Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2017 i Outdoor Photographer

Adam Jones has been a nature photographer for more than two decades, but unlike many, he hasn’t narrowed his focus solely to wildlife or landscapes. All aspects of the natural world interest him, which is fitting for a photographer who travels regularly to shoot in one of North America’s premier destinations for photographing wildlife and landscapes. It’s Yellowstone National Park, where the flora and fauna and out-of-this-world nature of the land combine to form any outdoor photographer’s dream destination. OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHER: What drew you to first visit Yellowstone? ADAM JONES: First off, it was the wildlife that appealed to me. They call Yellowstone the Serengeti of North America because it’s considered the largest intact ecosystem in the lower 48. And I went there just to photograph elk and bison and…

For almost two centuries, artists have found inspiration on the Maine coast. From Thomas Cole to Winslow Homer and Eliot Porter, painters and photographers alike have been drawn to the dramatic rocky shorelines, ethereal light and cultural details of the region. For modern-day photographers looking to capture the essence of coastal Maine, a trip to Acadia National Park is a logical place to start, as it provides relatively easy access to some of the best scenery that the state can offer. In 1916, Acadia was the first national park to be created east of the Mississippi River, primarily for its dramatic scenery. It's a place dominated by water and 20 or so rounded mountain peaks comprising Cadillac Mountain Granite, a beautiful coarse-grained gray granite flecked with quartz, hornblende and pink…

DJI MAVIC PRO The Mavic Pro is the company’s most portable drone, and it's equipped with a 4K Ultra HD camera that captures at 30 fps. With no electronic image stabilization, the full sensor size can be used for 4K video. The camera also captures 12-megapixel RAW files from the 1 2/3-inch CMOS sensor. The battery in the Mavic Pro lasts up to 27 minutes, and the drone streams full HD as far as 4.3 miles away, and 720p video up to the full eight-mile operating distance at its top speed of 40mph (in sport mode) with a ceiling of 16,404 feet. The Mavic Pro has forward-facing and downward-facing obstacle avoidance, though no side-facing or rear-facing avoidance sensors. A tripod mode reduces the operating, turning and gimbal rotating speed of…

Alsek Lake Iceberg By Gilbert Stetson “On the 11th day of a 12-day rafting trip down the Alsek River in Alaska with a small group of three other photographers and our river guides, we had finished setting up camp along the shores of Alsek Lake in a steady rain. When the weather cleared up, we took the rafts and ventured out on the lake to check out and photograph the many odd- and abstract-shaped icebergs. When we came across a huge iceberg that had an opening in the center, our guide maneuvered the raft for a closer look. The clouds lifted in the distance to reveal the mountain, and I waited until it was centered in the opening and the iceberg framed it.” ➤ Pentax *ist DS, Continental Optics MC…

With its steep-sided, red rock walls carved by the Colorado River and its visually overwhelming size, the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona is one the most recognizable natural landmarks in the United States. While I had long been fascinated by photographs of its immense size and intricate and colorful landscape, I had yet to see it firsthand. The opportunity to experience it in person eventually presented itself in November 2010 as my wife and I were driving from Denver, Colorado, to Sedona, Arizona, for a long weekend vacation and decided to take a quick detour through Grand Canyon National Park. After stopping overnight in Page, Arizona, we headed south along U.S. Route 89, roughly following the Colorado River as it wound through the desert plains past the striking Horseshoe Bend,…

This year, for our annual issue featuring the national parks, we’ve selected four parks to highlight, each representing a unique geography with year-round photo opportunities, illustrated by photographers who know these parks intimately. We begin with Yellowstone as seen through the lens of Adam Jones , who has explored the park extensively and returns year after year, always finding new inspiration in the vast landscapes and diverse wildlife found in the park. “They call Yellowstone the Serengeti of North America because it’s considered the largest intact ecosystem in the lower 48,” Jones says of the park’s allure. “The park just offers so much, so many chances for wildlife and scenics and sometimes combining both.” Jones has a gift for capturing extraordinary light, as you’ll see in our interview “Destination Yellowstone.”…

Location Cinnamon Bay is located on the tiny island in the Caribbean called St. John, so small it has no airport, no traffic light and no movie theater. What it does have is unbelievably turquoise waters surrounding its warm white sand beaches that are void of large hotels because two thirds of the island is home to Virgin Islands National Park. Everyone arrives here by boat, unless you have a helicopter. The roads are steep and full of curves; the maximum speed limit is 20 mph and, to throw in another twist, we drive on the left. We share the roads with chickens, donkeys, goats, cattle, iguanas and mongoose. The town is affectionately dubbed “Love City,” and you can walk from one end of town to the other in five…

Desert habitats are ecological peculiarities. They are harsh environments, typically with sand and rock instead of rich soil and running water. Their evaporation rates tend to exceed precipitation rates. And even though desert habitats can harbor a surprising diversity of life, their harsh conditions don't favor abundance. Instead, the plants and animals that live there have special adaptations to deal with the harsh conditions, such as extreme heat, cold and lack of water for long periods of time. But then there's Joshua Tree National Park. Joshua Tree is a landscape distinguishable from all its desert counterparts, complete with its own characteristics and eccentricities, and at its heart is the odd tree that gave the park its name. The Joshua tree looks like no other tree in the world, and it…

Capturing a majestic landscape from an elevated position used to require either a conveniently situated mountain or a helicopter rental, neither of which were guaranteed to be available, and one of which required (often unobtainable) permits and a large wad of cash. Even those photographers who could secure a helicopter or a fixed-wing aircraft as a base for aerial photography often faced daunting technological challenges and, if wildlife was involved, ran the risk of spooking the very subject they took to the skies to capture. It provided some allure and prestige to those who captured images from the skies, but this exclusivity didn’t do much to help photographers convey the sense of grandeur that's only truly appreciable from the skies. Drones change all that, although at first, some of the…