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

Jul

31

Waiting for a Ride

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Shot of the Month – July 2016

Atlantic Loon, Vermont - USA (7317)

 

It was over in an instant.  This “Awwwwwl”-inspiring shot of an Atlantic Loon chick riding on its parent’s back was taken in 1/1,000th of a second.  Sounds easy and pretty painless.  But not so fast Speed Racer — it also took me four years to get my kayak in the right spot to capture this scene.

Why so long you ask?  Let’s break it down.

Atlantic Loons, aka Common Loons, spend the spring and summer on lakes and ponds in Canada and Northern US where they breed and raise the next generation of aquatic birds.  During the first 2 weeks of life, the tiny chicks can often be found riding on the backs of the adults.  Besides being incredibly cute, this behavior helps promote the survival of the wee birds.  When so small the chicks are very buoyant and they have a hard time maneuvering in the water on their own.  Keeping the chicks off the water also helps avoid the dangers from below, such as from large-mouth bass, and avoid danger from above in the form of Bald Eagles (Source).  I have often seen a Bald Eagle circle above a loon family waiting for a chance to pick off a chick.  Also during the first two weeks of life, the loon chicks are not able to effectively regulate their body heat and they lose a lot of heat through their feet when in the water.  Riding on a parent’s back helps keep them warm and if necessary the chicks can seek shelter under a protective wing (Source), as seen below:

Atlantic Loon, Vermont (2967)

So my challenge was to be in the right place at the right time to capture a behavior that only takes place during just a part of a two-week window each year.  And in good light, of course.

In year 1 I had just moved to Vermont and I didn’t know anything about loons, their behavior, where to find them, etc.  By the time I discovered my first mating pair, it was too late in the summer and the chicks were too big for back riding.  Perhaps next year.

In year 2 I returned to the same pond and monitored the breeding pair as they built their nest and incubated the eggs.  For some reason the eggs failed and no chicks.  Sad.  Maybe next year.

By year 3 I was now tracking loons at two different ponds.  In pond #1 the nest was flooded during a thunderstorm and the eggs were lost. At the second pond, I arrived too late (working for a living often gets in the way of photography) and I missed the behavior.  Well, there is always next year…..

In year 4 I was tracking loons in three different ponds.  In site #1 the nest failed.  In site #2 the pair was successful and I managed to catch a couple of days of the behavior and captured a few good shots.  In site #3 I found the chicks on what must have been day 2 or day 3 of their young lives.  Bingo!!  For the next 10 days, I returned to the pond before sunrise each morning and spent a few hours with the loon family before heading off to work.

It was a magical two weeks as I had the chance to glimpse through a fleeting window of opportunity and share in the loons’ first weeks of life.   The experience was definitely a highlight of my time living in New England!

And the image was well worth the 126,144,000.001 second wait.

Until next month….m

 

 

Nikon D4S, Nikon 600 mm, 1.4 TC (effective 850mm), f/8, 1/1000 s, ISO 2500, +0.333 EV, handheld from a kayak