A pair of green jays fraternizing in Starr county, Texas
Save 20% on any Emerald Doublet print purchased this month. These Open Edition prints are printed on EPSON Premium Photo Luster paper using archival EPSON Ultrachrome inks. Art signs the print with a silver acid-free pen. Get more information about our Fine Art prints here.
I have just returned from a short, but very productive, trip to Tanzania. First up: photos from Ngorongoro Crater, which is the world’s largest inactive caldera covering an area of 100 square miles. The crater is a highly productive grassland, home to thousands of large animals, including wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, rhinos, lions, servals, and hyenas.
I will be in London in late September to help launch of the much-heralded Remembering Elephants book project benefiting the Born Free Foundation. There will be a special evening about elephant conservation and photography at the prestigious Royal Geographical Society in London (1 Kensington Gore, Kensington, London SW7 2AR, UK) on September 22nd at 7:30pm.
The event will be introduced by Born Free founder Virginia McKenna OBE and as well as a presentation of the images from the book, will include talks by elephant expert Ian Redmond OBE. I will be keynoting with my Earth Is My Witness presentation, with an emphasis on my experience photographing elephants. The evening will culminate in an auction of some of the images from the book. The books themselves will also be on sale on the night with some of the 64 participating photographers available to sign them.
ALL profits from the evening will go to elephant conservation in Africa.
If you are unable attend the event, you may order the book directly here .
After another successful Photography as Art seminar in Houston, I spent a few relaxing days photographing with my longtime friend Sean Fitzgerald. I was able to add a few new species to my bird list, including green jays and painted buntings.
Any colorful birds in Boston? That’s my next stop in July for Photography as Art!
A fever of golden cownose rays glide under the blue waters off the shore of the Galapagos Islands.
Save 20% on any Rays of Gold print purchased this month. These Open Edition prints are printed on EPSON Premium Photo Luster paper using archival EPSON Ultrachrome inks. Art signs the print with a silver acid-free pen. Get more information about our Fine Art prints here.
The last leg of our trip to the Galapagos included Isabela & Espanola islands. Here we were able to capture a variety of the inhabitants of the the islands, from the usual suspects such as groups of boobies and marine iguanas to spotted eagle-rays and the colorful hawksbill turtle, which I photographed above water using my polarizer in the shallow mangrove estuaries. Pairs of albatross and a dynamic Galapagos hawk rounded out this part of our journey.
At San Cristobal & Floreana Islands I was able to capture some wonderful shots of the local bird life, and the Galapagos sea lions were all too willing to show off for the camera. I purchased a generic light weight camera housing along the way to ensure I could get these under water shots, although I was admittedly a little weary of putting my new Canon 1DX into the water in a setup that I hadn’t tested before and trust it would not leak, but no guts no glory! The payoff made the risky endeavor worth while as the sea lions gave us quite a show. I also managed to capture schools of fish as well as some boobies looking for a meal.
I couldn’t be happier with what we were able to find on this trip. The local wildlife has been an incredible host for our group.
I had a great week second week of shooting in the Galápagos. We were able to visit some new locations, and highlights included land iguanas, nesting blue-footed boobies, and colonies of frigate birds. As many people know, I’m particularly drawn towards owls, and on this trip we were able to photograph portraits of the rare Galapagos Short-eared owl. Here on the islands, like all of the other species, the Short-eared owls have evolved into bird eaters primarily feeding on the tiny Storm petrels. Galápagos Sea lions stole the show both above and below the water.
Thus far on our trip the marine iguanas have managed to steal the show, but never so much as our trip to Fernandina Island, where their masses carpeted the coastline. Some of my favorite shots so far come from these groupings, photographed from a low angle with the landscape in the background. I also managed to juxtapose some of the smaller iconic species of the Galápagos, namely lava lizards and Sally Lightfoot crabs, crawling over the lethargic marine iguanas.
There were Amazing bird sightings during our time at Santiago and Rabida Islands, including a Vermillion flycatcher and Galapagos hawk. We were also visited by curious Galapagos Penguins and Sea lions. While on board the ship eating lunch, storm petrels danced and fed along the ocean surface with moth like movements.
