Posts Tagged ‘wildlife’
I always find it difficult to narrow down a years worth of photographs into one list of the “best”. It is a good exercise, however, to really sit down and go through your work and determine what images best fit your current vision for your photography. I did this back in 2010 and 2011 as a part of Jim Goldstein’s project and I am please to enter my images again for this years version.
All of these photographs are available as Fine Art Prints.
So in no particular order these are the “top” (probably better termed as favourite) photos I have made in 2012.
Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park Spring Panorama
(Coldstream, British Columbia)
(more…)
Tags: bald eagle, balsamroot, bellingham, birds, birds of prey, bridges, british columbia, broadleaf arnica, broadleaf lupine, bubo scandiacus, Canon EF 1.4x Extender II, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, common paintbrush, cosens bay, delta, district of kent, fall color, fall colours, first narrows bridge, flowers, fraser valley, fraser valley bald eagle festival, haliaeetus leucocephalus, harrison, huntoon point, japanese maple, kalamalka lake, kulshan ridge, lakes, larrabee state park, lions gate bridge, lupines, magnolia, mount baker wilderness, mount baker-snoqualmie national forest, mount rainier national park, mount shuksan, mountains, night photography, okanagan, owls, queen elizabeth park, reflections, silver lake, silver lake provincial park, snowy owls, spring, stanley park, sunset, suspension bridge, thompson okanagan, tipsoo lake, top 10, trees, usa, vancouver, vernon, washington state, wells peak, western anenome, wildflowers, wildlife
Posted in Photography | 25 Comments »
Great Blue Heron
(
Ardea herodias)
-click to enlarge-
Happy to announce that today my photo of a Great Blue Heron is featured on the photobotos.com blog! Click the link below to check out a larger version and a bit more about how I made this photograph. Thanks to Charlie and Tom from the photobotos.com website!
http://www.photobotos.com/capilano-river-great-blue-heron/
Tags: ardea herodias, birds, british columbia, capilano river, great blue heron, north vancouver, photobotos, rivers, wildlife
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Columbian Ground Squirrel
(Urocitellus columbianus)
-click to enlarge-
A Columbian Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus columbianus) posing for a portrait at Lightning Lakes in Manning Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada.
I had initially figured these to be fairly wild, but unfortunately they seemed pretty unafraid of me. This was near a campground so it seems that some people have been misbehaving and feeding the wildlife. Not surprising, but disappointing. I didn’t really realize how “tame” they were until I was crouched down photographing something else and one jumped into my open camera bag likely to try to raid it for snacks. They came up empty but I suppose it pays to be bold, especially when you are literally about 1 foot away from the safety of your burrow!
I had considered posting the photo below with only frame 2 or 4 showing the ground squirrel on its back… but that could be misconstrued as a dead squirrel. This guy scratched his back like this many times, and while I had the presence of mind to photograph it, I again forgot about the video capabilities of my Canon 7D. Ooops!
Columbian Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus columbianus) doing a rolling backscratch
-click to enlarge-
This image sequence does show what he was doing though – and he’d kick his back legs like I’ve seen dogs do while scratching their backs in the same manner. It is a technique that must work!
Columbian Ground Squirrel
(Urocitellus columbianus)
-click to enlarge-
The fervent back scratching was soon followed by the collection of some mouthfuls of grass presumably for nesting materials. I’d woken up to the video potential at that point, and managed to record this video. I really would like to get better at recording video but usually these things come up so quickly I’m not fully prepared – and have to shoot handheld. A frequent issue is that if I am using my Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS with the image stabilization turned on, the sound it makes to steady the image is evident in the audio track (as is the case here). Also, if there is any breeze at all it sounds like I am blowing directly on the mic at all times. I guess this is why there is a jack for an external microphone on the 7D. Someday I may pick up one of these, but I’ll have to practice making video for a while before that is something I consider. As I shoot still photography exclusively in RAW format, I’m used to being able to tweak whatever I like after the fact. I find the video straight from the 7D to show somewhat flat colour and lack a bit of contrast. This would be easily remedied in a basic video editor I presume, but I’ve not had much luck with Quicktime Pro which about the only software I own for such purposes. The color edits don’t seem to stick with the exported movies.
Do you record video with your DLSR? What do you use to edit the results?
Tags: british columbia, Canon 7D, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, columbian ground squirrel, manning provincial park, spermophilus columbianus, squirrels, urocitellus columbianus, video, wildlife
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Otter Bay Beach at
Ellison Provincial Park
-click to enlarge-
Last week I went on a photography trip to Vernon, British Columbia. I headed up the Crowsnest Highway 3 through Manning Provincial Park, through Princeton, and then on to Keremeos, Penticton, Kelowna and then Vernon. On a previous trip to the area I stayed in Lake Country which is between Kelowna and Vernon but found that most of the areas that attracted me, namely Kalamalka Lake, were near Vernon and not Kelowna.
Staying in Vernon put me within easy reach of 4 places I wanted to photograph on this trip – Kekuli Bay Provincial Park, Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park, the Coldstream Valley, and Ellison Provincial Park.
Ponderosa Pine on
Okanagan Lake
-click to enlarge-
On the second day of my trip I visited Ellison Provincial Park. I didn’t really know anything about Ellison except it was close to Vernon and is on the shores of Okanagan Lake, not Kalamalka Lake. I parked in the day use area parking and walked down the short trail to Otter Bay beach. The first photograph here is of Otter Bay beach – the shallow water warm enough to exhibit some of the green minerals in the water. I made a few photographs of this area and then moved onto the adjacent rocky hill and photographed this Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa) along the shoreline. If you look closely at this second photograph from Ellison you can see the small, purple wildflowers of the Shrubby Penstemon (Penstemon fruticosus). These flowers were everywhere between the rocks, as well as some sporadic Arrowleaf Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata). Photos of those will be coming soon!
Columbian Black-tailed Deer
(Odocoileus hemionus columbianus)
-click to enlarge-
Later in the day I had waited through a brief but interesting storm in the parking lot at Kekuli Bay, but since the storm had somewhat cleared I was searching for a place to view a potential sunset. The night before there was a good sunset – but I was too unfamiliar with the area to find a good place to photograph it. I was stuck on the wrong side of some hills and ran out of light before finding a way around them. Earlier in the day at Ellison I had figured this would be a good place to go for sunset, if I didn’t find anything else better in the rest of the days exploration. The sunset light never really materialized, but in preparation for it I had found myself back near at Ellison just in case. I didn’t go down to the water as the light just wasn’t there but just as I was leaving I had the opportunity to photograph some Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and in an adjacent field, a larger group of Columbian Black-tailed Deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus). While making the photographs of the Black-tailed Deer, I tried to not just get “closeups” of the animals with my 70-200mm lens (plus a 1.4x TC for good measure!) but also zoom out a bit to get the animals in context with their environment. Sometimes a photograph showing the animal in their habitat can be stronger than one showing just the animal. I’ve started to do this with wildflowers as well.
Many more photographs of this trip are to come. I think my favourites are from Kalamalka Provincial Park – a place that will definitely be on my list to visit when I travel back here in the Fall!
Tags: beaches, black tailed deer, british columbia, columbian black tailed deer, deer, ellison provincial park, lakes, odocoileus hemionus columbianus, okanagan, okanagan lake, otter bay, penstemon, penstemon fruticosus, pines, pinus ponderosa, ponderosa pine, shoreline, shrubby penstemon, trees, vernon, wildflowers, wildlife
Posted in Photography | 2 Comments »
Great Blue Heron
(Ardea herodias)
-click to enlarge-
Late last year I published a post on this blog called “Creating Drama with Shutter Speed“. While at the Capilano River in North Vancouver, British Columbia I had made a few photographs of a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). By utilizing different shutter speeds I found that (in this case) a shutter speed of 0.6 seconds brought a lot of drama to the scene by blurring the river in the background.
This photo is another photo I made that day of the same Heron, again with a slower than normal shutter speed ( 1/6th of a second in this case). While I think my favourite of the day is the slow shutter speed Heron photo from that other post, this one comes in a close second for me.
Tags: ardea herodias, birds, british columbia, capilano river, great blue heron, north vancouver, rivers, shutter speed, wildlife
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Snowy Owl
(Bubo scandiacus)
-click to enlarge-
Back in mid February I went to the Boundary Bay Wildlife Management Area to photograph the Snowy Owls (Bubo scandiacus). The Snowy Owls are not normally in this location during Winter. This is an “irruption” year, where the Snowy Owls venture further south than they normally would. There are various opinions as to why this occurs, though most often I see it being related to food supply in the Arctic. As this happens only about once every 5-6 years I made sure I went down to take a look. I figured even if I could not photograph the Snowy Owls as they were too far out in the marsh I would be able to at least see them from afar. I was not disappointed.
Yaaaaaawwwwn!
A Group of Snowy Owls
(Bubo scandiacus)
-click to enlarge-
The first photo here shows an Owl that was like many of the others sitting on the driftwood – it had to occasionally keep a wary eye on a passing hawk or Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus). The Harriers especially seemed to like to dive bomb some of the Snowy Owls – though I don’t know if they ever make contact. One flew over the head of this owl and it kept an eye on it as it passed. The second photo shows one of the first signs of the Snowy Owls “waking up” from their earlier positions of just sitting on the logs with their eyes closed. There was lots of yawning, though I didn’t see it go through the group in any sort of contagious manner like it does in humans.
Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus)
Warming up for flight
-click to enlarge-
The last two images here show the Snowy Owls stretching and fluffing up their feathers in preparation for flight. I had seen a few other groups of Snowy Owls further down the trail do this, before they ultimately took off towards the marsh. I presume this was to go look for food, as they were not being harassed by photographers at the time. The group I was following did not take off during the day, so I will have to wait until the next irruption to get some flight photos. Of all the photos I made of this group of Snowy Owls, I do not think I ever had one where they were preening and fluffing up their feathers where all three were facing the same direction. This is part of the fun and challenge though. Two out of three ain’t bad!
Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus)
stretching
-click to enlarge-
I wrote in my last Snowy Owl post that I was easily able to photograph these Snowy Owls from the trail at Boundary Bay. The individual Owls pictured here were all within about 40-50 feet of the trail. I was going to make this post a bit more about the ethics of wildlife and landscape photography as I see it – but I think that is a topic that I need to mull over just a bit more and probably deserves its own post anyway. As I’ve said before though, I do not see trampling the marsh habitat or approaching the Snowy Owls and spooking them to be something anyone should be doing just to “get the shot”. On this day there were maybe a dozen plus “Big Lenses” wandering around in the marsh no doubt causing much damage – especially as a cumulative effect.
Tags: birds, birds of prey, boundary bay, british columbia, bubo scandiacus, Canon EF 1.4x Extender II, delta, marsh, owls, raptors, snowy owls, wildlife
Posted in Photography | 6 Comments »
Snowy Owl
(
Bubo scandiacus)
-click to enlarge-
I will do a more thorough writeup of my trip yesterday to Boundary Bay, but for now I wanted to quickly share this image of a Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus). Of the over 600 photographs I made yesterday, this one stood out as one that showed the best action of the day. The Owls hunt sporadically, so there is a lot of sleep and relaxing in between. Sometimes they just sit there and barely open their eyes. This one started to warm up for the hunt and hopped around a little before taking off towards the water.
I should point out that I made this photograph from the path at Boundary Bay. Many photographers have behaved badly in this location in the last few months, a fact I will document and speak to in a later post. I was able to hang out for hours within 30-40 feet of a dozen Snowy Owls right next to the path, I have no idea why trampling the marsh and chasing the Owls is necessary for a good photograph. More about that later (and more Snowy Owl photos too!).
Tags: birds, birds of prey, boundary bay, british columbia, bubo scandiacus, Canon EF 1.4x Extender II, delta, marsh, owls, snowy owls, wildlife
Posted in Photography | 4 Comments »
Barred Owl (Strix varia)
-click to enlarge-
I went for a walk through some trails last week and while I wasn’t going there specifically for photography I brought the camera along. I figured that if I didn’t have it with me, an eagle would land in a tree right in front of me and well, I would be out of luck photographically. No eagles this time, but a Barred Owl (Strix varia) did land right in front of me and posed for long enough for me to get a few decent shots of it. I have never seen an owl this close before, and I’m lucky I had a camera poised to take the shot. A few weeks ago I was in the same spot on the trail taking some macro shots of Pacific Bleeding Heart flowers. If the owl had shown up then I would have had the macro lens on (instead of the 70-200mm), camera on the tripod, mirror lockup turned on, the ISO too low, and an aperture stopped down enough that a handheld shot would have been impossible. I guess what I am saying is I feel fortunate to have had all the factors work out for me this time! Getting a nice composition is difficult with so many branches sticking out everywhere though.
Tags: barred owl, british columbia, campbell valley park, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, langley, owls, strix varia, wildlife
Posted in Photography | 4 Comments »
This is something I have learned the hard way. While I am not going to bring the SLR when I go to the grocery store, I have learned to bring it with me if there even a decent chance of finding something interesting to photograph. There have been many times when I have found something interesting – and every time this happens my camera has done me little good sitting in its bag back home. This can be a bitter pill to swallow when one comes across something spectacular.
A few days ago I accompanied a friend on a journey to Washington State to buy a new vehicle. I debated whether I should bring the camera bag or not. It was quite likely that I would not have time to shoot anything – and also quite likely I would see nothing to shoot. I’ve had this debate before – and opted to not bring my equipment with me. Frequently this has worked out just fine, but other times I have missed great opportunities by leaving my equipment at home. So this time I brought it all with me.
Glad I did!
We stopped for a quick break along SR20 in San de Fuca which is just outside of Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island. Walked down to the shore and there was a small flock of Dunlin (Calidris alpina) foraging along the shore. A quick dash back to the car and I began stalking them along the shore. Not very skittish at all, but they did move along the shore away from me when I approached. I had to hide behind old timbers of a dock to get as close as possible. Normally it is much better to sit and wait for a group like this to wander back towards you, but they did not seem alarmed by my presence and I had no time to camp out. Dunlin spend their time here on the coasts of Washington State and British Columbia in the winter – fattening themselves up before a migration to their summer breeding grounds in Alaska and along the shores of Hudson Bay.
Tags: calidris alpina, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, dunlin, hwy 20, oak harbor, penn cove, san de fuca, sandpiper, washington, washington state, whidbey island, wildlife
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About Michael Russell Photography
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