Spirits of Winter

Posted by on Jan 21, 2012 in Vermont, Wildlife, Winter | 11 comments

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.

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Rob’s Hot Shots – PEI Set 1: Simplicity

Posted by on Oct 22, 2011 in Filters, Hot Shots, Landscapes, Prince Edward Island, Summer, Technique | 10 comments

Rob’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.

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Camera Hunting with Remote Setups – Epilogue

Posted by on Apr 28, 2011 in Cameras, Remote Setups, Technique, Vermont, Wildlife, Winter | 0 comments

Camera Hunting with Remote Setups – Epilogue

G’day Everyone,

In this final briefing of our experiences using high-quality game cameras to produce publishable images of otherwise elusive wildlife, I’ll cover the important considerations for placing the cameras in the field, that is, for locating field sites with a reasonably high potential for yielding usable images of the intended subjects, and I will also provide you with some pointers on properly positioning the cameras. Though I will use our experience with bobcats to illustrate our techniques and provide examples, the concepts I outline here are generally applicable to virtually all wildlife.

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The 2010 Blue Ox Moose and Fall Foliage Magical Mystery Tours

Posted by on Oct 19, 2010 in Fall, Fall Foliage, Maine, New Hampshire, Wildlife, Workshops & Tours | 1 comment

The 2010 Blue Ox Moose and Fall Foliage Magical Mystery Tours

G’day Mates,

Another fall and my focus shifts once again from fieldwork to desk work and writing.  The top of Jay Peak is already white with about 14″ of snow and I suspect that Rob is dusting off his winter wear and digging out his snowshoes even as I’m settling into my garret to work on yet another memoir (while my first continues to make the rounds of the publishers) and to finish the addition to our house. Encouraged, however, by our success last winter in getting one publishable frame of a bobcat (to appear in this winter’s issue of Northern Woodlands magazine) my friend and naturalist, Jeff Parsons, and I will keep our snowshoes and long underwear handy in order to venture out about once a week to set out and check our three game cameras.

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The Joys of Winter Photography

Posted by on Jan 31, 2010 in Landscapes, Musings, Quebec, Wildlife, Winter | 13 comments

The Joys of Winter Photography

In the colder North American climate, such as found in southern Quebec and Vermont, Mother Nature puts up an incredible display of colors in September and October. For many us landscape photographers, this 2-3 week period of fiery fall colors is the most productive, exciting and stimulating time of the year.  This makes the arrival of November all the more difficult to accept:  cold weather, gray skies, rain, snow, drab colors – probably the worst month for nature photography around here… In December, the cold weather arrives, and winter slowly settles, putting an icy grip over the regions.

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