Video and the DSLR

Video is the new excitement for the users of Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras. During the last few years the technology has improved to the point where the latest video capable DSLRs rival professional video cameras. You can easily do HD video without the necessity of buying another piece of equipment and having to carry it with you. A simple switch lets you convert back and forth between video and still photography.

Professional video companies are regularly using video equipped DSLRs for high end video productions. Parts, and in some cases, all of theater quality movies have been shot with them. Video pros like video DSLR as it allows them to use the wide variety of lens offered by companies like Nikon and Canon. It gives them to ability to be much more selective in their lens use which means more control over the look of the scene. For example, they use low light (fast) lenses to get more selective depth of field control or super-wide angle lenses for the special look they provided.

This two-in-one technology offers a great opportunity for the photographer who has not used video before and let's face it, there are just something that look better in video. There are just some stories that a still images can't communicate.

We were in Haines Alaska photographing bald eagles fishing the last salmon run of the year. One of the eagles picked up a fish that was too heavy for it and could not get enough lift to make a full take-off. Instead, it had to abort take-off and landed in the river. The eagle than began to use its wings to literally swim to the shore. I shot a number of still images of this event but Paula shot the action in video. The stills looked okay but really just showed an unremarkable image of the bird in the river. The video, however, was amazing . It told a much different, much more dynamic, story watching the big bird swim.

There are downsides to consider when using the DSLR as a video camera as well. I'll discuss a few of these in my next blog.

Good-by Kodak

Its always amazing how the mistakes of the few can effect so many. Just little over a decade ago Kodak was selling hundreds of million of rolls a film a year and was the master of the photographic world. Apple was a company on the edge of bankruptcy. Several weeks ago Kodak announced it was going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy around the same time Apple was again named the world's most valuable company.

Today, Kodak announced they were ending the manufacturing of digital cameras, video products, digital picture frames and other digital capture products. The company that literally invented digital imaging has left its market. Kodak will concentrate on licencing its name and intellectual products as did past photo giant Polaroid. Kodak's demise is attributable to its lack of vision and poor management just as Apple's success can be attributed to great management and the incredible vision of Steve Jobs. Kodak refused to believe that film was dinosaur and struggled to find itself in the new world order. Its a classical lesson in 21st century business management.

Its kind of sad to see a name you grew-up with, a giant of American industry, fade into the past. Yet on the other hand I remember well attending photo shows in the 80's and the Kodak reps would look down their noses at the photo world and scoff at the idea of giving away even a roll of their newest film to the mere mortals of the professional photography world.

There is an old expression to be careful who you alienate on the way up as you will have to pass them on the way down. Good-by Kodak.

Bosque 2012

Last week we completed our first Wildlife Photo Workshops of 2012. The workshop was The Birds of Bosque and it was run through Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. This is a "hybrid" workshop. We spend the first 3 days photographing the birds in Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Sanctuary in New Mexico. We than go to Santa Fe where we spend 2 days editing and printing the photos in the school's state-of-the-art digital lab.

Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife is the winter home of thousands of sandhill cranes, tens of thousands of arctic snow geese and a bevy of other species

Watching these thousands of explode into flight or fly-in for the night in the spectacular high desert sunset is really one of nature's more wondrous sights.

We had a great group for the workshop which ran from before sunrise to well into the evening. Everybody was there for every moment. The photographs the printed the last two day in Santa Fe were amazing especially when one considers that most of the participants had very little experience with nature photography or digital printing.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to All,

Paula and I would like to wish everybody a very Happy New Year and great photography in 2012. We will be leaving later this week to do a wildlife workshop for Santa Fe Photographic Workshops in Bosque del Apache. Bosque is a national wildlife sanctuary in New Mexico where tens of thousands of sandhill cranes and arctic snow geese winter. After 3 days of shooting at Bosque we drive to Santa Fe to spend 2 days printing in the schools state of the art digital lab.

We are also looking forward to three 2012 trips to Alaska as well as trips to the Tetons and Yellowstone. Hopefully we will also have time this year to finally explore more of Western Washington and the Olympic Peninsula.

The snow owls have been keeping us busy here. There are at least a dozen in one of the wildlife sanctuaries in Ocean Shores. Last week we saw and photographed eight in one area. Here is one of those images.

Snowy Owl - Close to Home

In November we traveled thousands of miles to a lodge about 70 miles north of Churchill Canada. Our main goal was to photograph polar bears. We were also hopeful to photograph arctic fox, the Northern Lights and Snowy Owls. The polar bears and arctic fox worked out well and you can see a number of these images in the "Galleries/Recent Photos" area of our www.frierworks.com website. We never saw the Northern Lights as the weather didn't cooperate. The only snowy owl we saw was one flying by, very far away. I was disappointed not to get a chance to photograph this beautiful bird.

All that travel to find out that the snowy owls winter in our hometown of Ocean Shores, Washington. There are several state and federal wildlife sanctuaries adjacent to Ocean Shores and we found this one in the Damon Point State Wildlife Sanctuary. It a long walk out to the sanctuary and at high tide the path is underwater. Its worth the effort as the sanctuary is beautiful.

The owls favorite food is small arctic mammals called lemmings .The owls have a more or less regular population cycle depending on the amount of lemmings in the arctic. Every 5 years the population of both lemmings and snowy owls peaks and this is one of those years.

You can travel the world and sometimes the best subjects show up in your own backyard.

Polar Bears

We just return from a Wildlife Photo Workshop to Seal River Heritage Lodge. The lodge is about 70km north of Churchill Canada and locate on the west coast of Hudson Bay.

Each year the polar bears gather here to wait for Hudson Bay to freeze so they can get out on the bay to hunt.

We saw a number of polar bears wrestling, playing, wandering and just hanging out. We also had a chance to photograph arctic foxes.

The climate appears to begetting warmer there and as a result the snow which should have been covering the ground barely existed. Most of our photos had to be shot with dead tundra plants for a background. Despite this I shot over 3000 frames. I invite you to see a small selection of the photos that I have so far edited on my www.frierworks.com website. Go to the Galleries drop-down menu and select the Recent Photos tab or just use the link below:

http://www.frierworks.com/Newfrierworks/index.php?option=com_imageshow&view=show&Itemid=41

Observation from a Recent Tetons and Yellowstone Trip

Two weeks ago we returned from a two week trip to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks. I was going to write this blog at that time but was distracted by the death of Steve Jobs and wanted to write a little something about him.

The first week we were in the Tetons for the Photography at the Summit Workshop. This is one of the Rich Clarkson series of Workshops. Rich brings in a number of top photo pros and its a busy week of wildlife shooting, classes and critiques. We spend most of our time working with Nikon (who is a sponsor) and taking groups of students out to shoot. The second week we spent with friends shooting in Yellowstone.

Now to the point...We've made at least 2 visits a year, for the last 10 or more years, to this area and I'm amazed how in the last few years, the amount of wildlife seems to have decreased dramatically. We are seeing far fewer bears, moose, elk and other animals than we did just four or five years ago. This is particularly noticeable in the Fall. I'm not sure of the reason for this but there seems to be several theories.

First and most reasonable is that in the last couple of years there has been a dramatic increase in visitors to these parks. This sharp increase in visitors has sort of "freaked-out the animals" and they have retreated to more remote areas of the parks.

Another theory proposes that these parks have become "over-managed" by the park service. The park service's desire to keep visitors and wildlife separated is working too well. This was the first year I actually saw an area of the Tetons park closed because there were bears in the area.

Weather could be a third factor. In years past there would be a foot or more of snow on the ground by the second week of October but in the last couple of years the daytime temperature, this time of the year, has been as high as the 70's. The animals, who have grown in their winter coats, are too hot and therefore inactive. Anybody who thinks global warming is a myth is just engaging in "magical thinking" pretending that if they say it doesn't exist it won't. Global warming here and its obvious.

Whatever the reason for this dearth of wildlife I hope it temporary. In the meantime we're off to Alaska.