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Grey whale, was pretty cool to see.
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Nov 15, 2013 03:53
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| # ? May 13, 2024 23:23 |
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Dread Head posted:Grey whale, was pretty cool to see. "pretty cool"? that's a gorgeous photo.  Patoooeeey on Flickr  UCD-Hen-Turkey 1508 on Flickr
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Nov 15, 2013 17:41
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They were moving the Basilisk lizards at work (the zoo) today. DSC_3241 by Robert_Guzman, on Flickr
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Nov 16, 2013 03:13
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Almost right after I saw the whale I posted yesterday I got to watch a sea lion destroy/eat a salmon. I have to say this was an amazing experience.  
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Nov 16, 2013 08:41
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Dread Head posted:Grey whale, was pretty cool to see. Amazing dude, very nice. The salmon getting snapped in half is great too. I don't go out looking for wildlife shots but some of you non-Aussies may enjoy this:  Kangaroo & Joey by simon deadman photo, on Flickr
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Nov 17, 2013 12:09
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Mr. Soop posted:They were moving the Basilisk lizards at work (the zoo) today. Dread Head posted:Almost right after I saw the whale I posted yesterday I got to watch a sea lion destroy/eat a salmon. I have to say this was an amazing experience. These are amazing. Poor salmon 
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Nov 17, 2013 23:55
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 goat by francography, on Flickr
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Nov 21, 2013 10:38
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 Snow Leopard by whiringa, on Flickr  Snow Leopard 2 by whiringa, on Flickr
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Nov 21, 2013 14:22
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Jemima Puddle-Duck posted:
Great photos!
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Nov 21, 2013 17:52
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Zoo shot. Couldn't get his whole body in frame because of some dumb looking ladders.  Red panda by LeeMHarp, on Flickr
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Nov 23, 2013 02:20
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Awwwwwwwww 
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Nov 24, 2013 01:23
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Nov 24, 2013 04:48
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Finally found a red squirrel! Red Squirrel by Tim Breeze, on Flickr
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Dec 6, 2013 19:20
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Got a lucky shot on a whale watching boat. I only had a lowly 60D/135L, but having a lens on the wide side was actually nice for catching shots of the whales breaching, since there's no warning when or where they pop up. Some kid had a 5d3/200-400f/4L, and his kit was so bulky and heavy that he had trouble aiming it in time when a breach happened. My shots turned out a lot better than his. 
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Dec 9, 2013 14:38
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Bubbacub posted:Some kid had a 5d3/200-400f/4L, and his kit was so bulky and heavy that he had trouble aiming it in time when a breach happened.
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Dec 9, 2013 18:46
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Times like that when I'm so glad my 7D can shoot on High speed and just kinda swing the camera around, mash focus and hold the button down.
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Dec 9, 2013 19:00
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So the Wildlife Photographer of the Year has begun it's three month window for 2014 submissions. Anyone else having delusions of grandeur and thus going to enter? Every year my Mum asks why I haven't entered; this year I finally have a photograph that is good enough in the right sort of way that I won't feel embarrassed sticking it in.
Pablo Bluth fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Dec 11, 2013 |
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Dec 11, 2013 00:24
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Evidence that the thread title is probably accurate: We had a few bear encounters during this summer's Arctic fieldwork. On August 15, I was woken up by my alarm as usual, but propelled out of bed by one of my coworker's yelling "Bear!". A small-ish Polar Bear had investigated her tent, demolishing the vestibule with a single swipe of a forepaw. Fortunately, her cries of surprise at that point startled the bear and he (we don't know the sex of this individual, but for some unknown reason we all just agreed to refer to it as male) moved away. Then another of my coworkers emerged from her tent with her shotgun, and a couple of blasts into the air of 12-gauge slugs convinced the bear to move faster. Sarah's tent, after the bear (named "Marvin") had gone away.  A Rude Awakening 1 by Execudork, on Flickr  A Rude Awakening 2 by Execudork, on Flickr Bear tracks in the fresh snow, with parts of my body for scale. Heavily overcast skies make for low contrast and few shadows, but hopefully the size of his feet are apparent.  A Rude Awakening 4 by Execudork, on Flickr  A Rude Awakening 5 by Execudork, on Flickr (size 12 men's boot, for reference) I went for a bit of a walk, looking for Marvin. We tried to find him again after breakfast, because he'd moved up towards the head of the fjord, suggesting he'd probably come back past us - there's not much at the head of the fjord, it's more-or-less a blind alley. Some of my companions were able to spot him swimming in the fjord.  Searching for Marvin 6 by Execudork, on Flickr I wasn't able to see Marvin in the water - just a bear's head above the water, moving between gentle swells, with plenty of ice floating in the water as well. However, on the advice of those who had spotted him, I took a few pictures in the direction they were pointing, and happily I discovered I actually got a photo of him!  Searching for Marvin 7 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Dec 13, 2013 00:56
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Wow! That sounds intense! It really shows the size of polar bears, the bear tracks I saw near my place were from I believe an adult female (I've seen her three times) and they're still probably only around 2/3 the size of Marvin's tracks.
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Dec 13, 2013 02:56
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Is there a safety reason for pitching tents so far apart? Or is it just for privacy? Or do you just pick the first flat patch of ground you can find? 
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Dec 13, 2013 03:10
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We'd been up on top of The Dome, a nearby mountain (about 540m above sea level, visible in many of my landscape shots from the area) for a month, with our tents very close together in a row. That layout was suggested for bear safety, but had severe privacy drawbacks. One evening I was in my tent reviewing photos on my phone - the Arctic Hare pictures I posted a while ago - and I *very quietly* said "Nice!" to myself when I found a bunny shot that was in focus. A voice came from the next tent over: "What's nice?". I couldn't even mutter to the voices in my head without being overheard. Fortunately, my companions described my snoring as "comforting" because their inherent Bearanoia was calmed if they knew I was relaxed enough to sleep. Never mind the exhausting effects of fieldwork! So, when we moved down to the lowland - where there are many more bears - we perhaps over-reacted to the side of privacy and spaced our tents much further apart. We were still (roughly) in a line, because the idea there was that this arrangement means a bear is never likely to be surrounded should one come bumbling through. Always give the big scary animals a clear route of retreat. We were also located above the runway (actually just a strip of sand) relative to the shoreline, and with the buildings of basecame between us and the shore, under the thinking that any bear entering the area would probably encounter the buildings, with their enticing food smells, before it got near us.  Fly to Alexandra Fjord 32 by Execudork, on Flickr Here's a shot from when we arrived at Alexandra Fjord in early July, looking east towards the head of the fjord. The buildings are visible as the cluster of white boxes with blue roofs, and some tents (orange) have been set up near them, between the runway and the buildings. The runway is the lighter-coloured splotch above that. In August we put our tents on the wide patch of the runway on its left. The Dome is the mountain ridge in the background on the left. Clearly, we were incorrect in these assumptions. As far as we can tell, Marvin entered the fjord from the direction of its mouth, to the east, and then either moved inland up the valley (south) or passed near the buildings but did not spend much time there. He grabbed the bag of cans at the east end of the runway, dragged or carried them past our tents on the inland side (south and then west) before circling back to Sarah's tent, the furthest-west of our ragged line. When scared away, he retreated north and west, directly towards the shoreline, before bending to the west and up the fjord. Later he returned to the east, but by water, swimming east-by-north-east to Sphinx Island. I have photos of him walking around on Sphinx, which I'll post when I get to that point in my haphazard edit-and-upload workflow. HookShot posted:Wow! That sounds intense! It really shows the size of polar bears, the bear tracks I saw near my place were from I believe an adult female (I've seen her three times) and they're still probably only around 2/3 the size of Marvin's tracks. Marvin was actually on the small side as far as polar bears go. We had a couple of later encounters with "Buster" - no tent-invasions this time - and he was probably 20% bigger than Marvin. Having said that, it's really, really hard to judge size in the Arctic, because there are almost no indications of size or distance - how big is the average boulder or ice chunk, how far away is that shoreline or island?
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Dec 13, 2013 17:39
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I'm supremely jealous of your work Execudork. Keep the stories and pictures coming!
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Dec 13, 2013 17:56
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I'd love to go that far north someday. Realistically the closest I'll probably ever get is Fairbanks. 
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Dec 13, 2013 20:39
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Super jealous that you got to spend time up there, I would love to be able to. Where I work does a lot of field work up there but unfortunately I do nothing that would warrant me going up there.
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Dec 16, 2013 07:35
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Marvin's encounter with us, Part the Second. Marvin the Morning Mischief Maker eventually emerged onto Sphinx Island, about 2 km from us in the middle of the fjord.  Marvin on Sphinx Island 1 by Execudork, on Flickr  Marvin on Sphinx Island 3 by Execudork, on Flickr  Marvin on Sphinx Island 8 by Execudork, on Flickr We lost sight of him for good when he went around to the far side of the island. Then I discovered he'd come through the complex of buildings, ruining the table I'd set up as a heat-water-for-showers facility.  Signs of Marvin's Curiousity 1 by Execudork, on Flickr Wildlife-related aside: we learned (the hard way) that Arctic Foxes are fond of leaving presents and reminders of their territorial claims (or perhaps simply their bad attitudes). Also, they have excellent aim at their back ends.  Fox snark by Execudork, on Flickr I might be an idiot; actually, I probably am. Everybody else who had been sleeping in tents that morning decided to move into the buildings to sleep. Using the (probably dubius) logic of "my tent has a back door, the buildings do not, and we already know there are at least some bears willing to enter buildings" (there's a nose-print on the inside of one of the kitchen windows from a bear that raided the place in April) I slept in my tent for the next two nights. I was aware that I might be making a serious mistake, so I took a photo of "before" in the event of an "after". Note the absence of bear.  A Before Fortunately Without an After by Execudork, on Flickr
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Dec 17, 2013 04:32
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ExecuDork posted:I was aware that I might be making a serious mistake, so I took a photo of "before" in the event of an "after". Note the absence of bear. The only way this could possibly be more dorkroom-y is if you'd set up a tripod on a time lapse so that someone could make a triptych of the before, during and after in the event of your horrific mauling death.
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Dec 17, 2013 04:51
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HookShot posted:The only way this could possibly be more dorkroom-y is if you'd set up a tripod on a time lapse so that someone could make a triptych of the before, during and after in the event of your horrific mauling death. The battery in the camera died after only about 2 hours, without taking any pictures.
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Dec 17, 2013 04:57
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ExecuDork posted:I actually had my DSLR on a tripod just outside my tent with my Zigview set up and ready to go in "motion sensor" mode. Oh, well in that case it's a good thing Marvin didn't come and eat you.
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Dec 17, 2013 05:18
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It would have really sucked for the aftermath of the gruesome demise you had so carefully prepared for to not be documented because of a dead battery.
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Dec 17, 2013 05:45
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For a change of pace, here's another oversize, white, and sneaky Arctic mammal that got between my companions and I. Walk up the Dome and Work 22 by Execudork, on Flickr  Walk up the Dome and Work 23 by Execudork, on Flickr  Walk up the Dome and Work 24 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Dec 19, 2013 03:54
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 River Otter on Flickr
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Dec 22, 2013 04:22
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Zoo trip today. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo by FullerFotos.net, on Flickr  Cheyenne Mountain Zoo by FullerFotos.net, on Flickr  Cheyenne Mountain Zoo by FullerFotos.net, on Flickr  Cheyenne Mountain Zoo by FullerFotos.net, on Flickr  Cheyenne Mountain Zoo by FullerFotos.net, on Flickr
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Dec 29, 2013 04:28
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Went to Busch Gardens, Tampa over the holiday and spent way more time looking at the animals then riding rides. Full album here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/habilis/sets/72157639131523746/  Big Kitty by sdmacdonald, on Flickr  Mexican Jungle Parrot by sdmacdonald, on Flickr  Chimps by the Waterfall by sdmacdonald, on Flickr  Zebra by sdmacdonald, on Flickr
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Jan 1, 2014 08:03
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Captured wildlife, in a park called Furuviksparken.   
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Jan 1, 2014 12:26
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 Lionfish by William T Hornaday, on Flickr  Clownfish by William T Hornaday, on Flickr
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Jan 3, 2014 04:15
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A few days after Marvin, Buster showed up. He was considerably larger than Marvin, which is one reason why I think Marvin was not fully grown. Buster 3 by Execudork, on Flickr I was out just taking a few photos in the interesting light (low, multilayer overcast sky, light snow on ground, bright light) before lunch. During lunch, one of my companions spotted Buster near the runway. Less than 10 minutes previously (according to the EXIF data) I had taken this picture:  Wandering Around Basecamp 8 by Execudork, on Flickr If Buster had been about 9 minutes quicker, he would have been just on the right edge of the frame, between me and those barrels. A few shotgun blasts into the air, plus plenty of loud swearing* and Buster moved off in more-or-less the same direction Marvin had previously. Buster seemed less worried about us than Marvin had been (possibly a consequence of size & age) and when he got down near the shore he hung around for a bit, sniffing and generally loafing about.  Buster 4 by Execudork, on Flickr * This episode taught me a new verbal punctuation - shotgun blasts are like exclamation marks, but more so. And I wish I'd recorded what Mitsuaki had been yelling in Japanese. We were discussing things afterwards, and he wanted to know the meaning of some things I'd said, such as "motherfucker" and "cocksucker". When I asked him what he'd said, his response was "Kind of... in between, maybe both of those things?" Swearing at wildlife is fun.
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Jan 9, 2014 03:58
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The day after Buster, a pod of narwhals moved up and down the fjord. They're almost impossible to photograph from shore. Narwhals 2 by Execudork, on Flickr  Narwhals 3 by Execudork, on Flickr  Narwhals 5 by Execudork, on Flickr
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Jan 10, 2014 02:27
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William T. Hornaday posted:
Where did you get that picture?, looks too nice and clean to be out in the ocean! That really is a beautiful picture.
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Jan 10, 2014 13:19
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 Nikko - Toshogu - Crane by theupstart, on Flickr
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Jan 12, 2014 19:34
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I have a chance to take a 3-4 week vacation later this year and I'm interested in a wildlife photography focused trip. I am limited to mid-July until late September, but I can go anywhere in that time frame. Does anyone have recommendations for trips? I'm game for a guided tour / safari thing, or a self guided hiking (only moderate difficulty hiking though, I'm not a hardcore hiker). Anywhere in the world is fine. I'm thinking about something like madagascar, or the galapagos, or maybe an African safari thing. I don't really have a budget in mind, but several thousand bucks is fine. Has anyone worked with one of these photographer-led tours? I'm really only interested in a tour that will get me to the animals and not any sort of photography workshop, though I guess I'm not opposed to a workshop if anyone has been to a great one. edit: upstart, that's a great shot.
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Jan 13, 2014 17:49
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