….. 
Sunrise at Otter Rocks
Canon EOS 1-D Mark II N
Nikon 24mm f/1.2 with Canon-Nikon Adaptor Ring
f/22 @ 1.5″, +1 exposure compensation, ASA 100
Cokin -3 GND filter
Gitzo 2220 tripod with Manfrotto 3047 head
cable release, mirror lockup
Read more…
Posted by Gustav under Filters,Maine,Publications,Shows & Exhibits,Summer,Technique,Vermont,Workshops & Tours | Comments (5)
