1. EVERYTHING
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WINDSWEPT
Good news, bad news.
Bad:
- Frigid, frostbite-able, finger numbing, toe tingling, battery draining temperatures.
- Extreme, gusty winds, driving heavy snows, whiteout, blizzard blinding, impossible to focus conditions.
- Lugging thirty pounds of gear through knee deep, immobilizing piles of snow over uneven ground.
- Fumbling with too small controls in wet, over stuffed with “handwarmer” mittens.
- Fogged up viewfinder and glasses from miss-directed breathing escaping through a mouth condensation soaked balaclava.
Good:
All of the above, because there’s nothing like bad weather to make for a good shot.
The good, the bad, and the beautiful.
SNOWDRIFT
GLIDE
BERRY DELIGHTFUL
ARTISTIC BLAST
SWIRLY GIRLY
It’s become an annual meeting.
I’ve encountered this same female snapping turtle in the exact same place the last three springs. I’m excited to see her – she’s big and beautiful, probably a 16” diameter shell - but I also feel badly. Each time we meet, it’s just as she’s working her way up the steep bank below the dam of the pond that she’s trying to reach. As soon as she sees me, she turns around and slides back into the stream, giving up all the ground she’s gained. Then she lies perfectly still in the water thinking I can no longer see her and waiting for me to leave.
I look forward to next year’s meeting – with guilty pleasure.ron pittssnapping turtlesnapperrapidscreekstreamlong exposurenaturewildlifeanimalsreptiles
GOING DEEP
Sperm whale off the coast of Newfoundland diving for a long stay below the surface.
ron pittsSperm whalenewfoundlandmammalsanimalsnaturewildlifeatlantic oceanwater trailswhale tail
DAYBREAK
A great blue heron caught in the morning light in search of breakfast. The forest behind him were still in dark shadow and reflecting in the pond, surrounded the bird in a deep black pool.
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The Frosty Edge
BullsEyes
Scarlet
FUZZ
FUZZ Ever since a pair of trumpeter swans first appeared on our pond in Tottenham and I learned that they were from the Wye Marsh in Midland, Ontario, I’d been meaning to go there and photograph the cygnets. Finally, some four summers later, when I heard a resident trumpeter pair had a clutch of four babies, I raced to the marsh to try and capture them at the crack of dawn.
I could’ve slept in. They were nowhere to be found until their mid-afternoon feeding time. Then the family would come cruising into the feeding area and chow down for about half an hour. They were comfortable with onlookers so there was no trouble moving around them to get close and down low for a better angle. The parents kept a watchful eye but it was more for trouble from below in the form of snapping turtles than from a photographer. When they left, I followed along as far as I could, snapping photos of them in procession until they swam away down one of the channels.
I headed home but returned two more days that week – still driving up in the dark, still hoping to find them in the morning golden hour of light. But each time I ended up hiking around the marsh – cygnet-less until midday.
This summer I’m sleeping in.
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
A pair of wood ducks spending some quiet morning time together on the pond. This woodpeckered log is a favourite resting place for the couple.
ronpittsapple of his eyebeautifulnaturephotographyphotographimageswildlifeanimalsgreengreymalefemalewood duckwood duckslogwaterpondreflection
CUTTER
No End in Sight
SNOWDRIFT
Falling
Autumn
TORN CURTAIN
Glazed Wood
AGAINST THE WIND
Snowy owl.
FLICKER OF HOPE
Roly Poly
It seemed easy enough…
I read about the new polar bear cub at the zoo and immediately decided to go while he was still in the “cute” stage. Didn’t know what to expect but figured it’d be relatively simple to get a few “aw” pictures. The only special game plan was to wait for a snow day.
Perfect.
A snowstorm arrived in a few days and as I worked my way through morning rush hour, clichés of “shooting fish in a barrel…” rang in my ears.
Slightly mistaken.
There were two viewing areas. One from behind a barrier and chain link fence – not gonna work. The second was a half-enclosed shelter with glass - but only five meters wide for an overflowing crowd of families.
The challenge.
- The glass was covered with condensation on both sides from all the warm bodies making it difficult to focus.
- There were dozens of kids plastered against it scrambling for a view and parents with strollers packed in behind them. I didn’t want to hit anyone swinging around 20 pounds of camera nor get in the way of them enjoying the cub.
- The storm brought a cold snap and I’m a wimp when it comes to numb fingers, metal objects, little buttons, and fingerless gloves.
Eventually.
I contorted myself into a corner and with the sounds of kids laughing and cheering at the baby bear’s antics, settled in for one of the more enjoyable shoots I’ve done.
… Not as easy as planned but more fun than I expected.
SNUZZLE
You never know.
A photographer friend and I were scouting the usual roadside areas around Algonquin Park when we chanced upon this mother and calf. It was Labour Day weekend, no one was seeing much wildlife – including us, and so we were glad to finally find something. We parked on the shoulder along with a few others that were already there and picked a spot to shoot from.
I’ve learned the hard way to always try to get a shot ASAP in case my subject leaves. Once I’ve got something in the can, then I’ll take a look around and consider other vantage points and possibilities. But even when I move, I try to be ready to shoot because you can never predict what or when something will happen.
I had just finished making such a location adjustment when the cow suddenly turned and looked down at her calf who then reached up for a little nuzzle. I held the trigger down and shot until they separated. If focus and exposure were good I knew I had a sweet moment. Then I looked for my friend to see how he faired.
He didn’t.
Unfortunately he had decided to move his car closer to where we were standing and missed it.
Been there. Done that. Sure I’ll do it again – but not this time.
Just a Peek
Ducking Ducklings
Mother mallard with her newborn ducklings on their first day on the pond.
ronpittsducking ducklingsbeautifulnaturephotographyphotographimageswildlifeanimalswaterfowlducklingducklingswaterpondgreengoldgolden hoursunset
MORNING GLORY
The highlight of most mornings in the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge is when tens of thousands of snow geese blast off from the big pond.
Actually there are two blast events: The first is before sunrise from the pond where they spent the night. Thousands of geese take off at once silhouetted against the first streaks of orange and purple sky. The timing is such that you can take photos of this event and then make it to the next staging area where MORNING GLORY was captured.
The second-stage pond is where hundreds of sandhill cranes have spent the night. The geese from first pond join them and together they spend an hour or so milling about, resting, and preening.
Once the sun clears the distant mountains, the cranes begin leaving one at a time and in small groups. They’ll spread out their departure this way over a couple hours.
The geese on the other hand are unpredictable. You know they’re going to launch, en masse, but you never know when and no one knows what prompts them. It’s always after sunrise but it can happen right away or it can take a couple hours. So you have to keep alert. You might get advance warning and hear them begin to chatter in anticipation – gives you a chance to pick your area, like this cotton wood tree. But quite often you just hear the cacophony of thirty thousand wings beating as they explode off the water.
It’s great drama in the desert.
DANCE AT DAWN
Northern Exposure
Sooo cold. Fingers, toes, and face, numb.
Where the Mississippi River runs through Monticello, Minnesota, the water stays open even during coldest weather from the upstream nuclear power plant. When trumpeter swans were reintroduced there in 1986, Sheila Lawrence who lived nearby started a daily feeding ritual. What began as a few swans has turned into thousands. And what was once a few buckets worth of corn has become nearly a ton a day.
“The Swan Lady” passed away in 2011 but her husband continues the tradition. The area has become a mini park; a small lot between a couple houses, high above the feeding bank, fenced off so as not to disturb the birds below.
I arrived at the park before dawn to be ready for sunrise. The sky was perfectly clear and the mix of extreme cold air and relatively warm water was creating massive billows of mist. Combined with the high winds, it looked like an armada of clouds was blowing down the Mississippi.
There’s nothing better than swans floating through the mist in beautiful morning light.
I shot until I ran out of memory and the golden hour light was gone, along with my last reserves of body heat.
Headed back to the hotel to download and thaw.
The Conversation
Thunderbird
Winter Maneuvers
Little Leap
CHICKADEE
Winter Wings
INTO THIN AIR
It’s all about time.
One of my favourite "powers" of photography is its ability to stop time – to reveal what otherwise would be invisible to the naked eye.
It’s easy to see the beauty of wings on big birds like hawks or herons and such. When they’re launching, landing, or simply gliding past, they appear to move in slow motion and give you plenty of time to appreciate their elegant design and movement.
But the small guys are so fast you can never see what’s happening. They dart about and give you no opportunity to appreciate the subtle flexing and fans, the graceful lines, and the delicate translucency of their feathers – unless you freeze-frame it.
The challenge is that they are too fast to track and take off with too little warning.
My technique involved a little dose of skill and a large helping of luck:
I set up about 18 feet from the birdfeeder area - as close as I can focus using my 600mm lens. When a bird lands, I aim and focus, favouring a composition in the direction I’m guessing they’ll launch, then immediately begin rapid firing until the bird takes off.
- Most times they get the jump on me and I have empty frames.
- Some times they never launch and I end up with way too many perch pictures.
- Other times I catch the action but they fly out of my narrow range of focus.
This time I got lucky.
