I am a great fan of Andy Rouse’s photography, and graphically this is a wonderful departure from the typical, boring wildlife slideshow. (I understand that Rouse uses this as an intro for his live wildlife photography presentations). Not sure about that background music though! Certainly the first time I’ve head a techno/dance track in this context. Andy has a short writeup of the software he used to create the slideshow on his blog. Unfortunately I don’t see a permalink to the post in question.
Admittedly, I have spent too much time lately playing with Lightroom presets, as evidenced by this post and my earlier post of an abandoned building in Crystal, Colorado. I find that using presets is a great way of discovering a hidden side to some images, including this image of a plant from Alcatraz Island, California. The image above is my favorite interpretation, though I like the alternate interpretation and original images below as well.
These images are from a recent trip to Rocky Mountain National Park to capture the rutting elk Unfortunately I couldn’t get the bull above in good light with a nice background. The image above is a little different from the standard elk image, but I like the way that it captures the aggression and hormone-fueled drama of the rut. Click on the image for a larger version, and please post a comment.
Unlike the bull, this cow cooperated by posing in front of a nice background in good light. It’s easy to overlook the females when there are big-antlered bulls around, but photographs of the cows show a completely different “personality” or “feel” to the elk. I think this one works.
I revisited my favorite fox place after a long hiatus. It was hit hard by the severe thunderstorm earlier this summer — trees down everywhere, and many fewer foxes. It was sobering to see the landscape so radically altered. On the bright side (pun not intended) the absence of trees should improve the photography by letting more light through. In any event, here are a couple of my favorite images from the trip. Click for a larger version.
The regulars in the open space can pick the foxes out by name. (Fortunately) I don’t spend quite that much time there, but I do recognize this badly scarred fox. He always seems to hang out in the same place on the trail. He was posing nicely until someone came by with their dog, then asked what we were photographing. Very frustrating.
To make this image, I desaturated every color but red and burned down the edges. Like it? Hate it? Post a comment.
This is a remarkable video of National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen’s encounter with a leopard seal in Antarctica. Needless to say, Nicklen was a tad more bold with the seal than I would have been! Nickeln’s photography isn’t bad either. I think I’m going to purchase a copy of his book, Polar Obsession.
When I migrated my old site over to the current one, I left out a number of photos that do not represent my best work. This mallard image didn’t make the cut. My brother likes this one enough, however, to complain that he could no longer find it. By request (and after more carefully evaluating the image) I’ve added it back to the bird portfolio.
These are few images from Alcatraz Prison near San Francisco. These images convey the duality of the island — a crumbling island prison surrounded by the beautiful — and free — San Francisco Bay. As always, click on the photos for a larger view.
I was fortunate to spend last Sunday morning shooting at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR with Mark and Claudia Brown. We were hoping to find the huge mule deer buck I saw the week before. We couldn’t find him, but still came away with a couple of nice images. As is apparent from a couple of these photos, I was trying hard to make a nice deer “headshot” portrait with a clean background. In retrospect, though, I think I should have tried a little wider lens for the shoot. Nonetheless, I am pleased with these images. Getting a decent background for these deer is a perennial challenge.
Mark and Claudia were nice enough to let me try their 7D’s during the trip. Wow — the viewfinder is gorgeous, and I could sure use the 18MP for my large prints. Very tempting, though Darwin Wiggett’s post about the 7D producing soft images gives me pause. I can’t quite decide whether to get a new 7D or a used 1DMIII.
Here are a couple of additional images from the trip; click on the image for a larger version:
This is very large Mulie from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR. The deer rut is on, so these big guys are much easier to find than usual. I like the framing effect of the trees in this image. Now only if the deer had a slightly more regal pose . . . . As always, click on on the photo for a larger version
I am nearly caught up with my backlog of photo editing, so I am finally able to post current images rather than photos from earlier in the year. I went looking for foxes this morning, but didn’t see a single one. This Ring-billed gull was a nice consolation prize, though. Twice I saw him swoop over the water, make a plunging dive from four or five feet up, and emerge with a crayfish in his bill. He was less adept at actually eating the crayfish, and repeatedly dropped it in the water and then plucked it out again. The action was great, though it was difficult to make an image that adequately conveyed the micro-drama of the fight between bird and meal.
This is one of a flock of Northern Flickers that I found feeding in a patch of snow-covered cattails. Unusual behavior (I have not seen Flickers feeding in a flock before, nor feeding in mashland), though less dramatic than the gull. I like the sense of habitat from this image, though I wish that it were a tad less cluttered.
This is the final image from my trip to Marble Colorado earlier this summer. This is the door to a shack at the now-abandoned marble processing facility in Marble, Colorado. Lots of great textures here. This image depends heavily on the placement of the various tones in the image; it may not look very good if your monitor is set too bright.
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