Re-discovered Images

Fairy Tern on branch, Midway Atoll

I am making a concerted effort to stay home for a while this month; after two straight months on the road, I need to get caught up on editing, writing, yardwork, and...oh yeah, a social life.

One of the pleasures of having time like this is taking the occasional troll through the old slide files and finding images that I had either forgotten about or overlooked. (I edited my entire 200,000+ analog collection two years on a similar self-imposed home-exile, and discarded 90% of the slides. They were just taking up space, and, to be candid, only 10% stood out as worth saving.)

So it was that, preparing a client submission this week, I stumbled onto this image of a Fairy Tern, taken on Fuji film over a decade ago. I remember loving the curve of the branch, and the elegance of the tern's spreading wings.  Simple, but handsome. Guess I'll have to scan it!

Meanwhile, although I am not doing any major traveling until the late summer, I do have some shooting I'd like to do locally, including heading out for a few days this week to shoot on the Olympic Peninsula. I love this time of year in the temperate rainforest, and there are some minus-tides scheduled on the coast.

I know, I know... I'm supposed to be pulling out ivy, but there are limits to this exile thing.

Nikon F100, 70-200mm lens

With Hummingbirds

Male Allen's Hummingbird. Channel Islands

OK, I'll admit it: I've been a rotten correspondent lately, and haven't posted to this blog in weeks. I could blame my travel schedule, but it really has more to do with the fact that I haven't been terribly successful on several recent shoots. Most recently I spent a week on California's Channel Islands where I hoped to get more coverage of the endangered Island Fox.  I suppose the fact that I'm showing you a hummingbird rather than a stunning fox portrait can tell you something!  In six days I saw foxes for all of about 3 minutes, and never in a setting that worked very well.

Happily, there were other diversions, and other subjects, including these tiny Allen's Hummingbirds, which, to my delight, bathed every day in a tiny stream right next to my fox stakeout. I could while away the hours of waiting for foxes by shooting these little gems coming and going from the water. I have never spent such so much time observing hummers, and it was wonderful, especially seeing them immerse themselves in the water, bathe and drink - all in water less than an inch deep.

Photographically, the challenge was focusing on the birds, which are small and in constant motion - and getting an exposure that worked since the best light was in full shade. Fortunately I had time to try different settings, experimenting with pre-focusing - and time to simply get lucky. Luck is an inevitable part of every  successful wildlife photograph; whenever you are dealing with a live, unpredictable subject, whatever pictures you get have as much to do with luck as with skill. In this image, for example, I was focused on the bird in the water - when he popped up to hover and scan the area, he did so in the same focus plane, and stayed in sharp focus. Pure luck, and an abundance of time.

Nikon D300, 200-400mm lens with TC14x

On Madeira

Pride of Madeira flower close-up, Madeira

Just home from a month overseas, lecturing on photography aboard the National Geographic Explorer on a voyage from Madeira to Bergen, Norway with stops in the Azores and around the UK.  Interesting trip, but God-awful weather - some of the worst in 50 years.  (Just lucky, I guess.) I had hoped to maintain this blog from the ship, but I either didn't find time, or a decent internet connection.  Instead, I will try and post some images and stories now that I am home (albeit briefly).

I had never been to Madeira before, and although warm and sub-tropical, the island has very little native habitat left. It has produced at least one showy native flower - now transplanted all over the world - known as the "Pride of Madeira."  I spent some time photographing it here - only to find out that it is a weed along the California coast...

I also made a pilgrimage to the small scraps of native laurel forest, known as the Laurissilva - a World Heritage area. I only had a few hours in secondary forest, but enjoyed the antidote to the expanding ex-pat suburbs of Funchal, the main city.  Here, I shot a Lobaria lichen growing on the forest floor.
More to come.

Lobaria, Madeiran Laurissilva

Nikon D3,  60mm macro and 14-24mm lenses

Dancing Pheasant

Chinese Golden Pheasant, Tresco Isle

I have simply not been able to post regularly these past few weeks, for although we have internet access on board the National Geographic Explorer, it is both spotty and expensive.  I have another week to go, and will try to keep up, but it may have to wait until I get home.

Wildlife has been elusive this trip – a few whales and dolphins at sea, and some seabirds on offshore rocks.  But on the Isles of Scilly, off the Cornish coast, I had an encounter with a surprising bird – a Chinese Golden Pheasant. Not native to the UK, this gaudy bird roams free on these islands, presumably to brighten up the landscape. (or maybe for hunting…)

Either way, I spent about an hour trying to get a shot of  the pheasant, with its almost impossible array of colors – and eventually got this one, a moment of bizarre behavior that shows off the birds extravagant plumage. What’s he doing? No idea – maybe reaching up to have a scratch. But it was the best shot of the day.

On to Scotland tomorrow.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm lens

Into Blue Water

Atlantic Spotted Dolphins, Madeira

We boarded our ship, the National Geographic Explorer, on the island of Madeira today - and set off into blue water. It didn't take long for a pod of dolphins to cross our path, anxious to play under our bow.
This is always a delight to see, but often a challenge to photograph. I know the drill : use a polarizer to cut the surface glare, darken the image using compensation to match the dark water, and shoot like mad, hoping to get something exceptional.  It didn't happen: the dolphins were there, of course, but there was just enough chop on the surface to break up the dolphins into almost unrecognizable shapes.  This one worked the best, but it is hardly a knockout.
I will have to content myself with a few decent, if unmemorable,  shots - but a fine memory, and an exhilarating day on the water. Not all bad. And there is always tomorrow,  as we sail towards the Azores.

Nikon D3, 24-70mm lens with polarizer

A Nice Rock...and a long plane ride

Lichen-covered Boulder, Carrizo Plain

This is a typical situation; just home from one trip with two days before I head overseas. No time to edit the last shoot, and I'm off for a month in Europe. This happens a lot, and is testimony to how easy it is to fill a calendar with no realistic idea of how long things take...

In any case, the edit of my Kit Fox pictures will have to wait now until June.  I did, however, manage to process this little nugget (OK, it's about 4 feet high) late last night, and although it is a simple picture, it works for me. It is of a single, colorful quartzite boulder in the Carrizo Plain during a gentle sunrise.  I liked the shape, the pattern, and the soft colors.

Meanwhile, I leave in the morning for the east coast, followed by a month-long series of cruises to the Azores and around the British Isles for National Geographic; I will serve as photography lecturer on board.  I will try and blog as best I can while en route, and talk about locations and images I encounter.  

Nikon D3, 24-70mm lens

With The Foxes

Endangered San Joaquin Kit Foxes, Carrizo Plain

I am just home from a week in the Carrizo Plain of Southern California, where I spent a week trying to photograph wild, endangered San Joaquin Kit Foxes. I had been with the urban population of these foxes a few weeks ago in Bakersfield, but this was my first experience here, in one of the last scraps of their prime habitat left in California.
I had been to the Carrizo once before many years ago and frankly, I thought it was a bit barren and unappealing. This time, however, our visit coincided with the full flush of Spring; birds were nesting and calling everywhere,  flowers were in spectacular carpets - and the foxes were very cooperative.
This relatively small, and little-known, National Monument protects a precious remnant of the ecosystem that was once found throughout the entire San Joaquin Valley, and is now mostly lost to agriculture and development. The Carrizo nearly disappeared, too, when, oil was discovered in nearby Taft, California in the early 1900's. That wasteland of wells, pipes and barren ground could all too easily have been the fate of the Carrizo, were it not found that the oil deposits there were buried too deep for economical extraction.  Thank God!
Anyhow, here is a quick shot of a kit fox family: I am still editing, and plan to go back again for more as part of a long-term life history project.

Nikon D300, 200-400mm lens