Thursday, November 29, 2012

Impacts of Photography

Many people are all of a sudden (or so it seems) are starting to realize that nature photography may have adverse affects on the animals who are the subject of the pictures. I think one can compare the epiphany to the realization that smoking is bad for your heath. Everyone smoked and never thought twice about what they were putting into their body and how they were harming themselves and those around them. The photography issue is almost the same thing. No one really thought about what it is doing to the animals and how they are changing their behavior (like in the article with the study on anoles.)

Now I didn't quite understand that particular study too well (and had to Google what an anole is) since I am more of a creature of English and Literature rather than Math and Science and I really didn't try to understand the graphs too hard  since they looked rather intimidating (sorry for that btw) but I got the gist that their behavior changed some, just like how the breeding patterns have changed in certain animals and the  feeding patterns have changed as stated in the Wiki article due to the presence of photographers.

The Wiki article talks about how the bears in Yellowstone's diet was that of mostly what the campers had left behind and when the park cracked down on people leaving things behind the bears weight, height and litter size was drastically changed. In another article the photographer guy doesn't say were he specifically takes his pictures due to the fact he doesn't want people flocking to that spot and disturbing the animals. But it's not all bad.

Many of the places where people go to take photos depend on tourism and the money all of the people bring in and donations to the parks and safaris and things of that nature.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Tips For Africa


  • Bring Two (or more) cameras just incase one stops working!
  • Look into what vehicle you will be shooting in, so to bring the correct support for your lens
  • Bring lots of space to store pictures on and multuple backup options.
  • Cary a few different plug adapters to charge things and a power strip to charge multiple items
  • There is a ton of dust! Bring cleaning supplies
  • A zoom lens w/ auto focus capabilities would be a good thing to bring (a 400mm)


Friday, November 2, 2012

Eleven


This photo is by Robert Berdan which I found here . I really like the Northern Lights and the stars in this one. The angle of the shot is really neat, how it looks like the camera is lower to the ground. I like how the trees are silhouetted against the sky. The contrast between the tent and the rest of the picture is also really nice. The lines in the sky create a nice shape contrast to the trees which have straight hard lines while the ;ights have curved soft ones.

Ten


So I'm not sure if this counts as "nature photography" but it is nature just a bit more on the macabre (for lack of a better term)  side of it and more on the actual nature itself rather than the picture. (I'll post a picture I know for sure works on the same post.)



This is the articulated skeleton of a green Iguana. The photo is by Sergio Royzen (he doesn't have a website or anything that I can find,) but this is in Ryan Matthew Cohn's collection. (If you click the first link you can look at more of Royzen's photos.) I have recently found his art (Ryan Matthew's) and have been really into it, (he also collects oddities hence the skeleton). Here is his actual website, which in itself is really kinda neat. I really liked this picture mainly because of the top photo. I love how it's placed in a continuous circle and the eye just keeps going around and around and catches on the ribs and to the tail and in turn brings the eye to the head and the process starts over. In the bottom picture, the eye would be in focus if there was an eye... also how the tail go across the face(?) and wraps around. You can see the joints in the toes and I just think it's really neat. 





So incase the skeleton doesn't count....


This photo is by Donald A. Higgs. I really like the colours and how the blue fades into the red. The trees give   a sense of scale on how large the peaks are. I particularly the the peak to the right where it's orange and the clouds are behind it. Also I like how the majority of the peaks have a coloured tip on them, it helps tie in the colours. 



Thursday, November 1, 2012

Nine



I found this photo here by Con Foly. First off, this is pretty much the cutest owl ever! Who knew that owls could have puppy dog eyes? (In reality he's probably scared to death but, I'm going to keep on thinking he's being sympathetic to the photographer.)  I like how the brown of the owl contrasts against the green background and the yellow of his eyes stand out really well. The only thing I can think of changing id trying to get the whole owl in focused. The back of him isn't in focus as well as some of the feathers on the top of his head.