Michael Despines Photography

Oct

31

Brown Bear?

Shot of the Month Posted by Michael / 1 comments

Shot of the Month – October 2022

Whoa, that is a BIG bear. Is it a Grizzly Bear? Or perhaps a Brown Bear?

Seems like a simple enough question, but as I have learned over the years, the classification or naming of critters can be a very, very messy affair.

First, let’s start with “What is a Brown Bear?”

The Brown Bear species (Ursus arctos) is the most widely distributed bear across the globe. They can be found in many countries throughout Europe and Central Asia, China, Canada, and the United States. There are approximately 200,000 brown bears in the world; with Russia having the largest population at 120,000 bears. North America is home to about 55,000 brown bears; wherein Western Canada has roughly 25,000 bears, while the United States has about 30,000. Most of the U.S. brown bears live in Alaska (about 98%) with a small population found in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington. (source)

Next, “What is a Grizzly Bear?”

Grizzly bears are only found in North America and many feel that they are simply brown bears. Some say that they are a sub-species of Brown Bear. Others say they are a separate clade. Yeah, let’s not go down this rabbit hole or we may lose our minds…

In common usage, meaning not using any fancy Latin words, most folks go with this explanation:

The grizzly bear is a kind of brown bear. Many people in North America use the common name “grizzly bear” to refer to the smaller and lighter-colored bear that occurs in interior areas and the term “brown bear” to refer to the larger and typically darker-colored bear in coastal areas.

Did you catch that terrifying nuance? Grizzly bears, as huge as they are, tend to be the SMALLER version of brown bears. Why is that you may wonder? Brown bears, given the “definition” above, tend to live along the coast and therefore have access to salmon which provide a tremendous calorie boost to their diet, allowing them to grow to massive proportions. Have you heard of the Fat Bear Contest (check out this video)? Yeah, those are Brown Bears, who are all getting fat on salmon. Alaskan Brown Bears, like the female I photographed in Katmai NP above, can eat 80-90 pounds of food/day gaining 3-6 pounds of fat each day in preparation for hibernation.

So grizzly bears are just North American brown bears that are found in forests, interior landscapes, and other places where one cannot dine on salmon. Below is one of those “small” grizzlies that I photographed (read more about that here) in Yellowstone NP a few years ago:

Male grizzlies tend to max out around 400 pounds (females at around 250 pounds) while brown bears can reach double that size. Take all this weight talk with a grain of salt as brown bear/grizzly bear size and weight can vary dramatically depending on location/climate/diet/genetics. The Yellowstone grizzly that killed the elk in the image above, Grizzly 791, is one of the biggest seen in the park and weighs about 600 pounds so he obviously did not get the memo about being smaller.

And where does one find the biggest brown bears? That would be on Kodiak Island in Alaska. The Kodiak bear is a recognized sub-species of brown as they have been isolated from other bears for about 12,000 years – since the last ice age. Those bruisers can reach 1,700 pounds. Yelp.

So if you managed to follow all that, we can say, for the most part, that all grizzly bears are brown bears, but not all brown bears are grizzly bears. And for their size, all we can say is that brown bears and grizzlies are always big. And sometimes really big. And other times, terrifyingly big.

And I didn’t even get into the fact that “Brown” bears are only sometimes brown in color (can vary from almost white to dark tan and everything in between)…..but, my head hurts, so let’s save that for another day.

Until next month….m

Sources

Bear Identification

Brown Bear (National Geographic)

Brown Bears (NPS)

Brown Bear (Alaska Fish and Game)

Brown Bear (Wikipedia)

Bears of North America

Grizzly Bear

Nikon D5, Nikon 24-120mm (@ 32mm), f/11, 1/350 sec, ISO 360, +0.333 EV

Sep

30

Elemental Struggle

Shot of the Month Posted by Michael / 2 comments

Shot of the Month – September 2022

I sat in front of my computer scrolling through thousands of images. Scroll. Scroll…….Which image should I write about this month? Scrolling…..scrolling. The photo above crossed my screen and something about the image caught my eye and I stopped.

This image, taken in Yellowstone in 2014, had been on my computer for 8 years and I had done nothing with it. But I hadn’t deleted it yet so I must have seen something of interest way back then. I enlarged the image to fill my screen.

I stared at the photo pondering, “I like this image, but why?” “What does my subconscious see that I can’t put words to?”

I interrogated myself.

Brain: “What is the subject of this photo?”

Me: “It is a picture of bison.”

Brain: “OK, sure, there are bison in the photo. But, it is not a very good image of bison. The bison in the back is completely out of focus. The bison in the front is in sharp focus but we can’t really see his eye so we can’t make much of a connection which is usually essential for a compelling image.”

Me: Sigh, “True”

Brain: “What else??”

Me: “Well, I see a lot of snow. The bison are framed by snow on the ground. The air is full of heavy snowflakes. In fact, one could argue that the snowflakes are the dominant element in this image.”

And then it hit me. (One could say that the answer came into focus, but that would be a terrible photography pun, and I wouldn’t do such a thing…. 🙂 )

This photo captures not a thing, but reveals a relationship. It tells a story about a struggle. About a fight. Bison face many threats to survival – we mostly hear about the challenges they face from predators like wolves and bears. This image however highlights yet another threat they face, this time, from the very environment they live in. Winters in Yellowstone are long and taxing and many animals do not survive them. In fact. wolves tend to thrive in late winter because prey animals like elk and bison are easier to catch due to their weakened condition.

The elements of this image capture that struggle well. Winter is on the attack – the bison in front had its head lowered as it trods forward, enduring the onslaught. Its body is covered in snow, and the heavy snowflakes obscure much of its being. And the bison in the back is completely blurred while the snowflakes falling around him are in sharp focus. The shift in focus drives home the attack on the lumbering beast. Is he losing the battle and simply fading into oblivion?

The bison counter the offensive by taking refuge in and near the river. Why? The grass they need to eat to survive is buried under deep, heavy snow during much of the winter. However, the snow is less deep right along the banks of the river so the bison forage there, as shown below, as they have to expend less energy to reach the grass. Smart.

While not as dramatic as a cheetah chasing a gazelle, the first image nonetheless captures an epic life-and-death struggle that has played out for millennia. The heart-pounding race between gazelle and cat can be over in seconds. Winter’s attack drags on for days. Weeks. Months. Winter’s pursuit is tireless and unyielding. Freezing temperatures. Howling winds. Whiteout snow storms. Treacherous ice. Tons of snow blocking every move. Day after day after day after day…

For their part, the bison have adapted both their bodies and their behavior to give them the best chance for survival. (Sidenote: Alas, the photographer was not well adapted to these conditions. Nearly a decade later I vividly remember how my frozen hands felt like they were on FIRE after shooting this sequence).

Here is the battle in black and white:

Another view of the combatants, first in color:

And in black and white:

Bison in winter, an Elemental Struggle of the ages.

Until next month……m

Nikon D4S, Nikon 600mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO 1000, EV +1.33

Aug

31

Stolen Moments

Shot of the Month Posted by Michael / 1 comments

Shot of the Month – August 2022

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh……ooh, how delicious. I feel like one of those paparazzi photographers spying on the rich and famous. Peering through the bushes with my high-powered lens to capture an illicit embrace. To get this shot I did lie on my back with my lens resting on my knees – it was the only way to shoot through that small opening in the branches and leaves.

What we actually have here is two lovely Cedar Waxwings performing a courtship ritual known as “courtship feeding.” Usually, it goes down like this:

The male goes off and finds a suitable gift – this could be a piece of fruit, an insect, or even just a flower petal.

He flies over to the female and lands on the same branch. He hops, hops, hops his way over next to her.

He offers the gift. If she digs the guy she will accept it. Now she hops, hops, hops down the branch away from the male.

She then hops, hops, hops back over to him. She offers the gift back to the male. He takes it.

And now repeat, many times. Eventually, the female eats the gift.

The male will go off and find another worthwhile gift and the courtship continues. And if all goes well…..well, you know. Baby waxwings…

Below, this time in black and white, we have the same pair handing off another gift:

On a different occasion, I found two waxwings in a similar pose. The birds were highly backlit so it became this silhouette:

Remember this childhood taunt?

Jack and Jill
Sitting in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G!
First comes love
Then comes marriage
Then comes baby
In a baby carriage!

I am starting to get an idea of where that came from…

Ahhh, courtship feeding – a time-tested strategy shared by bros and birds alike.

Until next month…..m

Check out these videos if you want to see some courtship feeding in action:

Courtship-1

Courtship-2

And here is a previous post I did on Cedar Waxwings.

Nikon D4S, Nikon 600 mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO 3200, +0.333 EV

Jul

31

Landscape to Lovers

Shot of the Month Posted by Michael / 1 comments

Shot of the Month – July 2022

The Lime Kiln Lighthouse, shown above, is located on the western side of San Juan Island and is in just the right spot to accentuate a sunset image (#6 on the map below). The lighthouse was built in 1919 and still serves as a navigational beacon to those sailing in the Haro Strait. This location is also known as one of the best places in the world to view whales from land. Orca whales can often be seen swimming by from May to September each year. From this lovely spot, one can also see Minke whales, porpoises, seals, sea lions, otters, and bald eagles.

I arrived at the lighthouse a good hour before sunset to get the lay of the land and try and explore potential compositions. The water was unusually calm and as the sun slowly set I had an amazingly peaceful hour sitting on the rocks listening to the gentle sound of the water caressing the shoreline. Ahhhh….seaside serenity at its best.

Source

As the sun slipped below the horizon the scattered clouds began to explode with color.

The clock had started — Time to MOVE!

Non-photographers may not realize that one does not simply walk up to such a scene, raise the camera, snap a few shots, and go home. No, usually there is an absolute frenzy of activity behind the camera that beguiles the serenity before the lens.

In my case, I was running from one outcropping of rocks to another and frantically adjusting my tripod to find JUST the right position and composition. This tripod leg up a bit. This leg, down a bit. That leg has to go over there. Nope, this leg is now too low. Raise again. Now the horizon is crooked. Adjust the camera. And all that is even before figuring out the proper exposure settings. Once the camera is in the right position I then run through a range of different shutter speeds and apertures to find the best combination that can expose the bright sky while trying to keep the exposure on the building from going too dark. For this image, I also took a series of shots at different exposure levels that I merged later with software to capture the full range of brightness in the scene. For more on how that is done, check out this post I did on photographing a lighthouse in Maine.

Ok, got that particular shot? Now rush over to a different outcropping and do it all again.

With each moment the light is changing and the colors may be getting better, or worse. With each second that is passing, I am scrambling to maximize what the scene is offering in THAT moment.

This race with the light may last mere seconds, or can go on for 45 minutes. The pressure/stress can be intense to seize the fleeting moment before it is gone.

Either way, by the end, I am usually exhausted.

But so much fun!!

Is the running around worth it? Sometimes yes, (usually yes), sometimes not.

On this outing, I captured several scenes that I really liked. In the above image, we have a classic seascape that oozes serenity and calmness. It is like a visual sigh for the soul.

But in the image below, I found a completely different story and feeling:

By moving closer, I still captured a seascape with a dramatic sky, but now I found a more intimate scene as the couple on the right becomes more prominent in the scene and turns this into a love story. The upper image will most likely have the viewer looking outward to the world while the second image will nudge the viewer’s mind inward as s/he remembers a similar sunset embrace.

Photography is about storytelling and by continuing to move around the scene I was able to find two lovely, but very different, stories. On this night, I was able to go from Landscape to Lovers in just a few feet.

Until next month…….

Nikon D850, Nikon 24-120mm (@24 mm), f/10, 1.0 sec, 7 shot Bracket (HDR merge)

Jun

30

Circle of Life

Shot of the Month Posted by Michael / 3 comments

Shot of the Month – June 2022

The natural world is filled with stunning beauty. I am certainly drawn to it and spend much of my free time trying to capture it with my camera. However, surviving in the wild is not for the faint of heart as life in the food chain is an endless battle between predator and prey. Many of us are attracted to the predator as we admire their cunning and specialized skills. Others root for the prey, especially if said prey is cute and cuddly.

In this post, I will share images where the predator was successful. This post will not be for everyone – if you are squeamish and don’t like to witness this harsh reality, I suggest you skip this month’s images.

In 2021 I went on a safari to Kenya that was focused specifically on the big cats. We would spend hours searching for lions, leopards, or cheetahs with hopes of witnessing those epic life-and-death struggles. The trip was so “successful” on that front that by the end we were quite traumatized by the amount of death we witnessed. We definitely experienced PTSD – Post Traumatic Safari Disorder. During a 10-day period, we saw a life-and-death struggle almost every day and sometimes several times a day.

Cheetah Mother and Cubs

We spent many hours over several days with this cheetah mother and her three cubs. The female was absolutely stunning looking and was by far the most impressive cheetah I have ever seen. Cheetahs are often timid and skittish. Not this female. She was powerfully built and walked with a confidence and swagger, unlike anything I have ever seen with a cheetah. Every day she had to find a meal for her growing cubs and we saw her hunt several times. In the image above mom caught a young impala but she did not kill it. Rather, she called her cubs over to have them learn/practice how to suffocate their prey. It was a tough scene to watch as the cubs didn’t know how to effectively apply the neck bite and the death was slow and drawn out. While it was a sad end for the impala, the cheetah mom had again provided essential food for her family and taught her cubs important life skills that they will need if they are going to survive on their own.

Piglets

One morning we drove to a location where we heard that two cheetahs had been spotted. As we approached we saw a couple of other vehicles sitting nearby. We had no idea where the cats were but we surmised that the cats must be sitting or lying in the tall grass in front of us. We stopped the vehicle and prepared ourselves for a long wait. But only five minutes later…

“Holy Crap!!” A warthog mom and her two piglets appeared out of nowhere and trotted down the path towards us not realizing the danger that lurked nearby.

After a brief stop, the warthog family continued down the road. The two cheetahs exploded from the grass. Mom warthog bolted straight ahead while the piglets ran in the opposite direction. The two cheetahs began chasing Mom but after a few yards, they stopped. The cats realized that the easier meal was behind them. The cheetahs changed direction and moments later each had caught a piglet.

In the blink of an eye, the mother warthog lost her entire family. In this image, we see the two cheetahs fighting over one of the piglets:

Young Topi and Young Lion

Near the end of a long day, we found a pride of lions stalking a herd of Topi that was about 100 yards in front of our vehicle, a bit off to the right.

While waiting I looked behind our vehicle and saw an adult Topi that seemed to be bleeding. I looked through the binoculars and saw blood on her rump. I said, “Hey look, that adult must have been attacked by a lion but managed to escape with those fresh wounds.” My partner took the binoculars and said, “No, she just gave birth, the newborn is lying just nearby. That blood is the afterbirth.” What a wonderful surprise.

Our joy was short-lived.

In the next moment, a young lion cub appeared and ran over and grabbed the newborn calf – most likely his first kill as a very young lion. The young calf’s “circle of life” was complete in just a few minutes and this emotional roller coaster left us reeling as we careened from joy to horror in seconds.

It was quite dark when I shot this image so the shutter speed was quite slow – the motion blur helps soften this Shakespearean tragedy – a bit. This was a particularly traumatic day – our day started with the warthog piglets and ended with the topi calf.

But the day had one last surprise. While watching the young lion run off with the topi calf we heard a commotion back out in front of our vehicle. We drove over and found that the stalking lion had just captured an adult topi.

A very tough day for the topi herd.

But don’t let these selected stories mislead you – we saw multiple other encounters where the prey won the day. Life is a struggle for all wildlife, predator and prey alike. In reality, the vast majority of predator hunts end in failure. Likewise, most young lions, leopards, and cheetah cubs never make it to adulthood.

I admire the beauty in both sides of the struggle. And I take solace that with each life lost, the “sacrifice” allows others to survive and keep the ecosystem in balance.

Ok, I promise, next month, definitely something cute and cuddly…

Cheetah Mom with Cubs (Nikon D4S, Nikon 200-400mm, f/5, 1/4000s, ISO 720

31

Brown Bear?

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Elemental Struggle

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Stolen Moments

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Landscape to Lovers

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Circle of Life

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