Featured as ‘Wildlife Photographer Spotlight’ on Camera Trapping Campus

April 20, 2011 by pumapix

Camera Trapping Campus Screenshot

I am humbled by being featured on Camera Trapping Campus as their first wildlife photographer for their new feature ‘Wildlife Photographer Spotlight’. I met Jake, who writes the blog along with Christian, a few weeks ago to join him as he put out one of his homebrew camera traps. He is an awesome guy and I love reading their camera trapping stories. Please join me in following their blog, you will most definitely be entertained!

I also look forward to more outings with the Trapping Campus gang as it guarantees a fun time in the outdoors!

Is it possible to combine adventuring with photography?

April 20, 2011 by pumapix

Simply put, yes!

Most of us outdoorsy people like to get in a little bit of adrenaline here or there. This is easy for wildlife photography since the adrenaline starts kicking in every time you get close to a wild animal, but when adventuring is the first reason for the trip, is it still possible to combine it with photography?

I am no expert on hardcore adventuring but I definitely enjoy strenuous trips hiking, biking, kayaking, and what ever else my friends or I can think of. Since these trips are generally always focused on an outside location I always get the urge to bring the camera just in case an animal shows up or a landscape screams to be photographed. To make these trips a success it is extremely important to make conscious decisions about what gear you bring. If you have too much you get slowed down and start seriously worrying about your gear getting damaged, if you have too little you may not get a shot. (let’s just say I struggle with this a lot). To help you make better decisions check out Jeff Bartlett’s Blog, who writes extensively on the subject of adventure photography (I will need to follow his advice more) and packing for a trip.

Just to give you some examples of small adventures that have provided for excellent photographic opportunities.

Kayaking in Elkhorn Slough – Equipment Brought: Canon 30D, 100-400mm Lens

I somehow always make funny faces when doing self portraits…

Taken from kayak, still better picture than anything I have taken from land

Riding Bycicle Across the US with Best Friends – Equipment Brought: Canon 5D, 24-70mm, 100-400mm, 580Ex Flash, Graduated Neutral Density Filters

Bicycle Route Across the US

All the camera gear is in the back in one pannier

Lily Pads on Lake in Pennsylvania

Great Horn Owl Roadkill, this was one of the most ‘intact’ dead animals we saw

Coniferous Forest Panning Shot

Reeds reflected in water, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Grand Tetons at Sunrise, Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming

So the lesson I have learned is to not choose but to smartly combine photography with outdoor adventures!

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*

Utilizing your Local Botanical Garden or Arboretum

April 13, 2011 by pumapix

Botanical Gardens and Arboretums are amazing places to not only visit but also to photograph. It is always fascinating to me to see plants from all around the world in such a small area. How amazing is it to wander from South Africa to Australia in just a few yards. From Proteas to Pincushions. It doesn’t even matter at what time of year you go, something will be in bloom.

Living in Santa Cruz provides the amazing opportunity of visiting the UCSC Arboretum, a deeply under-appreciated place. It contains the largest concentration of southern hemisphere plants in the northern hemisphere. When I photograph in these floral collections I tend to shoot in a macro-style, concentrating on single plants, often on single flowers. This is mainly to eliminate distracting backgrounds and since the plants are not in their native habitat showing the landscape in the background is not beneficial most times.

Here are a few examples of the types of pictures I am talking about:

Pincushion (Leucospermum sp), UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

Still unknown plant to me...., UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

Buttonbush (Berzelia lanuginosa), UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

Spiral Aloe (Aloe polyphylla), UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

Then you always have the option of getting more abstract pictures. This is the advantage of plants over animals, they don’t move too far. The picture below was taken at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden. I loved how the light was coming through the fern fronds. I first took images that were in focus but I really liked the shape of the leaves so I decided to manually put them out of focus, having nothing in the image be sharp. It’s different, but I like it.

Fern fronds out of focus, Berkeley Botanical Garden, Berkeley, California

Finally, all the plants attract wildlife as well, so keep an eye out for movement. Hummingbirds are frequent visitors to gardens so they are attracted to these ‘super gardens’ in even higher numbers. This male Allen’s Hummingbird was photographed in Santa Cruz. He would continuously land on this perch and then chase off any other males intruding into his space. Every time he was off chasing a rival I crept closer, stopping when he would arrive back at his perch. I wanted to still include some of the amazingly colorful background created by all the plants so I stopped when I was about 10 feet away. It is one of my earliest photographs, but I still love it.

Allen’s Hummingbird calling, UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

So go out and find your local botanical paradise, you will be amazed by what you find!

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*

Photographing at Bosque del Apache

February 22, 2011 by pumapix

I always wanted to photograph the Sandhill Cranes and light geese (Snow Geese and Ross’s Geese) at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. This desire arose from the passionate stories fellow nature photographers told me about the birds and the refuge. This included the “blast off”, an occurrence around sunrise when all of a sudden all the birds take off at once creating a colorful sky filled with birds.

When Kailani told me we had an open invitation from her friend in Albuquerque I knew it was time to visit. I arrived at the refuge on Saturday at 6:15am, with sunrise being at 7:15am. I was shocked to stand in line to get into the refuge. There was a line of wildlife photographers that stretched for a mile. This was wildlife photography I was not used to. It soon became obvious why this place is so popular. It provides easy access, birds that are not afraid of humans and spectacular action.

I was not let down by the blast off, wow was it just spectacular. The sound is truly like thunder, just amazing.

Snow Goose Blast Off at Sunrise

Snow Goose Blast Off

By Sunday I had figured out the routine, arrive early — this meant getting up at 2:30am in Albuquerque to arrive at the refuge at 4:30am to get the best flight deck spot. Then as soon as the flight deck take off is over head to either the feeding fields or the “crane ponds”. All of these places provide for amazing photographic opportunities. Due to the number of photographers it forced me to create images that were different from the “standard” Bosque images, which I was quite thankful for in the end. I went for more abstract pictures including motion blurs and panning shots.

Sandhill Cranes behind Reeds

Sandhill Crane Taking Flight

Sandhill Crane Flying

Snow Goose Flying

Of course I also could not resist doing a few silhouettes.

Silhouetted Sandhill Cranes Flying

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*

SLR Camera Trap Photography

February 4, 2011 by pumapix

Photographing wildlife with a SLR camera trap seems easy in concept. Place a camera trap in the wilderness, let it sit there, and have it take amazing pictures while you rest at home. This isn’t quite the case. One of the hardest parts about camera trap photography is getting your set-up to work like you want it to. The camera and flashes have to be ready to take a picture at moments notice, but need to also conserve batteries enough to last for an extended period of time. And then everything has to be safe in a serious down drench. Finally the biggest challenge of all is that you can’t buy professional camera traps at a store, ready to use out of the box. Even national geographic cameras use customized set-ups.

For inspiration, visit two of my favorite blogs. Chris Wemmer’s blog Camera Trap Codger which is not only filled with witty, educational, and fun writing but also accompanied by great camera trap images; as well as Jake Kirkland and Christian’s Camera Trapping Campus blog, filled with great stories and it hits close to home for me since I also got my degree from UCSC. All of them ‘hack’ much of their equipment to function for the camera trapping needs!

Once you have the equipment figured out the really fun part starts. Its time to hit the field to select your location for your camera trap. Natural game paths are always a perfect option, they provide ample chances for wildlife to walk by. During set-up, take the appropriate time since you can’t make any quick adjustments once the camera is in place. Using yourself always works:

Myself, getting some test shots in – reminder, comb your hair next time…

After you are done setting up you want to leave it be, it will take a while for your smell to be masked by nature’s more natural smells and some time for the animals to get used to the new objects in their environment (don’t think they don’t know its there).

After some time you will get your first shots. In the beginning most likely just your neighbors pet:

Neighbors dog checking out the camera

Maybe even some behavioral images:

Mule deer buck licking front leg

Of course many times you will get another curious human:

This one is having quite a lot of fun!

In the end though, when you get a shot like this, you are quite the happy camper:

Juvenile Mountain Lion at Night

Whenever you go to check the camera and replace batteries its like Christmas. You don’t know what you will get except a bunch of happy surprises. Camera trapping is a great way to get an intimate view into the lives of animals you may hardly see. It is something I very much cherish.

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*