Photographing Butterflies by Connie Toops

This article is an excerpt, posted with permission, from the new Peterson Field Guides/Backyard Bird Guides ~ Hummingbirds and Butterflies by Bill Thompson III and Connie Toops © 2011

As you attract butterflies to your backyard, you may discover photography assists in their identification or enables you to share their beauty with others. Patience and willingness to experiment can result in stunning butterfly images. To master butterfly photography, you’ll need reliable equipment and you’ll want to perfect techniques that insure great photos.

Simple Equipment

Excellent digital “point-and-shoot” cameras are currently available at very reasonable prices. Standard features now would have been unimaginable to professional photographers only a decade ago.  A versatile digital model in the $250 to $500 price range should fulfill the needs of most casual butterfly photographers. Digital cameras record their images on small memory cards that are ultimately downloaded into computers for editing and printing. If you plan to travel widely as you photograph, you may need an extra memory card or a portable storage device to hold large numbers of images until you can process them. … Continue Reading

The Magic of Discovery: Rob Graham Captures a Majestic Deer Buck in The Fog

The forecast for this November morning in central Kansas called for fog. I woke early, and made the roughly 30 mile drive to Quivira NWR in pea soup fog, in the dark. I had never visited the refuge in fog as dense as that morning. Everything was peaceful. Flocks of geese, heard but barely seen even as they passed overhead, filled the sky.

I drove slowly through the refuge, watching for deer and other wildlife. About an hour after sunrise, I found this buck in a field near the road, grazing while watching for any nearby does. I pulled to the edge of the road, and watched and photographed the buck for quite a while. The fog seemed to isolate the buck from everything else. It was an amazing experience.

Quivira NWR and Cheyenne Bottoms WA are listed as Wetlands of International Importance. Located in the middle of the Central Flyway, both refuges play host to vast numbers of migrating waterfowl. Deer and other wildlife are also plentiful. Both refuges are well worth a trip to central Kansas. … Continue Reading

Today, This Labor Day: I Honor Professional Nature Photographers

Today is Labor Day. A holiday instituted in the late 1800’s to honor the contributions of the American labor workforce. In fact, my home state of Oregon was the first to make it an official holiday in 1887 and 7 years later it became a Federal holiday.

The original federal holiday was not conceived to honor workers but rather was quickly proposed and passed into law to avoid conflict with workers following the Pullman Strike.

Today it is observed as a day off from work, a three day weekend, and the last blast of summer in many areas. In my neck of the woods, school starts tomorrow. Although the original holiday was created to avoid conflict, Labor Day has become the official day we honor the labor force; American workers.

Today on this Labor Day, I wish to honor my colleagues: the professional nature photographer and their contributions to America and the World. … Continue Reading

The Magic of Discovery: Joye Arden Durham’s Bear Cub Encounter

by Joye Arden Durham

Living in Western North Carolina brings many photographic opportunities. Our homes are built in the forests and on the mountains where wildlife lives. We are in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains surrounded by protected national lands. In my opinion, it is one of the most beautiful places on earth. And every day I am grateful to call Western North Carolina home.

One night in June my friend Lib and I went to a friend’s house for a visit in great hopes of seeing the bears that march through her yard frequently. I had my camera on the tripod ready for any opportunity and then the wait began. We waited and waited. Nothing. We waited more. Nothing. Since nothing was happening outside we decided to eat dinner and try again in a few minutes. After dinner we waited. Still nothing. For about an hour and a half we waited and it was getting darker so we decided it was time to leave and try again another day.

I have a safe set up for shooting wildlife. In my Honda Element the sunroof is in the back of the car and is a perfect place to set up the tripod and wait for the animals. I can stand comfortably in the same position and shoot with the Nikon 100-400 lens and have the car as a safety net. After waiting until almost dusk, and knowing I had to get home, we decided the bears weren’t coming out so I took down the tripod, put the lenses away, closed the sunroof and got ready to leave.  … Continue Reading

The Magic of Discovery: The Owl

As nature photographers we love nature! Why we photograph nature is something special to each and every one of us. Our images show our connection with the earth and our interpretations of something beautiful displayed before us.

The cameras provides a pathway to seeing things we might normally miss in a busy and hectic life. It forces us to stop, look, and listen. It guides us to become better observers of the natural world.

Our images preserve what we saw at that moment and on that day and can last for eternity. It’s about discovery!

Photography is not just about the photograph, it’s about the journey to explore and discover.  … Continue Reading

Tim Laman’s Video: How to Impress Females (In The Birds World)

Noted nature and wildlife photographer Tim Laman has created a wonderful video on bird intimacy.

How To Impress Females (In The Bird World) from Tim Laman on Vimeo.

George Steinmetz Photographs and Films Africa by Air

National Geographic photographer George Steinmetz’s project African Air in a collaboration with multimedia company Mediastorm, was recently completed. What makes this project interesting is that Steinmetz photographed and filmed most of the project from the air and specifically from a motorized Paraglider.

The result is some fantastic perspectives of Africa’s unique variety of landscapes and from heights that would more challenging for an airplane to reach.

… Continue Reading

Photographic Learning & Travel Adventures

by David Hemmings

Today’s newest trend in adventure travel.

Do you love to take pictures? Do you love to travel? Do you wish you could take better pictures and learn a myriad of new things about all kinds of photography such as birds and nature? All of this while traveling to a dream destination with a small group of like minded individuals?

If you answered yes to any or all of these questions then perhaps a photographic learning travel adventure is for you.

There is a new way to travel these days and it is called the Photographic Learning & Travel Adventure. In the interest of space and time tapping on the keys, we will call this the “PLTA”. This is a trend that is becoming more and more popular these days in the world of travel. … Continue Reading

If You Are Photographing and Camping in Bear Country, You Will Want to Have One of These

As winter begins to give way in many areas across North America, some outdoor photographers are preparing for adventure photo shoots in a variety of backcountry locations that will include bear country.

If you are planning to camp anywhere near known bear locations you may want to consider taking a UDAP Electric Bear Fence.

UDAP company founder, Mark Matheny is a survivor of a grizzly attack. In 1992 he was hunting near Yellowstone NP when he spotted 35 yards away, two small grizzly cubs nursing on their mother.

When she spotted Mark, she jumped and charged full speed at him. He began to run yelling for his hunting partner as he jumped behind a log. As he said:

“Running from the bear, I now admit, was a total mistake. Not only does running increase the likelihood of a full-blown attack, it doesn’t work. You can’t outrun them.” … Continue Reading

Saturday Reads: Stunning Lava Images, Hungarian Nature Magazine, Underwater Photography, R/C Aerial Video

Photographing lava flows is popular among nature photographers as we have seen many great examples from Hawaii’s volcano’s. In Africa there is a very unusual and breathtaking lava lake at Nyiragongo Crater. Check out these stunning photos by Olivier Grunewald on The Big Picture site.

Steve Bloom Images, a stock agency in Britain, has a exhibition of underwater photography titled Into the Deep and showcases its many photographers at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. If you would like to see images of these beautiful underwater creatures, no need to head for Europe as the images are displayed on the agency website. Definitely worth a look.

While researching the identity of a spider I photographed and identified as a Golden Orb Spider, I also stumbled on this story and photo of a Golden Orb Spider EATING A BIRD! Here is another angle.

Nature Photo Magazine has released its latest issue of the online digital flip page magazine featuring superb photography from European photographers. Check out the photo essay on Pelicans by Hungarian photographer Bence Mate.

The popularity of radio controlled airplanes and helicopters has been around forever. But with the advent of HD video coming in smaller and lighter packages, videography from R/C devices is only getting more popular. In this video from TeamBlackSheep, they used an R/C airplane outfitted with a GoPro Hero video camera and flew it around the French Alps creating breathtaking scenery from a birds eye view. Check it out after the jump. … Continue Reading