A wildlife photographer who planned to spend the winter living in a remote trailer in the wilderness of northeastern B.C. narrowly escaped starving to death after he failed to pack enough provisions.
Hudson’s Hope RCMP say the 42-year-old man was trapped for more than two weeks without food in the Carbon Creek area near Williston Lake.
Police and rescue volunteers found the hungry man on Feb. 1, about 36 kilometres from the W.A.C. Bennett Dam, according to Hudson’s Hope RCMP Cpl. Darren Woroshelo.
“He’d misjudged the amount of provisions he’d need to make it through the winter. He’d been without food for, I believe, 17 days,” said Woroshelo.
I’m not sure who is crazier, this guy or the African photographer I blogged about earlier who caught three tropical diseases and risked being eaten by lions while immersing himself in a waterhole to photograph drinking animals. Outdoor photographers can be a odd bunch, but, wow.
I made a quick trip to Longmont to visit my parents. Though I was ostensibly there to see them, I couldn’t resist a quick detour to a nearby open space while my kids were playing with Grandma. I’m glad I went! There were many subjects, including ducks, geese, and gulls. As a bonus, the ducks were much less skittish than my previous (frustrating) duck photography outing. The Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata), in particular, were great. As always, click on any image in the post for a larger version.
The Ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis) were everywhere. I like the sweet light on this bird against the dark clouds.
The Common Goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) would not get close enough for a frame filling shot, so I tried for a wider perspective. It is harder than one might guess to get all three ducks facing the same direction.
I love shooting in raking light (i.e. off of the sun angle). The catch light and “glowing” feet make this one work. Be sure to click on the image to see it full size.
I’m not certain what is going on with this bird. Molting? Juvenile?
Though it may not be apparent from the web-sized jpeg, the sharpness and detail in this image is breathtaking. Great light, perfect head angle, and the water droplet off the beak make this one of my favorite shoveler portraits.
Finally, a Common Merganser (Mergus merganser). This is one of the last images of the day. I like how the setting sun spotlights the bird’s head while its body is hidden in shadow.
South African Photographer Greg du Toit illustrates the fine line between devotion to photography and madness. From an article in The Sun:
SUPERHUMAN snapper Greg du Toit was so determined to photograph wild lions drinking he sat SUBMERGED in their watering hole — for THREE months.
These incredible pictures show that Greg’s blood, sweat and tears approach to his work — three hours per day for seven days a week in the water — was worth the wait.
But it came at a huge price for the photographer who was diagnosed with horrific tropical diseases Bilharzia, Malaria and several parasites, which he soaked up through the dirty water in the drinking hole.
To top things off, du Toit was at serious risk of being eaten by the lions he was photographing. On the other hand, his images are fantastic. Check out the slideshow in the linked article. Even better are the photos on du Toit’s website. The African Anomaly gallery is particularly good. Worth a look
I visited my favorite fox spot during a recent snow storm. The foxes were nowhere to be found, but rather than go home empty, I spent some time photographing the local waterfowl. I ordinarily would have not given the Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) a second look. However, the heavy snow gave me an opportunity to create some goose images that were not merely documentary, but said something about the animals persevering through harsh conditions. As an added bonus, the snow created great, clean backgrounds.
I also shot these Common Goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) taking flight. Not really enough light for flight photography, but the blurs work.
See something you like? Have a question? Please leave a comment.
I confess to have a soft spot for blurred images. Here’s a great set of Scottish blurs by Ted Leeming and Morag Paterson, courtesy of the Luminous Landscape. The first image in particular is stunning.
I promise to get back to posting my own work soon.
Photographer Adrian Groves captured some amazing images of a kingfisher diving underwater to catch a minnow. Wow. Amazing work of one of my favorite (but least photographed) species.
(Note: I have chosen to respect Groves’ copyright by refraining from posting his images here.)
I was looking for a perch for a songbird setup a la Alan Murphy. Never had much luck with the birds, but this is a pretty good consolation prize. This is a tiny bud from one of our bushes (maybe 1/4″ across). In order to get the whole thing sharp I stacked a number of images using Helicon Focus. I converted to monochrome and toned the image using Photoshop and a custom tone curve.
Went back for another crack at the many ducks wintering on the Platte. The ducks were very skittish (and the gunfire from adjacent hunting areas didn’t help matters). Still, I’m pleased to come away with this image for Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata). Hopefully I can improve my stalking technique and put a lens on some other ducks.
I went looking for ducks on the Platte River this morning. I found a great many ducks but they were remarkably skittish. I plan to try again with a bind, but even without one I still came away with a couple of reasonably good images, including this photo of a Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) taking flight. Light levels were too low for sharp images of birds in flight, so I went for a slightly blurred look instead. As always, click on the image for a larger/sharper version.
I just fixed my RSS Feed to show the entire post (with images). The thumbnail galleries still look a little funky, but I’m working on it. Let me know if you have any other issues with the feed.
I got up very early on Christmas Eve to shoot at my favorite spot. It was so cold that I couldn’t find many animals to photograph, but the sun playing through the mist from Clear Creek more than made up for the lack of animate subjects. The first image is a straight-from-the camera image. The second is a monochrome image that I toned using a custom tone curve.
I tent to prefer the first image, mostly because I think the composition is stronger, though (obviously) I liked the second enough to post it. Please post a comment and let me know which you prefer.
I love shooting red foxes in the snow — their fur really pops against the white background, and fresh blanket of snow can simplify an otherwise bushy/busy background. Here are a couple of particularly good images from a recent trip to my fox spot. Remarkably, the fox above spent at least ten minutes laying in the snow watching me take his photograph.
This is my favorite fox composition – fox running toward the camera, seemingly intend on taking a bite out of the photographer.
I like the colorful, sunlit background on this image.
If this image wasn’t backlit it would be perfect. I wind up with more backlit fox images than I would expect, mostly because the foxes are reluctant to look toward the bring sun.
I finally overcame my ambivalence about the new Canon 7D and bought one. I haven’t used it enough yet to say definitively that it has no problems with autofocus or noise, but images like this certainly make me think that the sharpness/resolution concerns are overstated. It may not be entirely apparent from this web-sized jpeg, but there is amazing detail in this Chickadee’s feathers. So far, so good.
