Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i Outdoor Photographer

Flamingos In Celestún, Mexico By Jonathan Ross “This photo was taken on a recent vacation to Celestún, Mexico. Located on the Yucatán Peninsula along the Gulf of Mexico, Celestún is a quiet fishing town with a sprawling wetland reserve that’s the winter home to vast flocks of flamingos. I hired a boat guide to take me into the reserve at sunrise to capture these amazing birds.” See more of Jonathan Ross’s work at jonathandross.com. Break Time By Gene Putney “American pikas are one of my favorite animals to photograph during the summer months. They’re always entertaining as they endlessly gather alpine tundra vegetation in preparation for their winter survival. On a late July afternoon, I observed this one venturing out from its den several times gathering a mouthful and speedily…

As I hung my hammock near the muddy banks of the Rupununi River, I thought back across the many months of preparation that had led to this moment. For nearly two years, biologist Andrew Snyder and I had been dreaming about this expedition to search for and photograph rarely seen amphibians within the Kanuku Mountains, one of the world’s oldest mountain ranges, located deep within the South American country of Guyana. I paused after stowing away the last of my gear and peered up into the low roof of the abandoned hut in which we had slung our hammocks. Within the thatch, I was able to just make out the outline of an arrow and a worn macaw feather that had been anchored there by the previous tenant. It was…

In the previous articles in this series, we’ve clarified what dangers threaten our data and discussed the commonly overlooked details of a photographer’s backup workflow. We looked at how DNGs can protect against data decay or bit-rot, backing up your catalogs, creating redundancy for your catalog’s metadata, and what RAID drives and Drobos are, along with other hardware. In this fourth and final article of the series, we’ll talk about a framework that brings all of these elements together. What do we do day to day, and how do we practice a sound backup workflow? Even though I can split these ideas into another four-article series, let me attempt to distill them for you. My main challenge in doing so arises as I try and predict who you are. I…

Few places compare to Alaska’s Katmai National Park, with its breathtaking landscapes and abundance of wildlife. Originally designated as a national monument to “preserve the living laboratory of its cataclysmic 1912 volcanic eruption,” according to the National Park Service, the park today is home to 42 species of mammals, a prime destination for bird sighting and a vital habitat for brown bears and salmon, which draw big crowds each year during the salmon run as the bears fish at Brooks Falls. In “Katmai For Wildlife,” Jaymi Heimbuch depicts the volcanic origins of the park and the photo experience today, 100 years after the park’s creation. As you’ll see in her article, Heimbuch illustrates that “Katmai is so much more than a place to see bears. The rich diversity of wildlife…

NEW TELEPHOTO FOR FUJIFILM MEDIUM FORMAT The expanding lens selection for Fujifilm’s medium-format mirrorless GFX system now includes the FUJINON GF250mmF4 R LM OIS WR, the longest focal length in the lineup to date, equivalent to 198mm on a 35mm camera. The lens has five-stop optical image stabilization built in for handheld shooting and features a new focus preset function, which will instantly activate the AF system based on previously configured settings. The lens is constructed to withstand typical outdoor conditions, with a magnesium alloy design that’s sealed to protect against dust and moisture and can operate in temperatures as low as 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Also introduced with the lens is a new teleconverter, as well as two extension tubes for macro work. The new FUJINON Teleconverter GF1.4X TC WR…

Location Mount Evans is located in central Colorado at the top of the Mount Evans Scenic Byway. The byway is about 32 miles west of Denver off Interstate 70 at exit 240. At the exit, turn left (south) on Colorado Highway 103, then drive about 14 miles to the fee station. After that, pass Echo Lake and turn right on Colorado Highway 5 (Mt. Evans Road). Driving to Mount Evans entails narrow, winding shelf roads with sheer vertical drops to one side. There are also sections of road that are deeply buckled by freezing and thawing. Though you don’t need a rugged vehicle to drive here, it’s advisable to drive slow, let other vehicles pass at pinch points and check the weather before going to avoid freezing precipitation. Weather With…

THE BEACH IS AN AMAZING PLACE TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS. No matter the time of day, the beautiful and ever-changing scene is full of life, energy and motion. For those of us who have fallen in love with the winged beings who live the greater portion of their lives along the shore, it’s easy to understand why the allure of capturing wings in motion and multitudes of bodies dressed in beautifully unique shapes, colors and sizes is such a strong call, set against the backdrop of dramatic skies and seascapes. So how does one go about creating and capturing strong shore and wading bird portraits, beyond the rote headshot? In the following, I hope to share with you not the technical details of what camera settings you should be using but,…

EXPLOSIONS OF EARTH. Skies darkened with ash. Blasts heard over 750 miles away. Who would think that a massive volcanic event would mark the creation of one of Alaska’s greatest wildlife treasures? The biggest eruption of the 20th century turned a mountaintop into a caldera and a remote wilderness into a national park. KATMAI’S CATACLYSMIC START On June 6, 1912, Novarupta blasted into existence. A new fissure in the earth’s surface finally released the building tension of a cluster of volcanoes, exploding with such force that nearby Mount Katmai—the source of much of the magma during the eruption—collapsed into a caldera at its summit. It was the largest volcanic eruption of the century, some 30 times more powerful than even the infamous Mount St. Helens. The eruption lasted for 60…

Brown bears are grizzly bears that live along the coast. In the United States, there are roughly 32,000 brown bears, with 95 percent of those in Alaska. The brown bears of Cook Inlet are larger than the average grizzly due to their rich diet and weigh between 800 and 1,200 pounds. Food is plentiful in Cook Inlet from early spring until fall, including clams that are available all year along the beach, but the real action starts with the salmon run in mid to late July. From this point on, brown bears need to eat around 90 pounds of salmon a day to build up fat reserves for winter hibernation. I was lucky enough to join Summit Workshops in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Alaska, to view and photograph…

Nineteen-year-old Colorado State University student Zach Rockvam is fortunate to live within an hour’s drive of Rocky Mountain National Park, where he often travels for nature and wildlife photography. “This picture was taken during the winter months, so several of the bull elk were congregating in the west Horseshoe Park area,” Rockvam explains. “I pulled off to the side of the road to observe and photograph the herd. After a couple hours and taking several hundred pictures, two of the bull elk started sparring near my vehicle. Luckily, I was in the right place at the right time when they both turned their heads in my direction, and I captured this perfect shot.” See more of Zach Rockvam’s photography at nationalparknerd.com.…