The L.A. Zoo 12-18-05

There’s some wildlife photographers out there who raise their nose higher than the noblest blue bloods at photographers who shoot at zoos. It’s just a bunch of egotistical insecurity on their part. As long as the images are disclosed as captive then who cares if they were shot at a zoo or not. If they’d spend less energy on their ego and more on their craft perhaps they’d realize they could fine-tune their technique at a zoo before spending thousands of dollars on some exotic safari or wasting National Geographic’s money fumbling with their new equipment in the field. Of course there’s nothing like the experience and raw energy of shooting in the field, that’s what all nature photographers live for but it doesn’t mean there’s nothing redeeming about the zoo. Zoo’s such as the L.A. Zoo have done a lot for conservation of endangered animals none more famous than the California Condor. In 2003, I saw two condors on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and nearly walked past them before noticing them. No one else seemed to notice either so I assumed they were fake at first. I have the L.A. Zoo to thank for that encounter.





I picked up a cheap 70-300 zoom lens for my 20D so I wanted to figure it out in a local place I knew I could photograph easily before making a 175 mile trip to the Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR for example. My uncle Peter, who’s a professional photographer coincidentally called me as I was driving to the zoo to say that he just received his Nikon D200 the day before and wanted to try it out somewhere. He met me at the zoo and we had a rather productive day in great light. The light was overcast in the morning then gave way to warm afternoon light which provided the Grey Wolves dramatic backlighting during 2 p.m. feeding time. We used the morning to shoot flamingos and various other animals.





It’s all about capturing the moment and to me the moment is about energy. Generally I hate static wildlife portraits aka. most big game and bird photography. The keyword is MOST. Something needs to be happening otherwise I find the photos to be boring be it dramatic lighting, action or whatever. Frans Lanting is a wildlife photographer I’m a big fan of because his photos say something. You can tell the artistry and thoughtfulness right away from seeing his work.





I happen to like vicious and ferocity so that’s what I’d like to capture in wildlife. It’s very difficult to capture those moments properly but I’ll keep trying. I’m a very low budget photographer but the one piece of equipment I’ve been drooling over in the catalogs is the Sigma 80-400mm f4-5.6 OS lens. The faster lenses are too bulky and immobile for me to ever consider. My entire shooting method revolves around mobility so for now the 70-300 will suffice. The image stabilization on the Sigma would have made a big difference though as I didn’t bring a tripod so a number of my shots weren’t sharp. I was panning and shooting wild machine gun bursts handheld at the moving animals so it’s no surprise my technique didn’t lend itself to tack sharp photos. Entirely sharp photos would have been nice but not my top priority. It’s all about the moment. My uncle had a monopod however and he was probably able to get a higher percentage of sharp shots. However for landscapes, almost all my shots are on a tripod. Landscape photography is a whole different ballgame and one I’m more comfortable with. That’s why I’m trying to break out of my own box by trying learn wildlife. Wildlife photography may even help improve my landscape work; you never know. Lanting, Chris Johns, Nick Nichols, Daniel Cox, and Jim Brandenburg are all wildlife photographers I’d like to take a workshop with eventually to improve my technique and hone my vision.





Wildlife hot spots I’d like to visit: Bosque del Apache NWR, South Georgia Falkland Islands, Antarctica, Arctic NWR, Platte River, Tule Lake NWR, Sacramento NWR.

Places I’ve visited: Sacramento NWR.

Go figure.

Things to consider

1. Image stabilization lens or camera: Helps get sharper photos in deep shade and makes panning look smoother.
2. A tripod or monopod: I didn’t bring mine so I improvised whenever I could using guard rails and sign posts. For the same reason listed above.
3. A telephoto zoom lens and wide angle lens. I didn’t bring my wide angle so I missed out on tourists observing the action type shots.
4. Set your ISO on at least 400 if the image quality allows for it. For the same reason as 1 & 2.

2005 Inspiration

Since 2005 is winding down here are some sources of inspiration and enlightenment I’ve discovered this past year.

Yosemite, The Promise of Wilderness- William Neill

On Ancient Wings- Michael Forsberg

The Smithsonian Guides to Natural America

www.naturephotographers.net

The Blue Planet- BBC (5 DVD Set)

Iowa Simply Beautiful II- Larsh K. Bristol

The Photographic Life- Sam Abell

Calico Ghost Town 11-25-05

On the way to Zion National Park two weeks prior, I noticed the billboards near Barstow along the I-15 advertising Calico Ghost Town so I made a mental note to return soon. Several days after I got home, I looked on the website and saw that Calico would be holding their annual “Heritage Festival” during Thanksgiving weekend. If there’s a time to visit a place it’s during a special event. Sure there’s more people likely to be crawling around but the event also mean that there will be events which in turn leads to potentially interesting people / travel pictures. The typical nature photographer usually raises his nose at the mere idea of taking pictures of people but I think it’s an amateurish and foolish attitude to have. The most memorable moments of traveling include experiences or interactions with other people so why not try to capture some of it? Also if the photographer plans on marketing their work to the editorial market then they’d better overcome their phobias quick. When you think about it, people photography isn’t much different from landscape photography. The same rules to good composition apply if you choose to do so, light works the same way, and it’s all about capturing “the decisive moment.” (I hate that term but it is what it is.)



The day after Thanksgiving I headed for Calico as everyone else seemingly was headed for Best Buy. The weather in Southern California was overcast until I passed over the Cajon Pass when the murkiness gave way to clear blue skies which would last for much of the day until late afternoon when heavy wind gusts caused some nasty dust storms to scratch my contact lens-covered corneas. Sadly I decided to pack it up around 3 p.m. as I couldn’t see anymore and chose not to risk further damage to my eyes. I was confident that I had taken a few decent pictures so at least my watery eyes weren’t caused by disappointment.

It would have been nice to stick around for the sunset but warm light isn’t everything. One can shoot meaningful photos at any time of day if they have an open mind. A lot of photographers who shoot similar subjects to what I do only shoot on the edges of the day and dismiss any other light as being bad. Why is that? I’m guessing they got seduced by the postcard rack or have an addiction for graduated neutral-density filters. I use GND’s myself but like all addictions they can hold you back from realizing your fullest potential as a photographer. That is something I’m working to break free of. I don’t want be a slave to convention. What was once cutting edge is today’s cliché. Cliché’s are clichés because they’re great but to make a career out of a cliche is to be a one-trick pony. I don’t want to fall into that trap. Besides, I like dogs better than horses anyway.