June 21, 2008 Tanzania Photo Safari Announced

My summer 2008 plans are coming together, and I am announcing my June 21 - July 3, 2008 Tanzania Photo Safari. This safari will take place in northern Tanzania, and we will visit three very different and distinct national parks: Tarangire National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park.

June 21 - July 3, 2008 Tanzania Photo Safari

High ISO article on dpreview

Dpreview.com has just posted a nice high iso article that is a good read for those who are interested in low light photography. As dpreview writes:

"It's rare these days for a compact camera to be launched without a high sensitivity mode / high ISO capabilities, but the truth behind the marketing hype is often disappointing to say the least. We believe consumers are often being misled by the manufacturers when it comes to the actual performance of most cameras at higher ISO settings and in low light. So we decided to put together a short article for the uninitiated on the truth behind those headline high ISO modes. If you're new to digital cameras or are in the market for a new one this is well worth checking out."

 

Compact Camera High ISO modes:
Separating the facts from the hype

Photo of the Day

We were lucky enough to witness a short-eared owl while on the island of Genovesa, Galapagos islands, and had an opportunity to be within short range of this amazing creature. This was the only image I was able to capture before flying away, but take notice of the storm petrel in his grasp. The storm petrel is the most common food source for the short-eared owl in the Galapagos.

Short-eared owl, Genovesa island, Galapagos, May 2007
Canon 1DsMkII, 100-400mm, 1/500sec @ f/7.1, ISO 320

Gadgets and situational problem solving

I love gadgets. I admit it. I love it when I find a gadget that solves a valid problem in my daily life or in my photography career. Solving issues out in the field is something a field photographer has to deal with, using any and all tools available. Sometimes tools and gadgets aren't available, and that is when you need to have your McGyver hat on.

I came across a very funny page on Wikipedia, and thought it should have a place on my blog. MacGyver lives on.

List of problems solved by McGyver

Feature in Colorvision May 2007 Newsletter

I just noticed that I have been featured in the Colorvision (Datacolor) May 2007 newsletter. Since the information on the link points back to my own web site, you can click back and forth between the newsletter and my site all day long. Kind of like Clark Griswold from European Vacation: "Hey kids, look! Parliament. Big Bend." Say 500 times. Repeat. Wash hands. Repeat.

Thanks Colorvision!

Colorvision May 2007 Newsletter

Back from the Galapagos islands

I had a wonderful time on board the M/Y Letty in the Galapagos islands, along with 17 other people in my group. I cannot tell you how amazing Galapagos is, with so many different unique species to witness and photograph, as well as the casual setting aboard our private motor yacht. We had absolutely fantastic weather, as well as two of the best naturalists in the business. I will be sifting through my 40GB of images over the next few days, picking out my favorites to share. I have processed a few images on my Macbook, but I need to reprocess them on my Mac Pro desktop to be compliant with my Lightroom workflow that I have adopted.

For those that joined me on this trip, thank you so very much for making my belly ache from so much laughter.

 

Photographing frigate birds from the top deck

Nazca booby on Genovesa island

Harry on top of lava rocks, Isabella island

Nazca booby, Espaniola island

Wave at the camera, somewhere in the middle of the ocean

M/Y Letty and two pangas, Santiago island

Off for Galapagos

Well, after 15 months of planning, I am off to lead a workshop in the Galapagos Islands. We have a private 85-foot motor yacht to ourselves for 7 days, and I am extremely confident we will be coming back with wonderful memories and photographs. I will be posting my experience online when I return.

Leopard in a Tree

Leopards are interesting subjects to photograph, to say the least. You can spend your entire safari looking for leopards, never spotting one at all, or you can get extraordinarily lucky and have 4 or 5 in one single day. Odds are that most sightings are not perfect photographic opportunities, due to distance or messy compositions. Most of the time we find leopards way up in the canopy of a tree, and many tree branches are blocking our view. Add to that the leopard is in shaded/soft light (good thing), but the contrast between the leopard and the bright ambient daylight make for a difficult photographic opportunity.

On this day in February 2007 we came across the female leopard up in an acacia tree. Normally I do not see leopards in trees where the first branch is so high up. We sat and waited for a few hours for the scene to transpire. We were simply waiting for her to jump down out of the tree for a change of scenery.

As we were waiting for her to move, I switched into instructional mode to guide my 2 photographers who were in the Land Rover with me. I gave some background information on leopard behavior, and what would make an interesting photograph. Once you have a tight shot on a leopard in a tree, I like to zoom out with a shorter focal length, telling the story of the leopard in its environment. With a shorter focal length, you can grab a shot of the cat coming out of the tree, leaping onto the ground beneath. If you have too much lens, you can easily miss your shot and have half of your subject in your frame and half out. Better to crop later than to miss your shot entirely.

As she started to move from her perch up above, we all started capturing our images. Well stupid me. I was more interested in having a large file size from my 1DsMkII (16mp) than anything else. As you can image, my buffer filled up on my camera and I missed most of the action of her jumping out of the tree. The shot below is my last image captured before she hit the ground and left the area. Lesson learned, don't you think? I was very excited that the two guests I had in the vehicle with me had absolutely stunning images of the entire jumping sequence. I am always extremely happy when I see the excitement on faces after a rich photographic opportunity was seized!!

 

Canon 1DsMkII, 400mm f/4 DO IS