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.
Read MoreSingle-strobe Hummingbird Photography
G’day Everyone,
Conventional wisdom recommends using several strobes for photographing hummingbirds. Typically, hummingbird setups employ two strobes at about 45 degrees either side of the bird and level with it, a top and bottom light, and one or two additional strobes to light the background. My brief note here is not intended to refute the merits of this standart technique, not at all. Indeed, most circumstances will require a number of strobes to properly illuminate the scene and freeze the wing motion, especially in the field when one is not entirely in control of all the variables, i.e., flash to subject distance, the distance between the main subject and the backgroud, ambient light, etc.
However, under certain conditions, it is possible to capture outstanding images of hummingbirds with a single strobe…and a little help from the sun.
Read More
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.
Read MoreCamera Hunting with Remote Setups – Game Camera Considerations
G’day Everyone,
In this long overdue follow-up to my introduction to remote setups (see http://www.sojournsinnature.com/blog/?p=1551#more-1551), I’ll outline what I’ve found to be the most important considerations when purchasing a game camera.
Game cameras have been popular for some time, notably with hunters who use them not to produce publishable photos but to locate game, hence the common name for these devices. I don’t mention this to point out the obvious but to emphasize that, given their usual application, these cameras are not necessarily designed to produce gallery-quality photos. As a professional nature photographer, I have to produce images I can sell to editors and enlarge to frame for my galleries.
Read MoreCamera Hunting with Remote Setups – Introduction
In Walden, Henry David Thoreau acknowledges that many a naturalist’s initial introduction to nature is by way of hunting and fishing:
Indeed, my first forays into the woods were with a gun over my shoulder on my uncle Victor’s 400 acre farm in upstate New York. By the time I was 17 years old, I had shot my share of woodchuck, grouse, rabbit, and deer. And, growing up on the Great Lakes in the fifties and sixties, I’ve caught and eaten enough perch and walleye that, if you turn off the lights, what with the accumulated dioxins, PCBs, mercury, and who knows what else in me, I’m surprised I don’t glow in the dark.
Read MoreSearch
Share
Follow
Products & Services
