Dec

31

Just Chill’n…

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Shot of the Month – December 2016

American Bison, Yellowstone NP (5773)One look at this image and most of us shudder with cold in sympathy for this poor beast.  Some might even clamor — “Help that poor animal, he must be freezing to death.”  I am a real wimp when it comes to the cold and I normally walk around the house wearing multiple layers and a fleece — I seem to always be cold.  So, upon seeing this bison in Yellowstone NP, standing in deep snow and generally covered in the white stuff, I felt quite despondent for him.

Well, dear friends, the nature science folks tell us that we can all relax.  Bison have evolved over millions of years to deal with this type of weather.  Our human concepts of what is cold simply don’t really apply in the bison world.  When I photographed this bison I was standing in waist-deep snow and it was about 16° Fahrenheit.  There was also a gusty wind that would swirl about causing mini blizzards every few minutes such that I would lose sight of this massive beast for a few seconds at a time.  In Yellowstone, a temperature of 16° F is considered “moderate” — almost balmy conditions considering that temperatures can easily drop down to -30° F and beyond.

I have been told by park officials that bison don’t feel the cold until it reaches about -40° F.  Nope, not a typo.  In the winter a bison will grow a coat of woolly underfur with coarse guard hairs that protects them from the elements.  This rich coat has 8 times the number of hair follicles compared to cattle.  The fur is thickest on the bison’s head, on the front of their body and on their forelegs. When the wind blows us humans will often turn our backs to the wind to avoid the worst of it.  Bison have no need for such contortions; given their full fur defense they are quite content to face directly into the onslaught.  The bison swings its massive head into the snow to clear the way so that it can eat the grass that lies beneath — the body is so well insulated that the snow does not melt as you can see in this photo.

So, now you know, the next time you see what looks like a poor, freezing bison, you can rest assured that he is most likely doing just fine and is rather, just chillin.

Until next month….michael

🙂

 

 

Nikon D4S, Nikon 600mm, 1.4 x TC  (effective 850mm), f/9, 1/640 s, +1 EV, ISO 500

Nov

30

Disappearing Pika

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Shot of the Month – November 2016

Pika, Yellowstone NP (6242)

For someone who doesn’t believe in climate change then karma would dictate that said person be reincarnated as a Pika.  But before we get to the hot topic at hand, what the heck is a Pika you might ask.  I think Pika is an acronym for Probably the most Incredibly Kute Animal.  Though, I might be wrong on that.

The Pika is an incredibly cuddly and cute fur ball found amongst the highest mountain ecosystems around the world.  “Fur ball” is pretty accurate as a Pika’s body is quite round and she doesn’t have a tail.  There are about 30 species of Pika in the world (mainly Asia, North America, and parts of Eastern Europe) with one species found in the United States.  The American Pika can be found in Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, California, and New Mexico.  The fine lass (could be a chap, I have no way of knowing) above was photographed in Yellowstone NP.

The Pika is well adapted to surviving in alpine mountain ecosystems which are typically windswept, treeless, and frigid.  The alpine zone only represents about 5 percent of the planet’s surface and thanks to climate change, this habitat is disappearing fast.  As the mountain tops warm the vegetation changes, the snowpack melts and new predators and pests move in.  Most mountain habitats in the Western US have warmed by at least 1 degree F in the last hundred years.  In the next hundred years, the temperatures are expected to rise by another 4.5 to 14 degrees.

Pikas literally cannot take the heat.  Expose a Pika to temperatures above 78 degrees and she will die within six hours.  Yes, really.

In Oregon and Nevada Pikas have disappeared from 1/3 of their previously known habitat.  Since the early 1900’s the Pika has disappeared from 8 of the 25 U.S. mountain ranges where they previously lived.  Pikas keep climbing higher but once they reach the top of the mountains, they can’t go any higher to escape the deadly heat.

Expect to see the Pika on the Endangered Species list soon.  And given current trends, the Pika may become the first known species in the US to go extinct from climate change.

 

As they say, karma is a b****.

 

Until next month….m

 

Nikon D4S, Nikon 600mm w 1.4x TC (@ 850mm), 1/750s, f/5.6, ISO 720

Oct

31

Shades of Gray

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Shot of the Month – October 2016

Spider Web, Vermont (0374)

 

Last month’s image was a cacophony of color amongst the trees.  This month’s image captures the quiet stillness of shades of gray by the waters edge.  I love how the image transitions from pure white in the upper left corner through shades of gray to deep black in the lower right corner of the image. On this sunless morning in Vermont the lake was quiet and there was no wildlife to be found.  While drifting along in my kayak, with not much to do, I came upon this spider’s web and decided to experiment and see what I could come up with.  While shooting this image my main focus was on trying to capture the glistening dew drops on the spider’s lair.  I paddled around and around trying every position imaginable until I found the angle that worked best.  The image was shot with a point-and-shoot camera (Canon G1X).

Converting the photo to black and white was rather easy given that there was virtually no color to be found in the scene.  Other than the two corners, most of the image is filled with shades of gray.

Turns out that creating gray can be a rather complicated affair. In the art world painters create different shades of gray by mixing black and white paint in different proportions.  Want a darker gray?  Add more black.  Lighter gray?  Add more white.  You get the idea.  A mixture of just black and white creates a “neutral gray.”  Add a bit of yellow, orange or red and you can add a warm cast and create a “warm gray.” Add a bit of green, blue, or violet and you can get a “cool gray.”

In the world of print the CMYK color model is used — cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.  All colors are made from a combination of these four colors.  To make gray you add equal amounts of cyan, magenta and yellow.

TV and computer screens use a RGB color model – red, green and blue.  Red, green and blue light at full intensity on the black screen makes white; by lowering the intensity one can create shades of gray.

On this particular day mother nature made graduations of gray by blocking out the sun with a heavy shroud of fog with a dab of dew thrown in for good measure.

 

 

I have to say, I am a big fan of her work……

 

Until next month…

 

Canon Powershot G1 X, @ 17.2 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 s, ISO 200,

Sep

30

Autumnly Abstract

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Shot of the Month – September 2016

Autumn Abstract (5109)

If you dig color then autumn in New England is the place to be.  For a few glorious weeks, your entire world becomes a crazed canvas of exploding greens, yellows, oranges, and reds.  As a photographer, I have often struggled to capture the scale and audacity of the landscapes that Mother Nature majestically painted each year.  The colors in the image never seemed to quite capture the radiance and intensity that assaulted (in the most pleasant manner, mind you) my eye.  The scale was always far too pedestrian — either too close, too far, or just never quite right to inspire and capture the sense of awe I felt in the field.

However, last fall I experimented with a motion blur technique that I read about in one of my photography magazines — the Vertical Pan.  For the first time, I created images that conveyed the cacophony of color that enveloped me on my walks through the woods.  Realism is nice, but these images much better reflect the imprint these experiences have left on my being.

There are three parts to this technique:

Find a Scene that Strikes Your Fancy

Get out there and walk around and look for scenes with bold colors, or great contrast in texture, or some cool shaped tree trunks, or a nice mix of colors…or…or…

Low Shutter Speed

The slower the shutter speed, the greater the blur and the more abstract the image.  I experimented with shutter speeds that ranged from 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/10, 1/20, and 1/30th of a second.  There is no right speed.  It depends on the scene before you and the look that you are going for.  To lower the shutter speed you can set your ISO at its minimum and then close your aperture till you get the shutter speed that you want.  On bright days, you may need to use a polarizing filter to help slow things down, or you can use a neutral density filter to reduce the light to your camera sensor to get slower shutter speeds.

Move the Camera

Point your camera at the scene of choice and lock the focus.  Then, as you press the shutter release button to expose the image tilt the camera down with a smooth motion.  Again, you will need to experiment to find the right mix.  You can tilt slowly, quickly, or somewhere in between.  Sometimes I begin the pan before I release the shutter button.  You can pan down (my usual preference), up, or to the side.

There are endless possibilities.  Keep playing with the shutter speeds as you vary your movement of the camera.  Most will look like junk.  Delete and move on.

Others will be, well, magical.

(I recommend viewing the images below on the biggest screen you can find.  And once you click on one, you can move through the series easily by using your right or left arrow button.)

Until next month…..m

 

 

 

Nikon D4S, Nikkor 28-105mm (@ 105mm), f/29, 1/8 s, ISO 400

 

 

 

Aug

31

A Snake!

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Shot of the Month – August 2016

Common Garter Snake, Baxter State Park, Maine (4269)

Snakes tend not to be a crowd favorite but nature’s beauty comes in many sizes and shapes.  Ok, while these Common Garter Snakes (CGS), photographed in Baxter State Park in Maine are not adorable, nor cuddly, I think that they do have a certain charisma and geometric charm about them.

If you get out in the woods, even a little bit, there is a good chance that you have seen a garter snake.  They are by far the most common snake in North America and can be found from Canada to Florida, from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast, and most places in between.  The CGS is quite adaptable and can live in forests, fields, prairies, streams, wetlands, meadows, marshes, and ponds – it is often found near water.  These snakes are quite harmless though some species of garter snake have a mild neurotoxic venom that may help to immobilize its prey, but its bite is harmless to humans.

Common garter snakes are thin and tend to be about 22 inches in length and rarely get longer than four feet in length.  Given their relative small size the CGS is often preyed upon by large fish, hawks, crows, bears, turtles, birds, foxes, squirrels, raccoons, bullfrogs, and some other snakes.

I know that some people get very afraid when they see a snake.  Trust me, this fellow is not a threat.  His main prey is, are you ready for this? – earthworms.  Yep, this snake is a viscous killer of, Common Garter Snake (0203)earthworms.  See, now don’t you feel a bit silly?   CGS are also very good swimmers and will hunt small fish, frogs, tadpoles, leeches, insects, slugs, and crayfish.  They will also hunt for small mammals and birds when possible.

From the photo, you might deduce that all CGS are small, brown, striped snakes.  Alas, life is not that simple.  Turns out that there is tremendous variability in the appearance of the CGS and you may find them adorned in green, blue, yellow, gold, red, orange, brown (as above), and black.  The CGS is just one out of thirty species of garter snakes that exist, not to mention the various sub-species, so figuring out which is which can be tricky.  Check local reference guides for the state where you saw the snake for more precision on the colors typically found there.

So the next time you are in the woods and you see one of these fellas, take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy one of nature’s lesser-appreciated beauties.

 

Until next month…..m

 

 

Nikon D4S, Nikon 70-200mm @ 200mm, f/11, 1/60 s, ISO 400