Archive for the ‘Wildlife Photography’ Category

Nov

2010

Meet Mr. Elusive: The Kaibab Squirrel

Grand Canyon, North Rim. You will not find Sciurus aberti kaibabensis anywhere else on the planet. Nope, you have to come here to see them, and they seem know it… They are beautiful animals, with tufted ears, a dark underbelly, and most remarkably, a striking bushy white tail.

Chat up any Park Service Ranger and they’ll claim that there are tons. Lies. If you come to photograph this unique animal, you should be prepared for the harsh truth. There are one or two. Okay, perhaps there are more, but it doesn’t matter, because at any particular moment, only one or two of the little buggers are scampering around the Kaibab Plateau – it’s one of the rules of their little guild.

The Kaibab Plateau is an area of approximately 800 square miles in northern Arizona in a narrow swath lying between Jacob Lake to the north and the canyon rim to the south. The Kaibab Squirrel is cousin to the Abert’s Squirrel (thus aberti kaibabensis), which you will find in abundance in a bunch of subspecies along the south rim. The obvious physical barrier provided the geological isolation that allowed the unique north rim subspecies to evolve.

This squirrel makes it home in the Ponderosa Pines that are common along the north rim forest, and its natural food consists for the most part of the seeds of Ponderosa pine cones and small fungi that litter the floor around the trees. The HP and I tracked this beastie throughout our visit, but saw two specimens (or perhaps the same animal twice) – both times in the general area near the North Rim Campground. The Campground most probably provides the squirrels with a chance to supplement their diet with more worldly fare, e.g., cheese, deli meats, crackers, bread, and so forth.

Images of the Kaibab Squirrel were recorded on August 26, 2010, using the Nikon D3s and the AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED lens at 400mm. Exposure was in the neighborhood of f/8 at 1/160s, ISO 8000 – yeah, I really do think you need the D3s to pull this off.

Tags: Grand Canyon, Kaibab Plateau, Kaibab Squirrel, North Rim, Sciurus aberti kaibabensis
Posted in National Parks and Monuments, Wildlife Photography | Comments Off on Meet Mr. Elusive: The Kaibab Squirrel

Oct

2010

Albion Basin

Alta, UT. Poised in a basin formed by Mt. Wolverine to the north, Mt. Tuscarora to the northeast, Mt Sunset on the east and forming a ridge-line southeast to Sugarloaf Mountain on the southern edge, Albion Basin is a legendary hiking/skiing area. The basin lies at road’s end, UT State Route 210, aka, East Little Cottonwood Canyon Road, just beyond the town of Alta, UT. Beyond the hiking/skiing fame, the area is most famous for the riot of wildflowers that blooms in the spring. The elevation of Alta is just a titch low of 9K ft, which places the basin at plus a couple of hundred ft above 9K. Although there are not a great many trees growing altogether, the leaves on those that are here are in their prime fall splendor. Brilliant Yellow, orange, and red, cast against the green of the pines, the gray granite, and the dark earth.

The images above were at about 13:40 MDT on Saturday, October 9, 2010, using the Nikon D3s, and the AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II lens. The top image was recorded at 70mm, with an exposure of f/11 and 1/1000s (to freeze the leaf movement), ISO at 1000. The lower image was recorded at 200mm, with an exposure of f/13 and 1/200s (+0.33 EV, normalized in the RAW conversion), ISO at 1000.

A few words about the ‘new’ NIKKOR 70-200mm lens. As good as the previous version is, and let’s be fair; it is really a fantastic piece of glass, in spite of the overemphasis on corner sharpness, the new version is a game replacement. The optics are frankly a wash for virtually all circumstances, but for me personally the way the lens feels in-the-hand and responds have been significantly improved.

To set up for the leaf shots I (randomly) parked in front of a large bush. Just casually looking forward I noticed a lovely smallish greenish bird keeping an eye on me. Very photogenic thinks me, and I race around to the back of the car to mount up the AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED lens. These little fellows dodged in and out and all-around this big bush. I was able to make to a few decent images of these guys during the split-seconds that they stopped moving – a great challenge and big fun. I wasn’t able to capture an image that shows the ruby crown, but I was able to see it for small fractions of seconds as the birds fluttered around.

Images of Ruby-Crowned Kinglets, Regulus calendula, were recorded on October 9, 2010, at 15:20 MDT, using the D3s and the 200-400mm f/4 lens. Exposure was around f/8 and 1/800s, ISO at 1000. Thanks to Jack Skalicky and Joe Dumais for helping me get an ID on these birds.

Tags: Albion Basin, Alta, Fall Colors, Regulus calendula, Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Posted in Birds, Just Out for a Walk, Wildlife Photography | Comments Off on Albion Basin

Oct

2010

Bison bison bison

Grand Teton National Park, WY, USA. Bison bison bison, is the American Buffalo. To the HP and the Dude, they are the Buff or Buffs, as in ‘Watch out, there’s some Buffs in the roadway ahead there’. They are lovely and noble beasties – and as such they make naturally captivating photographic targets. Bonus: they typically move relatively slowly, and moreover sort of predictably, across grassy meadows, which aids in making acceptable captures.

Grand Teton is one of our favorite Parks. It’s a high-density experience, with transparent geological beauty and abundant wildlife all mixed together in the Teton Valley (Jackson Hole properly) – not a lot of space all-in-all. The Bison herd that appears in this entry were photographed along the Antelope Flats Road. Antelope Flats lies about 2 miles east of US 26/89/191 – the main north-south roadway through the park – from the junction that is north of the Moose Junction, but just south the Blacktail Pond Overlook stop.

Fortune favors the prepared. It’s one of my many little mantras. Stay sharp, camera ready, check exposure regularly whilst awaiting the shot. By the way, in the Parks, or any location wherein images may be made, the HP has the wheel, and the Dude sits in the passenger front seat with the D3s and the AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED lens. I gotta say, I cannot imagine a better solution for capturing spontaneous events than this combo – many of the entries in this weblog have been made based on images generated using just this camera-lens combination. It’s not a perfect solution though. The 200-400mm is awesome up to about 100 meters, beyond, not so great, closer = better.

The images above were recorded on August 8, 2010, at between 18:00 and 19:00 MDT, using (as above) the Nikon D3s and the AF-S Zoom-NIKKOR VR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED lens. Exposures were f/8 (mostly) or f/5.6 (a few) at 1/1000s to 1/2500s, ISO 800. Most of the images were recorded with the exposure pushed ‘to the right’ (of the histogram), e.g., slightly (1/3 EV) overexposed as commonly judged. Exposures were normalized using ACR 6.1. This in-camera-overexposure followed by normalization during RAW conversion is now a standard noise-reducing strategy.

Tags: American Buffalo, Antelope Flats, Bison, Bison bison bison, Buffs, Grand Teton National Park
Posted in National Parks and Monuments, Wildlife Photography | 1 Comment »

Archive for the ‘Wildlife Photography’ Category

Meet Mr. Elusive: The Kaibab Squirrel

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