Coyote pup sitting beside yellow daisies, Jasper National Park, Canada. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

BBC = bBS

Hey Folks,

Here’s an interesting article from the UK Telegraph; the first paragraph pretty much sums things up: “The BBC is accused of routinely faking footage in wildlife documentaries, by using studio sets, sound effects and tame animals to portray creatures in the wild.”

Now, I know what you’re thinking: yes, indeed, the UK Telegraph commenting on any media source of ‘faking’ anything is pretty sad. Let’s disregard tabloid integrity for a moment and consider what this is really about (and what’s WAY more fun); wildlife photography.

Wildlife photography does not include zoo and game farm animals; shooting captive subjects, given that some folks are perpetually going to choose to do this, should always be labelled as such, even if only via context (see Darwin Wiggett’s bear photo for an example; and notice that he captioned it regardless).

I have yet to hear anyone explain how photographing a bear in a cage is wildlife anything. The root of the word ‘wild’ is free-willed, not Free Willy. I understand, for certain, there are degrees of what that might mean. Is a zebra migrating hundreds of miles across the plains in Africa before being hemmed in by a fence really free willed? *

The fact that there are indeed myriad shades of gray, woven through every possible facet of our world, does not make charcoal black any less black. We might differ on where 18% gray is, but we know what black is.

A bear in a cage is a bear in a cage, and not wildlife. Steel bars and free will aren’t friends.

Wildlife photography must be about wild, as people photography must be about people. Photographing captive animals is no more wildlife photography than photographing my pickup truck parked in front of the house might make me a Nascar photographer; a photo of me in my stylishly stunning goretex jacket is not fashion photography.

So what is “wildlife”? In thinking of how critically different a captive animal is to a wild one, I’m reminded of a powerful passage by Derrick Jensen in his great book, Thought to Exist in the Wild, Awakening to the Nightmare of Zoos: “A sea lion is her habitat. She is the school of fish she chases. She is the water. She is the cold wind blowing over the ocean. She is the waves that strike the rocks on which she sleeps and she is the rocks. She is the constant calling back and forth between members of her family, this talking to each other that never seems to stop. She is the shark who eventually ends her life. She is all these things. She is that web. She is the process of being a sea lion, in place. She is her desires, which we can only learn by letting her show us, if she wants; not by encaging her.”

That’s what wild is. A bear in a cage relentlessly pacing back and forth thru its own shit is not.

The power of photography is in its capture. What makes a photo so appealing to a viewer is the moment. Reality portrayed on a 2 dimensional plane. If we look through great moments in all forms of photography and ask the question of what is it that evokes a reaction in a viewer, it’s clearly a response to some perceived sense of reality, to some actual experience; even if that sense is simply someone else’s “take” on reality. We understand that moment. We feel it. We relate to it.

I think it’s important that we don’t deny that power, that integral function of a photograph. Photography might, translated literally, mean ‘painting with light’, but that’s a superfluous definition. Photography is most definitely NOT painting. Photography is photography.

When we present that photography as something other than what it actually is we’re not documentarians. It’s a copout to hide beneath the veneer of “artists” as well; the only use of the term “artist” that might be appropriate for those photographers who don’t disclose captive subjects is “con-artist”.

Speaking of such, even the National Advertising Division recently made a similar statement when they banned an ad by Proctor & Gamble for too much digital manipulation. The NAD took things a step further, however, and pointed out that even a footnote isn’t enough; that is, full disclosure should be FULL disclosure: “You can’t use a photograph to demonstrate how a cosmetic will look after it is applied to a woman’s face and then – in the mice type – have a disclosure that says ‘okay, not really.’

Some folks claim that labeling their photographs reduces nature photography to a form devoid of ulterior meaning, but I disagree. We humans label things. We label animals, features, subjects, moments, days, places, etc. We label each other. We label ourselves. And yes, we label our art. We label sculptures as ‘sculptures’, paintings as ‘paintings’, poetry as ‘poetry’, and so on. We even subdivide each form into further categories, and label pieces and subdivisions accordingly. Photography becomes ‘journalistic photography’, or ‘still life photography’ and ‘nature photography’. This is what we do. Its how we know the world.

IMO, the power of nature photography is its expression of the natural world. Portrayals of captive animals as wild animals loses much of the power that comes through our relationships and experiences with nature. I see no harm in expecting artists and documentarians alike to pronounce their work for what it is. The phrase ‘nature photograph’ carries with it certain intimations. A trip to the zoo is NOT one of those.

Cheers

Carl

* PS: the answer to the question about the zebra is (a), yes.

An early fall snow coats the peaks of Mount Edith Cavell, Edith Cavell Lake, Canadian Rockies, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

Looking around the web recently I can’t help but notice the surge in photographers’ promoting eBooks. I wonder if eBooks aren’t the newer version of microstock photography? The hallmark of microstock sales is, IMO, an incredibly low price for (typically) royalty free sales; at best only very loosely managed rights. That seems to be the industry marketing model for eBook sales as well.

I’m not saying this is all a bad thing. One plus I see is that the bulk of eBook sales are direct from the photographer to the customer; cutting out an agency, which I think is (virtually) always a good thing.

Another plus is the quality of the material; the eBooks I’ve seen have been absolutely first class stuff. Microstock photos are often pretty sad images.

I think the above 2 positives are more than likely related.

Just wondering out loud is all.

Cheers

Carl

Evening light on the Canadian Rockies. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

Some great news; photographer extraordinaire, and a man I am proud to call my friend, Darwin Wiggett has put together his excellent series, “How To Photograph the Canadian Rockies” again, this time with even more detail and information than its predecessor. In 2005 Darwin released, through Altitude Publishing company, this great book, as a small, portable handbook,a a guide to photographing the Canadian Rockies. I was lucky enough to grab a copy before the company went bust and the book’s publishing ended, leaving countless nature photographers frustrated, as they weren’t able to snare a copy. The book is absolutely fantastic; I unhesitatingly call it a “must have” for anyone heading toward the Canadian Rockies. Which is a bummer; a ‘must have‘ is now a ‘can no longer get’.

Until now. The great news; Darwin’s just set up a new website, How To Photograph the Canadian Rockies, and released all the great info in his book as ebooks. This time the ebooks go into more detail, and cover the Canadian Rockies region by region. Starting with the Icefield Parkway area, the first 2 ebooks are currently available, and soon to come are ebooks on photographing Banff and Jasper National Parks, probably the crown jewels of the Canadian Rockies.

We’ll do a quick test here. I’ll invite Darwin to check this blog out and tell me where the scene in this photograph (above) is, and where I shot it from (Darwin – if you know it, don’t post the answer just yet). The first non-Darwin who can do so, I’ll buy you any one of Darwin’s ebooks (your choice which).

Darwin’s expertise in the area, for photography, is unparalleled; he’s lives in the area, and has been shooting those mountains since before they were mountains. Well, maybe not THAT long, but long enough. I can’t tell you how helpful his original guide has been for me. I’ve been to the Canadian Rockies a number of times, and spent more than a few weeks stalking wildlife there, waiting for sunrises, rain to stop, clouds to break, etc, and I still wouldn’t take a trip there without his photography guide with me.

Darwin offers great advice on not only places to shoot, but when and how he likes to shoot them. Filters, lenses, time of day, likely wildlife sightings, etc, etc; a comprehensive guide. With the new website, he adds a lot more. I’ve already added the site to my Google Reader (you DO use a Google reader, don’t you?); a wealth of info and awesome photography is headed my way.

For anyone thinking about a trip to the Canadian Rockies, get yourself these ebooks, and check out his site. You’ll be doing yourself and your photography a huge favor.

Cheers

Carl

PS – I was gunna call the offer above my very own “Darwin Award”, but thought better of doing so.

Hey Folks,

Here’s a photo of an Indian Paintbrush, wildflower Castilleja miniata, from the Canadian Rockies, in Banff National Park. Banff National Park and the surrounding Greater Canadian Rockies ecosystem is a simply amazing place to photograph, with a myriad subjects to seek out and photograph. It has awesome mountain scenery, forests and montane ecosystems, sub-alpine and alpine regions, lakes and ponds, sloughs, rivers, glaciers, icefields, waterfalls, canyons, rockfaces, wildflowers, shrubs and grasses. Aspen trees, pine, larch, spruce, and so on. Wildlife photography in the area is probably some of the best in North America, second only (maybe) to Yellowstone National Park, which is just over a day’s drive south. Elk, moose, caribou, mule deer, whitetail deer, grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, foxes, bald eagles, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, to chipmunks, magpies and jays – a long, long list of subjects.

I think one of the hardest things to deal with as a visitor to Banff National Park intending to photograph the area is exactly that long list. What do you choose to spend your time and energy on. I’ve spent days and days in the area, particularly nearby Jasper National Park, and focused on elk in the rut, and each time I do, I’m always wondering in the back of my head, ‘should I be up at Athabasca Falls shooting the canyon there’, or ‘maybe I should go look for bears up around Marmot Basin’, etc. it can be maddening sometimes, though I do admit, it’s a nice problem to have, and a nice place to ponder those questions.

This particular day I decided to not look for wildlife, but to shoot the things I inevitably hiked or drove by whilst I was looking for elk. That included this Indian Paintbrush, one of my favorite flowers – I think lupine are my other favorite.

One summer I’d love to just head down to the Canadian Rockies and spend a few months there, really exploring and digging deep into the region – it’s simply awesome. And what could be better than fall, crisp cool weather, amazing colors, fresh snow and those bull elk roaring into the nights during the rut. Plus, the travelers have thinned out by then, which is always nice! Kinda weird, I know, to be discussing traveling to Banff and wanting travelers to be gone, being that I’d be one, but c’est la vie, eh?

Cheers

Carl
Here are more photos from Banff National Park.

Hey Folks,

A few more posts before the electricity goes and I scrounge around in the eternal darkness of the Alaskan winter. This one is a bighorn ram that I photographed on my first trip to Jasper National Park a few years back. I recently rescanned it, and am spending some downtime now getting caught up on editing and processing images. It’s funny looking at scans of slides these days, after shooting digital for just a few years. Pretty amazing the difference – though I think that’s a function of scanning more than film versus digital quality.

Well, it’s insanely past my bedtime, and I’ve had a big day, so this will be short and I’ll head to my room. You all have a good one and enjoy it while you got it – whatever it is.

Oh wow – just as I’m ready to hit “publish”, one of the dogs upstairs goes insanely off her head. At this time of night that means one thing: I looked outside and there’s 2 moose in the front yard. How cool is that? A cow moose and her calf under the street lights wandering through the front yard. Awesome!

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks

I didn’t get to post anything yesterday, because we didn’t get anywhere that had wi-fi. So today I’ll make up for that by uploading 2 posts, the first one I had intended to upload yesterday but didn’t get a chance. This one is fresh out of the box.

Now we’re in the Canmore area, just south of Banff. Today I took my parents up to Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, and also drove the Minnewanka Loop, a sweet drive. The weather wasn’t the best, but could’ve been worse. Moraine Lake is a treat in any weather, so that was fun. Lake Louise is, in my opinion, really hard to enjoy unless you have the time to walk up the trail and leave the pandemonium of the Lodge and crowds behind. Even my poor old dad noted the irony of one of the signs standing by the lake’s edge that wrote about how sensitive the environment in the area is, and how careful everyone must be to protect it, as we stand in front on a ridiculously over-sized hotel and accompanying accessories, a large parking lot, walkways going every which way more development than any other similar locale in the northern Rockies. Lake Louise is definitely a beautiful place, but I don’t have much time for it, due to the excessive development in the area. Moraine Lake has a lodge and a parking lot, but it’s far less obtrusive.

One of the disadvantages of traveling with my parents is having to tolerate, best I can, my dad’s miserable sense of humor. He really does try, God bless him, but he’s just not very funny. The trip runs nicer when he’s quiet (rarely, unless he’s sleeping (which means snoring) or mum’s just told him to ‘shut up, Neil”. I get a few moments of relaxing quiet time to myself after they’ve gone to bed – it’s nice to wind the day down after they’ve gone to bed, I put on the iPod and listen to a few tunes, read a little, work on some images and write a few lines, then hit the hay.

Tomorrow, my mother is going in to the town of Banff – a mistake, I fear. Banff is a tourist trap, and, being tourists, both of my parents may well become trapped. My mothers mission is to get her nails done. I did mine this afternoon, whilst driving down the highway, listening to Bob Marley. Nice job, too!

If it’s clear in the morning, I may try to get some early morning photography done. It’s a tough gig to do that traveling with my parents, because they aren’t too into the cold mornings. I wonder how they’ll enjoy looking for elk on the high Rockies plateau in Yellowstone in the pre-dawn frost. We should be in the jelly-stone early October.

Cheers

Carl

PS – I didn’t have any images from yesterday’s trip processed yet, so I posted this awesome bull from Jasper. At 7×7, he’s an impressive mature bull, and I am thankful for the opportunity to see and photograph him. More bull elk photos.

Hey Folks

Well, here I am in Banff. I’m still riding around the countryside with my parents, who give new meaning to the word “doddering”. We’ve visited nearly every public toilet in western Canada, which has been a real treat. So far, I haven’t had to unleash any violence, but I may resort to that medium of regulation sometime in the near future. My patience has been the mainstay of what stability we’ve managed to clutch. Dad doesn’t listen, and mum mumbles; a potent combination.

Actually, they’re doing OK, and I’m really enjoying showing them some of my favorite parts of the world. I’ll post some more images along the way from our trip, including Denali, another bear or 2 from Katmai, and some of the stuff I shot in Wrangell St. Elias National Park while traveling with them.

Today, we got up early and headed up to Mt Edith Cavell, a Jasper National Park icon. The sky was absolutely clear, stars shining and we drove up the winding bumpy road to the parking lot near the lake. All bundled up in nearly 7 layers of clothing, they braved the frosty morning cold – the temperature was slightly below freezing, which is many, MANY degrees colder than what it gets at the beach where they live. We watched the light brighten up the sky, then gradually paint the peaks of Mt Edith Cavell with its warm rays. Simply a perfect fall morning in Jasper. A crashing noise came across the lake, and I looked over to see a white horse appear out of the forest; it had come down to drink. Soon enough it was joined by another white horse and a dark bay horse. It was really cool to see them, and I have no idea where they came from, or who they belong to, or what the story with them is. They were around for maybe 10 minutes then made their way back into the forest. Very cool!

Next we drove back down the mountain and enjoyed breakfast by Patricia Lake,, with Pyramid Mountain standing over the distant shore. Pretty sweet, if I must say so myself.

Then we headed south, stopping to check out Athabasca Falls, a very cool site, right by Mt Kerkeslin, one of the grander mountains in the Rockies. Truly a sentinel of the river valley, Mt Kerkeslin is a favorite of mine, for some weird reason. It’s just an awesome mountain.

We saw the Columbia Icefield and also Peyto (pronounced Pee-toe) Lake, the most turquoise of turquoise lakes. Now we’re camped near Lake Louise, and about to have dinner – veggie pasta and tomato sauce!!! MMMMHHHMMMMMM!!!! Nothing like havin my mum to do some cooking for me – its been a long time. Thanks mum.

OK .. I better sign off and get the table ready for some grub and eating. I’ll be back later.

More photos from Alberta and the Canadian Rockies.

Cheers

Carl

PS- Just so I don’t get in trouble for posting a photo of the back of my parents, here they are when I told them to turn around! I love you two!

Hey Folks

Here’s the latest from the road! I shot this saturday evening, just before dark. I had long been looking to forward to bringing my parents thru the Canadian Rockies one fall, Jasper National Park in particular. I knew they’d love watching the elk in rut, hearing the bugles and feeling the energy of the place. We had an awesome day, and visited Maligne Lake where we hiked out for a mile or so along the shore, and enjoyed some quiet of the forest and nearby mountains, before walking back and having lunch down the road by Medicine Lake. A quick run into town for a milk shake, some email and shopping (my mother is a certified shopaholic) and we were back out in the park looking for elk. just before dark we found this bull and his harem. I grabbed my camera and tried to get some slow shutter speed images, blurring the motion of the elk as they moved about. I was really hoping I’d got this series right when it happened, as the bull looked awesome through the viewfinder. After dinner this evening, I browsed through the images from today and was glad to see this was pretty close to what I was hoping for. A nice bull elk image, conveying the frenetic energy of the rut, and the intensity of the great animals.

Photographing elk is an addiction, I’m the first to admit. The rut is so different to other ungulates because of the setting (majestic mountains ranges such as the Rockies), the crisp fall air, fall colors, and the bugling. That bugling is such an amazing sound. my mum asked my why the elk bulls bugle, and I wasn’t sure. Some say it’s an expression of dominance, a challenge to other bulls, or a call to females. It could well be an expression of the sheer exuberance of being alive and a part of this incredible experience. I think if I could bugle like that as the mist settles down on the pine forest in the Canadian Rockies, I probably would too!

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks

Wow! Here I go and sy ‘Ill try to update this journal more often, and then I go and don’t post to it in 2 weeks. That’s not too hip. Sorry about that.

I’m looking forward to heading back over to Wrangell St. Elias National Park in a couple of days. Hopefully the weather forecast will in incorrect (which has been to happen) and the sun will shine. We’ll see.

I don’t really have any specific to write about. This photo was taken one evening in the Canadian Rockies, in Jasper National Park. I believe this mountain is part of the Colin Range, but I can’t be sure. I didn’t take notes, like I should have, and now I can’t recall. It’s an impressive slab of granite though .. way cool. The evening sun lights it up nicely in the summertime, and makes it even more impressive.

I’ll post a couple of grizzly bear photos in a few, just so I’m not outdone by Ron Niebrugge.

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks

This is probably my lastpost from here in Jasper – well, maybe .. we’ll see about that. I’m expecting to scoot on outta here tomorrow, and head overto nearby Prince George, to meet some friends of mine there, then hit the long road up to Alaska. As much as I love Jasper, I haven’t had a great deal of success here this summer. Once again, I arose at 4am, headed for my planned destination, and waited and waited in the cold morning air for the sunlight to strike the peaks. The sky was relatively clear, and there had been no breeze at all down at camp. So I left with high hopes for a good morning shoot.

However, some distant clouds seemed to block the early morning sun from the peak above me, and the wind had suddenly come up out of nowhere, so my morning was somewhat unproductive. I’ve yet to process any of the photos, but I don’t think I shot anything worth keeping. I’ll probably post them on Ron’s site.

This evening I think I’ll head up to Maligne Lake, and try to catch something there, though the wind’s blowing constantly, so maybe that’s not a good idea. Tomorrow morning I’ll try to shoot some landscape photos, then hav a quick lunch and leave town. Of course, if you’re smart that means it’s probably a great idea to head to Jasper tomorrow afternoon and spend a few days in glorious light, and calm, still air. I wish you the best.

At least it hasn’t been raining.

OK, enough from me. I’m outta here.

Cheers

Carl