Michael Despines Photography

Jan

23

10 for 21

Annual Summary Posted by Michael / 14 comments

Time to look back at 2021 with a collection of images that summarize my year of photography. This year I will post them in chronological order. (Click on an image to see it larger)

1. In January I had been tracking the weather forecasts for the Painted Hills in Oregon and when I saw a chance of snow I hopped in the car and drove 7 hours to reach the site. Alas, no snow to highlight these colorful peaks but the clouds and dark sky really helped make the photo. I drove back the next night (this location is best shot at sunset) through treacherous fog, and snow – sometimes going 10 miles/hour or less for long periods of time on winding mountain roads. Ugh — brutal but at least I was rewarded with a nice image for my efforts.

2. In May I escaped to San Juan Island in Washington State for a week to photograph foxes. Here we see a lovely female red fox (Silver Morph) with one of her pups.

3. Each year from mid-May to early July bald eagles congregate at Hood Canal in Washington to feast on spawning midshipman fish. I made a few visits and captured this mid-air discussion

4. In June I made another trip to San Juan Island for some kayaking and while there I got this nice image of the Lime Kiln Lighthouse.

5. Also in June I shot this beauty outside of our kitchen window! (Male Anna’s Hummingbird)

For the next 3 images I had to go a bit futher afield. We spent a glorious 10 days at the Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya in September. I had lived in Kenya many years ago and it had been 15 years since I had visited Masai Mara. There is still no place like it on the planet to see big cats.

6. I love this unique photo – we had 12 giraffe walk past us at sunset. They got all bunched up as a family of cheetahs was sitting nearby and the giraffes were watching them closely. In this image the sun had fallen below the horizon and we were left with just shades of blue.

7. We spent alot of time with this mother cheetah during our trip. She was one of the most powerful cheetahs I have ever seen and exuded confidence. In this image she is waiting out a heavy rainstorm.

8. We had tremendous luck in spotting leopards on our trip — during our stay we found 3 females with a cub (so that is 6 leopards in total). In this image we see a mother leopard playing with her cub just after sunrise.

The last two images are from the Grand Teton National Park – I spent 10 days there in December.

9. In this image I slowed down the shutter speed to highlight the falling snow and give a sense of the conditions that moose endure during the winter here.

10. In this image a unique view of moose with some beautiful side light.

Let me know your favorite in the comments below.

Hope you have a wonderful 2022!

michael

Dec

31

Bright Bird

Shot of the Month Posted by Michael / 0 comments

Shot of the Month – December 2021

Capturing a good image of an all black bird is quite tough. Exposing properly to bring out the detail in the black feathers usually leaves the rest of the image overexposed. This image of a crow, captured in Wyoming, is one of the few times the lighting worked out.

I love the simplicity of the composition and the basic “primary” colors in this scene — simple but bold blue, black, and white. Of course these are not true primary colors – as we know from elementary school the three primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. But I think you get my drift.

I have to also note that I am only about 90% confident that this is a crow, which is a member of the Corvidae family. Also in this family is the Raven which looks very similar though ravens are usually larger, sound a bit different, and have a few other different physical traits. Here is a good video that highlights the key differences and clues on how to identify a Crow from a Raven.

Given the shorter, even-shaped bill, I am going with crow for my image.

As you may have heard, crows are incredibly intelligent and one of the few animals able to use tools. Watch the video below, it is one of my all-time favorites as it clearly demonstrates the mind- boggling problem-solving skills of crows.

There you have it – a bright image of a very bright bird.

Until next month….

Nikon D4S, Nikon 200-400mm (@400mm), f/8, 1/1500 sec, ISO 400, -0.667 EV

Nov

30

Wing It

Shot of the Month Posted by Michael / 0 comments

Shot of the Month – November 2021

This month a dash of color to help counter the winter doldrums – here we see a lovely female Ruby-throated Hummingbird investigating the flowering Liatris Spicata (Blazing Star) plant.

You will notice that the wings off the hummingbird are blurred in my images. I actually like this look as it acurately reflects how we see hummingbirds with our eyes. And it adds to the “fairy” look – And what is more fairy-esque than these wee flying wonders?

Hummingbirds are tremendous flyers and can fly horizontally, backwards, vertically and can hover – the smaller the hummingbird the faster the wing beat to keep them aloft. The Ruby-throated humming bird shown here beats her wings about 50 times each second. A rufous humminbird’s wing beat is about 52-62 wingbeats per second. The giant hummingbird of the Andes (about the size of a Cardinal!!) has a wingbeat of just 12 beats/second. The tiny bee hummingbird of Cuba, the smallest bird on earth at just two inches in length, beats its wings 80 times per second. (Source)

Capturing an image of a hummingbird with the wings motionless is possible but requires a very fast shutter speed or the use of one or more flashes. Some photographers are quite adament about taking images of hummingbirds with the wings motionless and will go so far as to create mini “studios” to make it possible. In these setups one puts a feeder on a table or hangs it from a stand, sometimes amongst or behind flowers. From here you surround the area with 4 to 5 flashes set to expose the scene so quickly that the wing motion appears static. Sometimes a painted backdrop is added to ensure that the background color is just right. Quite a bit of tinkering may be needed to deterime the proper location of each flash to ensure that the scene is properly lit. You also need to spend some time to dial in the appropriate power output of each flash to get the right exposure. The feeder is essential to ensure that the hummingbird comes back to the exact same location for the specific lighting setup that you have created. Here is an example of one home setup:

Source

In countries where hummingbirds are plentyful, say Costa Rica or Ecuador, you can actually book a photo tour where the guides will create elaborate hummingbird setups – all you have to do is show up, connect your camera to the flashes and snap away.

It’s all a bit much for me – I am not quite that motivated to get the “perfect” shot of a hummingbird and prefer to take my chances in the “wild.” In the images above I actually did use one flash but as you can see it didn’t do much to help stop the wing movement (I didn’t really know what I was doing).

Here we have a free range Anna’s Hummingbird that I shot with natural light in our garden:

But hey, who I am to judge? If you are passionate about hummingbird flash photography, go for it. If you want more information on how to set up such a setup, look here:

Hummingbird Flash Set-up Guide

And here is a video of a guy that walks you through how he puts together his setup.

And here is an example of a hummingbird photo tour to Ecuador.

There you go – the ins and outs of hummingbird photography. You can go hardcore studio lighting or you can just “wing” it, uh, so to speak.

Until next month…..m

Nikon 300S, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 (@ 200mm @ f/4), ISO 800 1/250 sec.

Oct

31

Up Front for the Win

Shot of the Month Posted by Michael / 2 comments

Shot of the Month – October 2021

Any great image starts with great light. The best light for nature photography can be found when the sun is low in the sky so usually around sunrise or sunset. At those times the light is filled with wonderful warm hues that humans really dig. Common advice for beginning photographers is to position yourself such that your shadow is pointing toward the subject making it “Front Lit.” With the sun behind you the light will fall evenly on your subject and help avoid highlights or shadows that can complicate making a proper exposure. With the amazing technology in modern cameras it is almost impossible to get the exposure wrong on a front lit subject. So even in “Program” mode, where the camera makes all the exposure decisions for you, you are more than likely going to get a properly exposed image.

Which is not the same as getting a compelling image.

One critique of front-lit images is that they can be a bit flat and lack depth, especially for landscape images. So while shooting front-lit subjects helps deal with the challenges of exposure, a great image still needs strong composition and/or skilled use of contrast, color, leading lines, etc.

In the image above, late afternoon light is casting a wonderful warm glow on the giraffe. I purposely shot this image from below and waited for the giraffe to reach a point where he would stand tall above the horizon in sharp contrast to the dark, brooding sky in the background. The exposure was a no brainer but we worked pretty hard to find the right spot to wait for the elements of the composition to line up and elevate this front-lit shot to something a bit more special.

Generally you want to avoid shooting in the middle of the day as the front light at this time is harsh and will produce difficult shadows on your subject. Either go home for a rest until the light gets better or explore compositions that will work in black and white.

Outdoor Portrait Tip: Front lighting works well for portraits of family and friends though the bright light can be tough on your subjects. Two potential solutions:

Once your subjects are in place, ask them to close their eyes. This will avoid burning out their retinas as you set up the shot. Once you are ready ask them to open their eyes and smile. Click. Lovely image with no squinting.
Find some shade and have your subjects stand there. The even light will work well and no eye strain for your subjects.

When in doubt, use front lighting to get the shot. Once you have that shot, time to explore more dramatic light – back lighting and side lighting. These lighting situations are tougher to expose properly but when done right can provide stunning results.

We’ll shine light on those topics on another day (see what I did there?).

All the best…..michael

Nikon D5, Nikon 600mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO 100, EV -0.667

Sep

30

Art?

Shot of the Month Posted by Michael / 3 comments

Shot of the Month – September 2021

Is this image Art? And if it is, does that make me an “Arrrteeest”?

Photography was invented in 1826 (almost 200 years ago) and since that time the “Is photography art?” debate has raged on. This may surprise you given that photography is generally accepted today as Art, but this is a fairly recent phenomenon. How recent? Most museums only began to collect and display photographs in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Did you know that there are seven traditional forms of art?

Me neither. Photography is not among that list (scroll to the end to see the original seven).

So what is art? The Cambridge Dictionary says:

the making or doing of something whose purpose is to bring pleasure to people through their enjoyment of what is beautiful and interesting, or things often made for this purpose, such as paintings, drawings, or sculptures

I do strive to bring people pleasure with my images so perhaps I am trying to be an artist. Painting and sculpture use essential elements and principles such as line, shape, form, texture, balance, asymmetric balance, color, size, depth, light, positive space, and negative space.

Hmmn, interesting. I also consider many of these elements when I raise the camera to my eye. In fact, on an outing I may spend hours waiting to get the right mix of these elements in place before taking a single image.

As a photographer I spend much of my time trying to showcase the work of the world’s greatest artist – Mother Nature. Each day she throws together a fabulous mix of flora and fauna draped in captivating colors and hues. Every day, across the planet she is producing one masterpiece after another.

If I do my job correctly and get all the technical stuff right — set the right aperture, dial in the shutter speed, and compose the image well then Mother Nature will do the rest and we get some beautiful images that hint at the wonders of the natural world.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines art as:

the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects.

I can say that I am a better photographer than I was 30 years ago – even this old dog has acquired a certain level of skill and creative vision to help capture Mother Nature at her best.

And some days I use a bit of “creative imagination” to manipulate an image to form something beyond what I witnessed. As in the photo above, converting it to black and white transforms a “mere” pretty picture of a cheetah into a portal that connects the viewer with feelings and mood a bit more universal.

In the color version we have a shared viewing experience as we all gaze outward at the beautiful scene. The B&W version may offer a more individual, internal journey and reaction that can have very little to do with a cheetah sitting in a driving rainstorm, on a continent far, far away.

The realistic color version connects us to nature, while the B&W version connects us to ourselves – perhaps reminding us of the storms that we weathered in our lives and how we persevered.

Wow, if I keep rambling like that I will have to get a turtleneck sweater, beret, and start smoking little French cigarettes.

Seems all a bit highfalutin for this small town boy (Art, Schmart). All I can say is, if you find joy, or a shared sense of awe, or brief respite from a troubled day with one of my photos, whether it be Art or something else, then I consider my time well spent.

Until next month….michael

Were you able to remember/guess the original, traditional forms of art? They are: