A quick note to remind folks in “Metrowest Boston” area that the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival will be held on Wednesday, March 4th, 7-10pm. The films will be screened at the Fine Arts Theater in Maynard.
Raffles prizes, wine and beer for sale, good company, inspiring films — really, do you want to watch a rerun of American Idol?
Visit http://www.assabetriver.org for all the details.
I mentioned this series last year, and season 2 is now playing on your local PBS station: “Travels to the Edge with Art Wolfe” is a stunning travel/nature/photography series — and is best watched in high-definition if you’ve got it. He delivers “Planet Earth” class visuals with a crew of 4. Mind boggling.
Art Wolfe is one of the premiere nature photographers of our age and a fellow in the International League of Conservation Photographers. He not only takes amazing photographs, he uses his images to affect change in the world.
Season 1 of “Travels to the Edge” was phenomenal, and Season 2 looks to eclipse that (the show on Iceland was jaw-dropping). Art includes basic photographic tips, mostly around composition, that add to the depth of the show.
See http://travelstotheedge.com for programs, books, and local schedules — or check your local PBS station’s schedule. If it is like our local WGBH, it’ll be on at some odd hour/day.
The second is short video came to my attention over the weekend and it has hit home to me and lots of photographers (and really artists of all forms). Zack Arias shows, once again, that it’s not the technology – it’s the story. Watch Transform. (The music caught my ear and I purchased an album from Meghan Coffee — my way of saying thanks to the Arias family.)
Are you “karma challenged” when it comes to nature photography? I, for one, excel at waiting patiently for “the moment”, only to have “the moment” happen when I go to add a teleconverter or, perhaps, just sneeze. I think I’ve discovered a “karma compensator” in these new combination cameras such as the Canon 5D Mark 2.
Betsy and I decided to stop at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge (aka “Plum Island”) on our way up to see Sarah Vowell in Maine. Plum Island is a great birding location (when I’m not there) and the main attraction this time of year are the snowy owls that both inhabit the area and some that have been relocated to the refuge from Logan Airport.
The chances of seeing a “snowy” are pretty low and we’re always thrilled just to catch sight of one. The last time I tried this and had one in my viewfinder it was, let’s just say it was “extremely well backlit”.
After a few runs up and down the road that runs through the refuge and checking out the shoreline the best sight was that of a harrier (marsh hawk) doing what harriers do best: fly away from me. We were on our way out of the refuge and noticed a couple of people slowing down. Sure enough there was a beautiful Snowy Owl, well lit, sitting in some trees. I quickly set up the tripod and camera and fired off a few shots while chatting with a refuge officer who was asking if I could see signs of a transmitter. (Using the 5x and 10x Live View it was pretty easy to determine it did not.)
After a few minutes of watching and waiting, I decided to put a 1.4x teleconverter on the bird. While fumbling to get that the bird took off and flew right over my wife who was down the road a few yards seeing if there was a better angle for me to shoot from. (So I suppose I should just learn to follow her, right?)
I don’t curse at these situations – the fight was knocked out of me years ago. But it occurred to me that from now on if I’m about to take my finger off the trigger for any length of time, I will reframe the shot for HD and start shooting video. If nothing happens, I can delete it and I lose nothing. If I had done this while hunting for the teleconverter, I would at least have a nicely lit Snowy Owl taking off. Oh, let’s face it – if I was doing that he would wait till I was attaching the teleconverter… but it’s nice to dream.
