Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Vincent Munier
























After watching his video in class, I went to Vincent Munier's website. I enjoyed his video and his ability to capture animals movement. His website is a pain to navigate and takes a while to load but he has some amazing photos.
He has an amazing ability to capture animals in action so I figured after reading the chapter "Animals in Action" in our textbook his photos would help elaborate on the subject. I liked how he captured the diving birds and the splashing water from the bears feet in his video. So I was happy to find that he has many more action photos like the shots in his video. I really like the photo I posted here. The fighting bears and the splashing water make for a stunning image and the blurred green backdrop makes the brown bears stand out even more. The picture really needs no description, it's just an amazing photo.
He takes a lot of winter photography and uses the white background of the season to create very moving and emotional images. I really like his ghostly winter photos, he creates hazy silhouettes of animals showcasing their struggle to survive. The image I posted here is a perfect example. The photo has a cold desolate feeling and makes you feel sorry for the geese trying to live in such a place. The imagery is stunning even without any prominent colors standing out. He uses the white winter landscapes to great effect making his photos seem endless and hopeless as he captures animals at their most vulnerable moments.
I had to go find bootleg photos on the internet since you can't copy any of his images and I was happy with the two I found, but he has even better ones on his site, which I would recommend to everyone.

Animals in Action

The chapter on Animals in Action in Tim Fitzharris' book gives some good tips on how to capture the image you want. He reiterates that knowing your subject and where you can find it is invaluable. Knowing where to find and at what time of year you can find your subject makes life much easier and photography less frustrating. To capture the images you want you will also need to be in the right place at the right time of day. This generally means that you need to be ready to shoot at sunrise or sunset, when animals are most active.
If you want to capture a wild animals normal behavior then keep your distance and get a better lens, so they aren't reacting to your presence.
Adjust the angle of your shot to create the image you want. Lower your tripod and get down low to the ground to capture an intimate photo at the animals eye level. This will also make you less threatening to the animal.
While shooting wildlife it is best to shoot, shoot and shoot. Worry about the pictures later capture as many shots as you can while you can and keep your camera up so you don't miss anything. You can edit and view your photos when you get home. Don't get caught looking at your photo cache when a great opportunity is presenting itself in front of you.
Becoming well acquainted with your camera and knowing how to focus on a moving subject without a second thought will create the images you want. You don't want to be fumbling around with your focus while a bird is flying over your head. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Practice taking photos of animals that are less interesting to you, so you don't blow it the moment you are in the field trying to capture a more fascinating subject.
Patience is important for getting a sharp image of a moving animal. Having an animal in focus before they move is effective for capturing images of yawning or stretching. For a running or flying animal you want to pan along with their movement while shooting and follow through to keep the animal where you want within the frame. You can also anticipate the movement of the animal and have your camera set in focus and wait for the animal to move into the frame to capture your image.
Finding a good stage or background for your subject can make or break a photo. If you anticipate an animals movement (correctly) it gives you the ability to choose what the background will be. By focusing on an area that the animal will pass through you can set up the frame and wait for the subject to move into place then you will capture the image on the stage you want.
Knowing your subjects behavior is also important. Most animal activities are repetitive. If you know what to look for you can capture the action as it happens.

Getting Close

To capture a photo of a wild animal in great detail you need to get close to it. How close depends on the lens you use. Wielding a point and shoot camera means I'll need to learn how to get within a short distance of wild animals or shoot them with tranquilizers to be able to get close enough to capture close up intimate shots. Shooting an animal with a tranquilizer goes against my ethics and violates some laws I'm sure, so honing my skills to get close to wild animals is what I'm going to have to do.
Tim Fitzharris discusses in his book various ways in which to do this. An animals experience with humans will determine your ability to approach and get near them. If the animal lives in a park frequented by humans or in a place where they have grown without fear of humans then your ability to approach them will be easier.
First off you need to know how to find your subject. Where do they usually frequent? Do they hibernate and if so when? Knowing where and when to find your subject will limit frustration. Once you know where and when to find your subject go and track them down.
When you track them down be sure to figure out how your subject feels about your presence and how close it will allow you to get. If the animal becomes agitated back off don't make them feel threatened by you or they may run or fly off on you. If you are standing in their only direction to flee you may get attacked by the frightened creature. So be cautious when approaching any type of wildlife species.
While all wild animals have general characteristics that you should be aware of, every wild animal will also have an individual personality. You will have to figure out your subject's personality on your own when you find them. Look for signs of agitation while approaching your subject and if they appear greatly upset by your presence find a new subject.
Animals hearing is far too keen for humans to sneak up on them. For the most part they will know you're coming. In order to get as close as you want to capture a great picture of a wild animal, you will need to appear non-threatening. Do this by getting low to the ground and crawl if you have to while advancing slowly. Going directly at you subject can work with some animals, but if you have a timid creature you should use a more round about approach.
Another effective method for photographing wildlife is to know where your subject is going to be and get there before them and conceal yourself. Hiding out in a blind allows you to get close to animals without frightening them. There are different methods and types of blinds you can utilize. An automobile makes a good blind because it conceals your body well and is far less intimidating to an animal than your moving body. You want to set up blinds in a spot you know animals will frequent, so again you need to do your homework and know where the best spots are and what time to be there. Blinds don't need to be elaborate they just need to conceal you and allow you close access to your subject, covering yourself and your camera in camouflage is better than nothing.
Another tactic that Tim talks about is bringing the animal to you by baiting. He likes to use peanut butter to draw in his subjects. This seems like an effective method but also seems like cheating to me. Half the fun of taking a good picture is in the reward of capturing an animal by chance, so patience and persistence is the best method for me to capture images of wildlife.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Zimmerman Park














My girlfriend and I drove up Zimmerman Trail the other day to check out Zimmerman Park. Despite the lack of a creative name, it's a beautiful park with a great view of Billings and the surrounding area. You can see for miles up on top of the rim. Coming from the flat state of Michigan any rock formation or elevation change is amazing to me. Being a rock climber I may find rock formations more interesting than most, both for the aesthetic beauty and also because I enjoy trying to find fun or challenging new climbs to try out. The sandstone up there for the most part is too brittle to climb, but I found a few good spots to boulder. Anyway, I also found an opportunity to take some photos while I was there. I liked this photo because another nerdy hobby of mine is bonsai, so finding a tree that has been naturally stunted and deformed is always exciting to me. I also thought it was a cool layout with the rims in the background leading out towards the distant landscape. Although looking at it again, I wish I would have placed the tree a little more to left of the shot. Maybe, I'll go recapture this shot again soon, since the park is only a few minutes away and makes for a nice excursion to forget about school and work for awhile. I'm sure there's plenty more photo opportunities up there as well.

Designing the Picture Space
























Shooting a photograph is easy but taking a great photo requires some thought or just having the knack for seeing good pictures. There are many questions to answer when taking a photo. Do you want a single subject or multiple objects in the shot? Are you going to take a picture of an animal or are you going to take a picture of an animal and it's surroundings? Where are you going to place that subject or subjects in the picture? Is that animal going to be in the middle or on a side or in the corner? What colors do you want to stand out or not? Are there vibrant reds that will take center stage or do you want a more of a cool theme to your photo? What is the overall theme you wish to capture? All these questions have different answers depending where, when and what you are shooting. It's your job as the photographer to figure out the why and try to express that to the people who view your photo.
The two photos I've chosen are both beautiful and expressive for very different reasons. I ransacked Ernst Haas's collection again to get them.
The elephant photo has multiple subjects, of course the elephant but the mountain is the dominant feature taking up the majority of the picture while the grass composes an interesting element to the shot. The blue and green are both cool colors creating a sort of solemn mood while the dull brown strip in the middle makes the green and blue stand out more vibrantly. The mountain takes up the top two thirds of the photo and the cliff shape brings your attention back down to the elephant in the corner walking off into the vast distance of the immense landscape.
The volcano shot has a few different subjects the white smoke, the black crater, but the photo's main feature is the lava. The bright reds and oranges of the lava draw your attention right away. The spewing lava, jagged rock and ghostly white smoke make for a very dramatic photo.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Art Walk

Last Friday, my girlfriend and I went to the art walk downtown. We started down on Montana Ave because there are five studios right by each other, although one studio had a sign saying he was having hernia surgery so he wouldn't be there. But anyway, we went to the other four starting with the Toucan Gallery. Most of the art there were paintings, which for the most part were good. There was some cool ceramics and some crazy sculptures that danced. There was some photography at this studio as well. Not a whole lot and nothing that I can remember. Which doesn't mean that the photography was bad, it was just the first place we went to that night and it turned out to be a long night, but that is besides the point. The next gallery we went to was a photography studio but they didn't seem like they were too involved in the event so we just glanced in. They had a lot of portraits hanging on the walls and they also had some cool woodworking in the front, which I would like to get into some day, so I enjoyed it quite a bit. Next we went to the Tompkins Tanner Degenhart Fine Arts Gallery. No photography, but they did paint a lot of landscapes and natural scenes. I was particularly fond of the Indian Paintbrush painting they had on display. The last studio we went to on Montana Ave was the Prodigal Gallery, I wasn't a fan of the art but the owner's little dog Mungus was cute. After that we hoofed it over to the CTA Atrium Gallery on N. 23rd St. This was a cool building and they had some pretty excellent art and photography on display, which they were auctioning off. The building is also an office for an architectural design firm and they had some cool photos of different buildings that they have built and designed around the country. Next, we went to the McCormick Cafe which apart from the free cookie wasn't worth going to. I've said before that I'm not too interested in abstract photography, with some exceptions, that being said my tolerance for abstract art is even less and that's all they had on display. The last place we went to before Carter's was the Transformation Spa & Wellness. I don't remember who the photographer was but they had some pretty amazing photos on display. There were three in particular that I liked one was of a willow tree, another of lily pads and flowers and the final one was a massive 4' x 5' (rough guess) print of a stream in WA state. The stream was really nice, you could tell that they had used a long exposure in the low light setting. The water was streaking and some of the ferns were blurry from the water hitting them and everything from the wet rocks down to the moss was in great detail even with such a large print. All in all it was a good time and we will probably try to go to the next show, which is on Friday, December 4 from 5 to 9. If I haven't convinced you to go yet, they also have free wine and snacks.