Michael Despines Photography

Jan

04

Favorites – 2024 Edition

Annual Summary Posted by Michael / 4 comments

One last glance back at 2024 before we leap into 2025 with a review of some of my favorite images from the last 12 months.

In 2024 I made my first trip to Patagonia, Chile in search of pumas. I had low expectations going into that trip but in the end, I was blown away by the experience. The landscape and scenery were breathtaking. Although the winter days were short the light was spectacular from sunrise to sunset. We spent most of each day hiking as we tracked pumas allowing us to really be part of that stunning landscape. Put all this together and we get one of the best trips I have ever taken. We enjoyed it so much that we plan to return in 2026 (Sorry, Madagascar, you will have to wait one more year).

Let’s start with my favorite images from that adventure.

1. We begin with my best photo of the year and one of the best images I have ever taken. Truly an image of a lifetime. In one shot, we get not only the dramatic Patagonia landscape (Cordillera del Paine) but also the apex predator of the region.

And just in case you didn’t notice, here is a zoomed-in crop of the bottom part of the image:

2. In the next image we can see the powerful build of the puma. And that gaze is intense!

3. Here we see a female puma with her two cubs. Cuteness overload!

Here is a close up of the puma family:

4. One of my goals for the trip was to photograph a pygmy owl and Patagonia did not disappoint! It was my first sighting of this fierce tiny raptor.

5. I imagine that true landscape photographers must lose their minds in Patagonia – at every turn was yet another mind-boggling scene. How do you choose where to point your camera??

6. Just another average sunrise in Patagonia.

A few other of my favorite images from 2024 captured a bit closer to home.

7. I made a weekend trip to Mt. Rainier (Washington State) and found this dramatic sunset scene at Reflection Lake. I have some nice sunrise photos from this location but this is my first compelling sunset image.

8. I spent a few days in the Olympic National Park (Washington State) and captured two images that I really liked (I am using this one as the background on my phone).

9. Another view of the same stream. It seems that I am a big fan of fuzzy green rocks.

9. Each year short-eared owls winter in Washington State – here is one of my favorite images from my time with them.

10. And each summer bald eagles congregate along the coastline of Washington State to feast on spawning fish. In this image, we have two eagles fighting over a fish.

11. No fish in this image but two eagles still fighting, in the rain – just because.

12. And finally, an image taken really close to home. An Anna’s hummingbird dining in the garden that is on the back deck of our house.

In other news, I entered a few photo contests in 2024 with some good results.

Three images were “Commended” in the 2024 Bird Photographer of the Year (BPOTY) Contest:

1. Feeding Time

Photo Caption:

Over three weeks I visited this Anna’s Hummingbird nest regularly to document the growth and development of the chicks. By staying on the boardwalk and using a 600 mm lens I was able to have a good view of the hummingbird family while keeping a safe distance from the nest. When I began the chicks were blind, featherless, and the size of my thumbnail. In this image the chicks are almost fully mature, and their feathers have grown in. Just two days after this photo was taken, I watched the chicks take their first flight! We were all very proud!

See the full story here.

2. Rufous on Watch

Photo Caption:

From his perch, this male Rufous Hummingbird surveyed the entire field – if any other bird or creature dared to enter, he would take flight and warn them off. As the tree swayed in the breeze the light occasionally caught his gorget just right, and radiated bright orange. Every few seconds he would expand his gorget for added effect, flashing it for all to see, and to proclaim “No Trespassing.” I approached him slowly, taking images every 10 paces or so until I was able to capture this portrait of the fiery watchman

Read more on the rufous hummingbird here.

3. Fish Fight

Photo Caption:

Bald eagles congregate along the Washington coast each summer to feed on midshipman fish spawning among the oyster beds. As the tide recedes the fish become trapped and the eagles attack. Some eagles strafe the water to catch their own fish while others steal from blue herons and seagulls. Other bald eagles prefer to steal from fellow eagles. In this scene, the eagle with a fish implemented an impressive barrel roll to confront her attacker. With the theft rebuffed the eagle flew to a nearby pine tree to dine in peace.

30

Lethal Beauty

Shot of the Month Posted by Michael / 0 comments

Shot of the Month – November 2024

Ok, yeeessss, this female jaguar is an apex predator. Yes, she is a member of the biggest cat species in the Americas and the third largest in the world. Yes, this jaguar’s jaw is so powerful it can pierce the skull of a caiman (think alligator but a bit different) with one bite. Yes, she is terrifying.

Caiman:

But she is also stunningly beautiful. Those eyes! Could she look any more kitty-like? The bored gaze…the crossed paws. I just can’t…

I found this lethal kitty sitting in the shade under a tree along a riverbank in the Pantanal in Brazil.

Her looks are particularly striking after seeing male jaguars. Many males look like middle-aged heavyweight boxers. Massive, brutish, scarred, and battle-worn. This female is downright lithe, probably weighing in at the lower end of the typical 75 to 175 pounds for females. Males can weigh from 220 to 350 pounds. And her luscious fur coat — so beautiful!

Males often get into territorial battles to keep a preferred part of the jungle or win over rights to a female. Look at the wounds on this massive male:

Here is another male jaguar with an injury to his eye. This jaguar was well known to researchers, and despite the injury, this jaguar was the dominant male in his part of the jungle for many years.

But I digress. Our lovely female has no scratches or marks on her face. Given her size and perfect facial features, I guess that she is fairly young and has not yet endured many fights or injuries while hunting. Females rarely fight but will fiercely defend their young from male jaguars and engage in mock battles with courting males. They may also fight to defend a kill from other jaguars.

There you have it, a female jaguar in the prime of her life – a stunning, regal queen of the jungle. Admire at a distance, as her beauty is deceptively lethal.

Read more about Jaguars in my previous posts:

King of the Jungle

Mighty Mick

Until next month……michael

Nikon D4S, Nikon 600 mm, 1/400 sec, f/4, ISO 560, EV +0.5

Oct

31

Clouds

Shot of the Month Posted by Michael / 1 comments

Shot of the Month – October 2024

I stood by Reflection Lake in the late afternoon with low expectations. I have never had much luck getting a good shot of Mt. Rainier at this time of day – usually, too much wind to get a reflection and rarely any good clouds. I actually left my camera in the car figuring I would enjoy the scene like a normal person. But then I almost jumped out of my skin when the clouds suddenly rolled in and the low sun started to bask them in warm light. And the air was unusually calm allowing for a great reflection. I ran and got my gear and started shooting.

Click here for more on this photo hotspot:

Dangerous Reflections

Many non-photographers are surprised to learn how important clouds are to creating a compelling sunrise/sunset landscape image.

How important? Well, I know many a landscape photographer who will skip a potential shoot if there is a forecast for no clouds. Clouds are so important that there are apps to predict the timing, height, and density of clouds for a given location. Most serious landscape photographers have at least one or two of these apps on their phones and study them judiciously before heading out for a shoot. Some include Clear Outside, Astrospheric (IoS, Android), and Windy.com (IoS, Android).

There is no doubt that the sun sinking beneath the horizon on a cloudless night at the beach can be serene, beautiful, and romantic…. But it rarely makes for a compelling image. Clouds, when at the right height and density catch the sun’s glorious first or last rays of red, orange and yellows that humans love. Clouds create drama and make an image more visually striking.

For example, this is a nice sunrise shot I took at Swiftcurrent Lake in Glacier National Park:

But look at what clouds can add to the scene:

(Ok yes, I found a better/more compelling foreground in the second image, but you still get the idea. That sky is more dramatic and interesting)

In this sunset scene at the same location I had clouds but they were too dense to allow the colors to come through. My solution was to go for a very long exposure that allowed the motion of the clouds to add drama and visual interest to the scene.

Read more about the story in getting these shots at Swiftcurrent Lake here:

Fire and Ice

The shot below of a tulip field at sunrise had some real potential but in the end fails due to the lackluster sky. Nary a cloud….sigh.

In the image below at Rialto Beach the dramatic foreground and compelling silhouette make this a decent image but a few more clouds to catch some color would have taken it to another level:

See more on Rialto Beach here: Rialto Beach

And in this next shot of the Lime Kiln Lighthouse we have juuuust enough clouds to make it a usable image:

But if I crop the image, to allow the clouds to fill more of the scene, I find it more compelling:

Click on the box to read more about how I got the shots at the Lime Kiln Lighthouse: Landscape to Lovers

As you can see, a cloudy day is not always a bad thing. And if you happen to be a landscape photographer, clouds are often essential to making our day into something special.

Until next month….michael

Sep

30

Patagonia

Shot of the Month Posted by Michael / 0 comments

Shot of the Month – September 2024

I don’t even know where to begin.

How do I describe this magical place? In our age of hyper-sensationalism, where a new cookie flavor is “revolutionary” and the latest TikTok dance is “epic,” many superlatives have lost their punch and meaning. But let me tell you, my dear friend, Patagonia is the real deal. Stunning. Awe-inspiring. Breathtaking. Majestic.

Tolkien’s Middle-earth has nothing on this place.

Where is this Magical Land?

Patagonia covers a massive region at the bottom of South America.

Source

Patagonia is about 300,000 square miles (1 million square kilometers) in size and spans the countries of Chile (to the west) and Argentina (to the east). It is an area larger than 80% of the countries on earth, yet is one of the least populated areas on the planet (1-2 persons/sq km).

Stunning landscapes and no people?? My kind of place!

The southern Andes mountain range dominates the landscape in many places. It really is at the end of the world – the most southern tip is the starting point for voyages to Antarctica.

Source

Argentina contains 90% of Patagonia, which spans one-third of the country. Ten percent of Patagonia is located in Chile, covering half of the country.

Source

What is Patagonia?

Patagonia is a collision of habitats and landscapes, including towering mountains (Andes), crystal blue lakes, massive glacier fields, temperate rain forests, deep fjords, and huge deserts. Mother nature worked overtime here offering a bewildering array of habitats and biodomes. The area is also home to a stunning diversity of wildlife including puma, guanacos, Andean condors, penguins, pygmy owls, fur seals, flamingos, whales and…so much more.

Source

Watch this great video to get a sense of the variety of landscapes that can be found in Patagonia:

Chilean Patagonia is famous for its dramatic scenery – towering mountains, sprawling glaciers, and pristine fjords. We visited a ranch in Chile that borders the iconic Torres del Paine National Park in search of pumas. Each day on our hikes we were greeted with one stunning scene after another. I shot the image above with an iPhone as I walked up to the river’s edge.

Landscape photographers must lose their minds in Patagonia. How do you choose which scene to shoot when stunning vistas are found in every direction? Here is just another “average” sunrise:

And another:

So yes, I fell in love with the place. So much so that we scrapped our original travel plans for 2026 (sorry Madagascar) and instead will return to Patagonia for more soul-filling vistas, once-in-a-lifetime animal encounters and glorious solitude that can only be found at this remote, rugged edge of the planet.

And we had some amazing luck with the wildlife…but more on that in future posts.

Until next month….michael

Sources:

Wikipedia: Patagonia

Chilean Patagonia vs. Argentine Patagonia: Which is Right for You?

10 incredible facts about Patagonia

Apple Iphone 14 Pro, 14mm, f/2.2, 1/1250 sec, ISO 40

Aug

31

Lion Tree?

Shot of the Month Posted by Michael / 0 comments

Shot of the Month – August 2024

When on safari my head is always on a swivel as we drive across the savannah. I peer left and right as my eyes scan the bushes and grasses for lions and cheetahs. When near trees I stick my head out the window, strain my neck, and squint my eyes to look up into the canopy in search of a leopard amongst the limbs and shadows. Imagine my surprise on this day in the Serengeti when I looked up and saw….a lion??! What is this lion doing relaxing up on this branch, rather far from terra firma?

Leopards take refuge in trees out of necessity – they live and hunt alone and cannot defend their meals against larger predators like lions and hyenas. Leopards evolved over millennia to be natural tree climbers so they can cache their meals high up in trees to be out of the reach of their thieving competitors.

A leopard with its kill in a tree:

Lions have no such need — they are the largest predators in their habitats and live in prides with 3 to 40 members (average size is 15) allowing them to defend their meals with ease.

And while leopards are perfectly built to climb trees, lions are not. Leopards are relatively light (ranging from about 50 to 160 pounds) and their shoulder blades are proportionally bigger, flatter, and more concave than a lion’s. Lions are built with enormously powerful forequarters and a very stiff back which is useful for wrestling heavyweight prey, such as buffalo to the ground. However, the lion’s powerful build reduces agility and vertical leaping ability, making tree climbing more difficult. Male lions can weigh 400 pounds so jumping out of a tree presents a real risk of dislocating a limb when landing with a thud back on earth.

There are currently about 21 countries with lions and the fact is that the vast majority of said lions never climb a tree. But, lions can learn to become tree climbers when the conditions are juuust right. For example, the lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda are famous for their tree-climbing ways. Why there? Scientists note that the prides in this park tend to be smaller and share the habitat with large herds of buffaloes and elephants. Scampering up the local tree is a good escape plan when faced with a stampede of buffaloes. (See the Queen Elizabeth NP lions here.)

Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania is another location well known for its arboreal-minded lions. Scientists noted that a very heavy rainfall in 1963 created a plague of Stomoxys biting flies and drove the resident lions up trees and down warthog burrows to escape the insects that caused open wounds and deadly infections. Lions have been seen climbing trees in this park ever since.

Tree-climbing lions have also been spotted in the Tarangire and Serengeti National Parks in Tanzania. More recently a lion pride in Kruger National Park in South Africa has been observed climbing trees.

So while seeing a lion in a tree is not common, it also is not unheard of. This behavior is usually based on unique circumstances and local conditions. Lions seem to climb trees to:

Avoid insects
Avoid heat (they can find a nice breeze a bit higher off the ground)
Look for prey
Steal prey from leopards

Lions can only climb trees if their local habitats have trees that are “lion-friendly.” This means trees with strong, low branches that can support cats weighing anywhere from 250 to 400 pounds. For example, the African sycamore fig trees or umbrella acacia thorn trees often have horizontal branches not too far above the ground and tend to be lions’ preferred “jungle gym.”

Once a pride experiences the benefits of tree climbing they can take to it with enthusiasm. The behavior is then passed down from one generation to the next.

You get entire families — adults, youngsters, everyone — up trees. Generation after generation, it really has become a habit to go up in the trees. It just gets entrenched as a culture because it’s fun.”

Dr. Luke Hunter

Lions tend to be much better at climbing a tree than getting down. It can be painful (and hilarious) watching these massive beasts awkwardly trying to exit a tree – the dismount can quickly become a Mr. Bean sketch.

Here is a video with a good summary on how and why lions climb trees:

Here we see lions trying to get a leopard’s kill out of a tree: (You can see how the large male lion struggles at tree climbing)

And here is a crazy interaction between a lion and a leopard in a tree that shows why lions need to be careful to stay on limbs that can support their weight! (The action starts at 0:25 seconds)

Sooo, next time you go tree climbing in your local safari park, look up first to see what may be “lion” around on the branch above. (Really? You didn’t see that coming??)

Until next month……michael

Sources

Wild Cats 101: Why Do Lions Climb Trees?

Why Do Some Lions Climb Trees? A closer look at tree climbing lions

Facts About the Tree Climbing Lion of Tanzania

Why Don’t All Lions Climb Trees? (NY Times)

Nikon Z9, Nikkor Z 100-400 mm (@190mm), f/5, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, EV +0.667