Heading to the Wolf Conservation Center (WCC) for a photography session is something I have wanted to do for a long time now. I have visited once before and was eager to come back for a more personal visit. The WCC is a fantastic organization that promotes wolf conservation through education and also is a major part in the reintroduction of wolves to the United States of America. Wolves have roamed this country for many years as a top predator. Only due to our eradication had they been gone for 70+ years. These are amazing animals that should be celebrated and understood, rather then demonized and shunned. The better we know our subjects, the better our images will become. As well as the better it is for both parties to live along side one another.

Not only does the WCC host weekly programs for under 15$ to better educate the public they also offer photography sessions with the ambassador wolves. These wolves are more acquainted with the public, but make no mistake. These are full wolves at heart and command our respect. If we give them our respect then we are only to be rewarded.

I wasn’t sure how to approach presenting the photographs from my trip so I thought I would do it in a portrait series presentation. I can’t wait to go again and you should join me sometime!

To start off our series I present you with the Gray wolves of the WCC:

Lukas

Lukas has a trait that most wolves lose soon after they are pups. When wolves are born they have blue eyes. Lucas however rather then losing those blue eyes has retained them. He is a prime example of what a gray wolf in his prime looks like. Although more hesitant then the other members of his pack. He makes sure to strike a pose you’ll remember.

A tricky part of the photo session was watching out for unnatural items. This is important when it comes to watching your background. All too often we just point and click. We need to keep a thought in the back of our heads constantly reminding us to watch out for whatever doesn’t add to the scene.

Kaila

The female of the pack. She provided the most interesting views. She would make sure to prowl the area in a specific pattern and way that would constantly create new and interesting angles.

If you were there with me and listening to me take photographs you would be quite confused. There were moments where the wolves were in prime positions and I wasn’t taking the photo! Why? you ask. Well the light was all wrong. When photographing contrasting light you’ll need to be extra cautious as to where it is landing. At times the background was lit and not the subject, or only the lower half of the wolf. My goal was to make sure the light lands right on the subjects eye. At worst the face was lit and at best I was able to produce a catch-light in their eyes. An important technique when taking photographs.

Apache

Apache was the real show stopper for the experience. There is nothing like witnessing a wolf howl into the silence. Apache helped to get all the wolves in the area to howl. Not just for the pictures, but to stand and listen was the real treat. I highly recommend you get out there! Even if it is just for the educational visit it’s something you, your kids, your family, and your friends will never forget!

When a wolf howls it reminds me of a singer who pours all their heart into that last note. Apache being the Alpha male must stay strong and assert his dominance to let them know where the pack stands. There are no excuses or bad days. You must always be on your game as a wolf or it just might be your last.

Arctic Wolf: Atka

You may have heard of Atka. Atka is one of the more popular wolves when it comes to visiting the general public. Yes that’s right. They make visits to schools and nature centers as well. All for your educational enjoyment. I don’t know if it is my fascination with the arctic north and the cold, but Atka constantly had my attention.

The icing on the cake was when the sun began to provide the perfect light the whole area errupted in howling.

The wolf pack structure is something that has been admired for hundreds of generations, They have been an evolutionary power house adapting to a myriad of environments and currently fighting for their stance in North America. We can learn a lot from their social nature to look past many differences and collectively work for a better future. Both for ourselves and our animal friends.

As the sun set our day was full. We were treated with the opportunity to take the portrait of our better half. Capturing a moment in time to remember the importance of wolves to our ecosystem. They have single handed restored the Yellowstone ecosystem and are a part of our natural world. Long before we set foot on this planet. Sometimes you walk away from a day of taking photographs and feel empty. Or as if something was missing. However this day, just wasn’t one of those days.

Thank you to the Wolf Conservation Center for all that you do and inviting us in.
For more information please visit their website at www.nywolf.org , their Facebook page, and their events calendar for your next visit!

With the upcoming photography teaching event and photo walk I will be teaching at Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve I decided to shoot a little before going over some of the presentation. I am without my wildlife lenses unfortunately as they are being serviced, so to landscapes it is! The skies were cloudy and a fresh painting of snow had touched the landscape. Before I even took the camera out of the car I knew I was going to shoot for HDR (High Dynamic Range.)

One thing I love about HDR is what it does to the clouds. It adds an incredible amount of drama. If you ever underexpose a shot heavily with stormy skies you will see what I mean. I am working on a tripod 90% of the time when working with HDR. You need to make sure all the images will easily overlay and line up to reduce any artifacts. The one problem too is wind. Zoomed in you can see a few branches that look like they are ghosting due to the wind. I could have not shot the image, but I felt it didn’t suffer because of it. Once I had my tripod I stopped down for a large depth of field and I usually start with no exposure compensation. In typical scenes like these a 5-stop range of light will cover my needs. I go into my cameras bracketing function and set it for a total of 5 images. A normal meter reading, -1 underexposed, -2 underexposed , +1 overexposed, +2 over exposed. Then from those images I will compile them all later in Photo Matrix Pro to get the image I desire. There are a ton of sliders in photomatrix and I push and pull them until the image feels just right. A tip I use to know when I shot a 5-image sequence when reviewing my images from the day is to go back to a single exposure shot and photograph my hand. It’s a signal to me that before that shot is my sequence. I took a total of 8 HDR sequences and trying to keep up amongst all the other photos can be a blur. I got the tip from Matt Kloskowski at DTownTV for shooting panoramas. I would take a lot of images and not knowing where one starts and one begins can drive you nuts!

Notice something in this image that wasn’t in the last? Same location, but there are no foot prints! I actually walked back in my own foot prints to keep this look going. The HDR technique really brought out the detail in the depth of the snow.

I was captivated by this one walkway. It is just across Sharrotts road near the park and I was the first one to step foot there. Well besides the wildlife at least. I ran this through Silver Efex Pro and choose the Dark Sepia filter. No adjustments beyond that. This is the same image as the first one posted.

I wanted to shoot some images that weren’t HDR. Although I enjoy HDR photographs I don’t like to fill a location with them. The advantage is I keep all 5 shots so I could pluck out an exposure I like. These non HDR images however were shot for the sole purpose of not using HDR. I used the Pro Contrast filter in Color eFex pro that made my whites bright and crisped up the edges.

I also ran it in B&W. Although I realize most of these images are  the same location/position there are subtle differences. We all too often walk by a scene as something we have seen before. Something that has been photographed and we have grown tired off. Don’t get me wrong I have done it too. I try and correct myself when I do so however. I try and remember that every moment in time is unique. Why was this last photo (color and B&W version) so unique? Well if you notice the shadows came out. The day being overcast left no shadows. I had MAYBE 15seconds to take this image. I panicked and shot it at f/8. Not the f/16 I had wanted, but we take what we can get.

The reason I was shooting at f/8 was I wanted to be ready for anything. Remember I alluded to wildlife before? Well if something walked in the frame he/she wasn’t going to stand still for an f/16 exposure. I have left my settings in bracketing or stopped down real hard before and payed for it with missed opportunities. So this is the flip side of trying to avoid that. Can’t win them all they say

My goal was to get to Sharrotts Pond. As you can see everything was untouched and just a beautiful sight. I kept the cooler tone that the HDR had created as I felt it told a batter story as to how the temperature felt.

The pond was perfect. Frozen just enough for a fantastic winter landscape. I wanted to bring you along for this one

I wanted to finish out the day with a portrait of the pond. Sometimes an image speaks to you and when it does don’t let it get away! Whether it is HDR or a quick snap the hesitation of holding off that photograph is not worth it. Just Click! (sorry Nike :-p)

So you may have noticed a change to the blog. With recent fantastic events coming up I wanted a blog theme that had two sidebars to provide more information more quickly. My good friend, awesome photographer, and book writer has put the time in to guide me through and even tweak the blog to see what you do today. I hope you find it familiar, but with a sharp edge.

On top of the blog changes the fantastic news is that I will be teaching photography technique with a photo walk soon once a month for at least three months. The dates, location and details can now be found in the right panel section marked “Events.” I will have the other two dates firmly very soon. The price of admission is free so you have nothing to lose and you may just learn a lot more then you thought you knew about your photography! Plus I am there to answer all sorts of Q&A in the field as we will shoot images all along our walk.) So what are you waiting for? check it out! Go ahead I’ll wait

Excited? I sure hope so. It’s going to be a great program and I am really looking forward to meeting my readers and to share our passion. If you have any questions please let me know. I am testing the waters with these classes and your input and experiences will help shape them for the future! If turn out is high and requests for more advanced learning grows then we might just do some classes on HDR, lighting, post production who knows… The possibilities are limitless.

To put the icing on the cake I also wanted to bring you a really cool technique I performed in Photoshop. I call it Image Overlay Sequencing. It is the process of taking many photos shot in a single sequence and overlaying them within the same scene. It is exactly like the sports sequences as multiple frames are displayed as a snowboarder flies across the half pipe. Our subject today? A young bighorn sheep that descends down a cliff-side fighting gravity. How they do it amazes me. I shot many frames, but it didn’t all come together until I used this technique. I hope it pushes your photography into new areas. Let me know if the quality of the video is an issue. In the meantime I will work on a higher quality video. Enjoy!

Updated; hope it’s better. Gotta work on making that mouse movement smoother.

The return of the American bald eagle to the Hudson Valley is a great triumph for conservation. They can easily be seen by any birder who is interested in adding them to their list. Trying to get them within photographic range is a whole other deal entirely. There are many locations along the Hudson to see if they are hanging around. Even finding them along side the road in a tree is possible! You must be alert to try and find them. Unfortunately not every lighting situation is ideal and its important to know when a shot just isn’t worth it. However the day wasn’t left wanting more. We made the best of what we were given and that is all you can ask for.

After checking Croton Point Park we headed for the dam. The spillway is a favorite place of mine. Unfortunately it lacked the huge collection frost along the wall and trees like last year. I guess it just wasn’t as bitter cold.

This is the reason why. You can selectively use the areas that you want and eliminate the human elements. It’s hard to find rapids that look like this and this is one place I can get it every time. We’ll just keep that secret between us

Our eagle that was close and back lit had taken flight. Never to return near us so I decided to shoot from below. Small in the frame, but great for text placement or just to show the majesty as they soar through the clouds.

After driving through many spots in search of bald eagles we headed for a drive through Harriman State Park. Pulling over in the car we noticed a ton of dark-eyed juncos looking for food in some of the decaying foliage. I decided to camp out and see if they would get closer. Even with sticking a 750mm equivalent lens outside a window they were at a distance. Plus competing with cars driving by wasn’t very helpful (they frequently scared the birds off.)

I wanted to do something creative. I really wanted to work with the frozen lakes, but finding foreground was such an issue. I finally came about this small defrosted area with a fantastic iron color in the water. This is an HDR (high dynamic range) image I put together. It wasn’t easy getting this as the wind was howling the snow off the lake into my face and lens. It brought temperatures down to at least the teens. So worth it.

I also gave it a go in dark sepia in Silver eFex Pro

*note* They finally fixed the CR-106 road and hopefully the dam will allow the refilling of the lakes for fall. The lakes were all frozen over and the snow had covered the ice; so no reflections.

We did find some companions through the park. Dina spotted a bunch of does on the side of the road. We tried to get close and only one was nice enough to pose.

Guess how long I waited for this shot? Any ideas? 45min! We Dina saw this possum laying on the side of the road. Our guess was roadkill. Checking it out we saw its ears wiggle. Knowing they play dead meant some true patience. I stood around in one spot not moving an inch. He was a good sport getting up enough to not make him look deceased. Those wouldn’t make pleasing photographs. Our only concern was trying to get him off the road. Unfortunately he wouldn’t budge and we don’t like to alter nature. Although I don’t consider becoming roadkill natural… Finding him out in the day means one of three things; as he is nocturnal. He is sick, hungry, or injured. Here is hoping it was just for food.

I’m a few hours later from the day I said I would post this, but I wanted to share. For the longest time I had issues displaying my images properly on my portfolio site seen above (feel free to click on the image to go there.) I went through so many issues to try and get it to work. It drove me mad as my images never looked as they were supposed to. It came down to something very simple. The color profile embedded in the jpegs I uploaded.  Profiles are a difficult issue for many. There is a profile for your monitor (always calibrate), your operating system, printer, and even when you put it all on the web! My adventure was with the web obviously. Normally I shoot in adobe RGB as it has the widest gamut of colors for post processing. When it comes to the web on the other hand your browser doesn’t know how to properly deal with that.  Your goal before you throw that picture up on the web is to convert that image to sRGB. Now if it came off your basic point and shoot it’s more then likely already there. However if you are taking your images to another level by shooting RAW and with a wider gamut you need to remember to convert.

In photoshop under edit scroll down until you see “convert to Profile.”

Once you select that a window pops up. Make sure it is set to sRGB and then just click OK. Your good to go

I am still in the process of re-captioning and keywording all my images, but the content is all back up. Please feel free to take another look at my portfolio in a new light. Also there have been new additions to the Wyoming/Montana section in “Nature by Location.”