Category: Syndicated Feeds

It has been a while since I have written about the technical aspects of photography and I thought it would be good to dive into a discussion about the broad field of wildlife photography. It is a big subject so I’ll cover it in two separate postings.

I moved to Jackson, Wyoming last year primarily to be closer to nature and to the amazing wildlife in this part of the country. As a ‘nature photographer,’ I enjoy all aspects of outdoor photography from landscapes to wildlife to macro-photography, but it is wildlife that really gets me excited. When I write about wildlife photography I really mean WILD-life – not pets, zoo animals, or critters in cages of any sort, but real wildlife out in the open, fending for themselves. I like all sorts of wildlife from large carnivores to birds, grazers, cute little rodents, insects and other invertebrates and each of these families of critters bring different challenges to the photographer.

There are really three ‘styles’ of wildlife photography and each has its individual rewards. First, and most common, are wildlife portraits. You find a great animal out in a natural setting and are close enough to capture its image close up. Second, there are the beautiful scenic shots (below) with a magnificent animal in the foreground. Third, are the behavioral shots (see blog cover photo)when the critter you have found is doing its thing in an animated and interesting manner.  The preparation and gear required to capture each of these styles of images is modified by the physical size of the animal you are shooting. 

It goes without saying that a quality digital single-lens reflex (dSLR) camera body is the choice of most wildlife photographers but that doesn’t mean that you can’t capture great images with a super-zoom or even a point and shoot camera. I remember a few months ago staking out a black bear in Yellowstone for over two hours. I had a 600mm super-telephoto lens mounted on a sturdy tripod ready to go but the bear stayed in the bushes always partially concealed from my view. I packed up ready to move on when the bear took off across the road in front of a car giving the woman in the car a better shot with her phone camera in 20 seconds than I had in hours that cold Yellowstone morning. But good photography requires more than luck – you want to be able to capture good images, reliably, under many conditions. The dSLR is the best choice.

The next issue is the selection of lenses that will give your camera the best image. Wildlife photographers are always looking for the “big glass” but there are two types of ‘big’ that you must consider. Many times when photographing wildlife you cannot get as close as you would like to be – either because the subject will leave your field of view or the subject is bigger than the photographer and, therefore, demands space. So big lenses are usually part of every wildlife photographer’s arsenal but how big is necessary? The answer is, it depends.

Many (most?) times you will want to ‘fill the frame’ with your subject. So the smaller the subject the closer you must be or the larger your lens must be. Generally, most start with a moderate telephoto lens in the 200-300 mm focal length range. These lenses are small enough and light enough to carry for a significant distance and yet will give a significant ‘reach’ to your subject. If you are using a crop sensor, rather than a full frame sensor, camera you will see even a smaller angle of view giving the appearance of more magnification. Typically, most APS-C size sensors have a ‘crop factor‘ of 1.5x or 1.6x thus increasing the effective focal length of your lens by the crop factor. Effectively, you get more bang for your buck using a telephoto lens on a crop sensor camera body.

Another way to extend the reach of your lens is by adding a tele-converter (sometimes called a tele-extender) between the lens and camera. These converters increase the effective focal length of the telephoto lens that is attached by a factor of 1.4x or 2x. Doing the math, you can see that a 200 mm telephoto lens on a 1.6x crop sensor and a 1.4x teleconverter give you an effective focal length of 448 mm (200 x 1.6 x 1.4). A 2x tele-converter would increase the effective focal length even more to 640 mm. The increased effective focal length with a converter comes with a significant cost – reduced light to the sensor. A 1.4x converter reduces the maximum aperture of the lens by 1 stop and the 2x converter reduces it by 2 stops. This raises the second requirement for wildlife lenses – they must be ‘fast.’

Generally, the best shooting of wildlife is in early morning and late afternoon as the sun is rising or setting. This means a high likelihood of shooting in low light situations. Low light means you will need a large aperture, long shutter speed, or high ISO  for proper exposure.  (See the Exposure Triangle, 2/21/13, and Where to Start with Exposure, 2/27/13 blog posts.)  A long shutter speed is almost never a good option using a telephoto lens because of the chance of image blur due to ‘camera shake’ or movement of the subject.  The rule of thumb is that the shutter speed should equal or be faster than 1 / effective focal length. So your 200mm lens on a crop sensor camera with a 1.4x converter means your slowest shutter speed should be 1/640 seconds or more practically, 1/1000th second. That is fast enough to eliminate blur from camera shake and to freeze (slow) movement of your subject but how do you get enough light to the sensor? The answer is a large aperture.  So the second ‘big’ in wildlife lenses is a large diameter aperture – ideally f/4 or larger. The large aperture allows more light to reach the sensor in the time the shutter is open. Unfortunately, a large aperture is the major cost of a lens – more glass equals more money.

We will address the last of the exposure issues and other ways to improve your wildlife photography in the next posting. Until then happy shooting.

Every once in a while life throws something at you that is so unexpected and yet so wonderful that you can’t pass it up.  That is what happened to me in mid-August as I was planning my sixth photography trip to Yellowstone National Park since April this year.  Several wildfires were burning in the park and some of the campgrounds were on a short evacuation alert so our plans changed several times but we finally settled on a “safe” campground at Canyon Village. As we packed the RV for the two-week trip we were notified that the road between Fishing Bridge and Canyon was closed due to smoke and the threat of the Alum Creek fire. That meant a two-hour detour and a trip over Craig Pass on the western side of the Grand Loop. Well, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and we made our plan to leave on a Tuesday.

On Monday I received a call from a friend who is a Regional Director of the Yellowstone Association and who was in need of some part-time help to replace two employees who had to leave on urgent family business. We could come to Yellowstone, bring the RV, camp for next to nothing, and get paid in exchange for working part-time at the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center. It took about 30 milliseconds to say “Yes” and we cancelled our Canyon plans and drove to Old Faithful for a 6-10 week stint living in Yellowstone.

The campground was a hidden gem for employee housing about 1/2 mile from the OF Visitors Center by bike or a 2 mile drive by car. It had full hook-ups, a laundry, the employee’s Pub, and its own collection of wildlife from Snowshoe Hare, to Grizzlies, to Bison – every day was an adventure.  Can you imagine calling into work that you will be late because there is a bison blocking the bike path?

Work was generally fun – working with the public and retail sales was far outside my realm of experiences but the Rangers, employees, and a brief orientation made jumping-in a positive learning experience. We worked about 30 hours a week on a schedule that allowed photography for several hours every morning or afternoon and two and a half days off for more extended landscape and nature photography each week.  Needless to say that we had a great time, met some interesting people and shot a lot of photographs.

We had the opportunity to learn more about the history and operation of the park and more about the thermal features at the major geyser basins that we had ever known – that in spite of our combined many months in other parts of the park.  We hiked new trails, saw new geysers erupt, explored back roads, and found new animal locations that were previously unknown to us.  I was able to shoot photos from locations that I had never visited before and travel leisurely in the huge park.  The Yellowstone Association allowed us to purchase maps and books at a discount and see the inner workings of the Association from its Gardiner, MT headquarters to the Lamar Buffalo Ranch.  We were even able to book free courses from the Yellowstone Institute and will be back to the Lamar Buffalo Ranch in January and February to enjoy these employee benefits.  

We had hoped to stay into mid-October or even early November but cold weather, snow, and, finally, the government shut-down and closure of the park shortened our time to “only” 6 1/2 weeks. What a wonderful, unexpected experience that will leave a warm spot in our hearts for the rest of our lives. I am finishing the processing of the photos and hope to have some posted in the National Parks and Public Lands section of this site soon.

Thanks for visiting.

 

It is hard to believe that it’s been more than 6 weeks since my last posting but it is even harder to believe that Natural Photography is 6 months old!

It has been a very busy summer shooting and traveling to unique sites and more of our public lands. (That’s my excuse and I’m stickin’ to it – for the long delay since the last posting.) On the other hand, the website has been extensively updated with a dozen new photo galleries and many additional photos added to previously existing galleries. The revisions add galleries for new national parks and public lands visits but also add many more specific species and settings in which to locate wildlife photos that may be most interesting to you. Specifically, there are new galleries in the Fauna section for mountain goats, bison, and pronghorn and new galleries for waterfowl, wild canines, small mammals, and, a sure favorite, babies and young-in’s.

Besides many more photos from Yellowstone, I have added seasonal sections for our Jackson Hole neighbor, Grand Teton National Park. A recent trip to South Dakota allowed shooting at Devil’s Tower National Monument, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Crazy Horse Memorial, Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, Badlands National Park, and the wonderful Custer State Park, South Dakota.

On the business side, I have added password-protected areas for individual clients to view pending orders and requested focused photo catalog previews for easier item selection. I have added a similar feature for commercial clients who want to view specific photos and other products. This area is also password-protected for each commercial client. I am hopeful that these customized folders will help you more efficiently select items that will best meet your specific needs. Both areas allow direct electronic communication to answer your questions and expedite your orders.

Finally, while I have been delinquent in posting to this blog, I have been more diligent in posting to Facebook. (https://www.facebook.com/NaturalPhotographyJackson)  While the Facebook page is more intended for fun and frequent updates on activities, some of the Facebook photos are also available for view or purchase on the website. If you have a specific interest in any of the Facebook photos, they can be made available in a full-size, high-resolution format for any of the products listed on this site.

I hope you are able to get away this summer and enjoy nature close-up in your favorite location but if your travels are limited you can always vicariously join our travel on this site or Facebook. Have a GREAT summer and thanks for visiting Natural Photography.

Loren 

I get a lot of comments and questions about my many photos from Yellowstone National Park (YNP) so I thought I would give a very quick overview of the park and some of its best known treasures.

Yellowstone is the world’s first national park dedicated to preserving the uniqueness of the natural beauty of our country for future generations. It was established as a model for all national parks in 1872 and its history has been colorful and controversial.  Most of YNP lies withing the state of Wyoming but it extends into Montana and Idaho.

There are 5 major highway entrances to the park. The Grand Highway of Yellowstone is a giant figure of eight, paved highway connecting most of the park’s main attractions.  Gardiner, MT is the north entrance to the park headquarters at Mammoth Hot Springs and is the only entrance that is open to automobiles year round. The northeast entrance is near Cooke City, MT and leads to Tower Falls on the north part of the figure eight. It is closed to autos in the winter months when the Bear Tooth highway is closed.  Access to the east entrance is from Cody, WY  to the Lake Village / Fishing Bridge area and this entrance is closed in the winter. The south entrance is one of the most popular routes into the park from Jackson, WY through Grand Teton National Park and the Rockefeller Parkway. The south entrance is closed to autos in the winter but Flag Ranch (near the south entrance) is a popular entrance for snow coach tours and snowmobiles. Finally, West Yellowstone, MT is a popular tourist town and center for winter activities near the west entrance to YNP.  The road leads to Madison Junction and then south to Old Faithful or north to Norris Geyser Basin. 

There are literally thousands of attractions to YNP but the “big five” are probably Old Faithful Geyser, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Mammoth Hot Springs, Lake Yellowstone, and the large animal populations of the Hayden and Lamar valleys.  

Old Faithful geyser, on the west side of the south loop, is one of more than ten thousand thermal features in the park that include geysers, fumaroles and steam vents, hot pools, and boiling mud pots. There are about four times as many active thermal features in Yellowstone as the rest of the world total.  Old Faithful is named such because of its regularity of eruption – about every 70-90 minutes. Other geysers are larger and more spectacular but the predictability of Old Faithful and its closeness to parking and lodging make it a crowd favorite.  The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

is at the east junction of the north and south loop roads.  This is where Yellowstone got its name and is the home of the two largest waterfalls in the park.  The canyon carved by the Yellowstone River is up to 1200 feet deep, three-quarters of a mile wide, and 24 miles long. The Upper Falls is 109 feet and the lower Falls is 308 feet in height and both are readily view-able with short walks from the many parking areas.  

Mammoth Hot Springs is near the park headquarters at the north entrance.  Once the center for tourism with its terraced hot springs and colorful stone formations, the springs are seeing less water flow and becoming bleached white as their thermal activity decreases.  Lake Yellowstone is the source of its namesake river and the largest and deepest lake above 7,000 feet altitude in North America. Its cold, deep, blue water has a shoreline of 110 miles and an average depth of 139 feet.

 Finally, while nearly all of YNP has abundant wildlife, nowhere are the large animals more visible than the great valleys of Lamar, near the northeast entrance, and Hayden, between Canyon and Lake Village. In these valleys are huge herds of bison numbering in the many hundreds, elk, mule and white-tail deer, pronghorn, black and grizzly bear, wolf, coyote, and many large bird species and small mammals.  Roadside parking and the broad vistas make wildlife viewing as simple as picking up your binoculars.

I could go on for hours about all of the other attractions but remember the 310 miles of paved road (466 miles total) and 1,100 miles of developed trails from 92 trail heads access only a tiny fraction of the park’s 2.2 million acres. There is truly an unlimited amount of outdoor  activity throughout Yellowstone. People ask, “How long should I plan to see the park?” The answer is as much time as you have but it takes at least 3 full days and two nights in or near the park just to drive to the major attractions. They also ask, “What month is best to visit?” All of the months are great and offer tremendously different views of the park. The north entrance is open to autos year round but the other entrances vary in opening from around late April to mid-May and start closing in October. Yellowstone is at high elevation, 6,500 to over 8,000 feet, and snow can and does come every month of the year. There is winter snowmobile and snow coach access from both the south and west entrances and great snowmobiling out of the park from the northeast entrance.  There are over 3 million visitors annually with the vast majority coming in July and August. Locals will tell you that May and September are the “best” months because there are fewer visitors.

I hope you enjoy some of the photos of the park and that they will stimulate your interest in visiting this word treasure.