Photo Close-up Friday – The Komodo Dragon



It’s time for Photo Close-up Friday, and today we are looking at the Komodo dragon. I last photographed these giant lizards back in 2020 – reptiles so unique and impressive that they have their own island! It and the few surrounding islands are also the only place in the world they are found naturally.

Photographing these beasts is not easy. They are obviously quite large, and very territorial. Unlike many lizards who will flee from humans, Komodo dragons have been known to attack aggressively. They will eat any kind of meat, from fellow reptiles and rodents to larger beasts such as water buffalo.

They are also low to the ground, and while I might be comfortable getting on my belly to photograph harbor seals, I’m not dumb enough to try that with these creatures! We created a special rig for my camera so I could get it down low, as if I were operating a vacuum cleaner – only instead of dirt, I was sucking up images!

See you next week for more Photo Close-up Friday!

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Photo Closeup Friday – The Hoary Marmot

The hoary marmot (Marmota caligata) is named for the frost white fur on its head and shoulders. The piercing warning whistle of this eight- to twenty-pound rodent is often heard in high mountain meadows and talus slopes from northern Alaska to Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Hoary marmots are inquisitive creatures, and it is not unusual to see them interacting with playful or curious mountain goat kids.

The animal finds refuge from its main enemy, eagles, and other predators in burrows beneath boulders. But grizzly bears sometimes roll the rocks aside and dig apart the underground tunnels to get at the marmot, especially when it is in hibernation. Hoary marmots go into their dens as early as September and enter a dormant state. Their respiration rate and heartbeat become extremely slow, and their body temperature falls to a point only a few degrees above freezing They don’t emerge until June, nine months later. Even then they may still have to tunnel upward through a lingering snowpack to reach the light. Perhaps as an adaptation to the demanding alpine environment, hoary marmots are more sociable, than other marmots such as their common eastern relative, the woodchuck or groundhog. They live in colonies with comparatively little aggression between adults, and the young are not driven out when they mature. Maturity takes two years to reach, a long time by rodent standards. Such slow development reflects the extended hibernation period required to survive in this animal’s high-country niche.*

Find your own Marmot this July while they are out foraging! Join Art Wolfe’s Mt. Rainier workshop in July!

*Text excerpt from “The Kingdom”

 

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Wildlife Wednesday – For the Love of Foxes


It’s no secret that I’ve been working on a wildlife book coming out Fall 2023. Editing images has been an exercise of joyous frustration—if only I had better equipment on that photo shoot in 1983 (or really, if only I had been a better photographer!). Putting together books is a great way to relive past successes, missed opportunities, and just plain great memories. But the editing is far from done, I will be photographing and editing images up until the very last minute when the files get sent off to the printers next year.

Sign up for our mailing list and follow me on social media and you will get the first news of progress reports and special offers – if you’ve enjoyed and purchased any of my previous books you won’t want to miss this massive collection of my best wildlife shots!

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Last Chance to VOTE for the New Big 5 in Wildlife Photography!

It’s your last chance to vote for the 5 animals you want to be included in the New Big 5 of wildlife photography! The original ‘Big 5’ is a term used by trophy hunters for the 5 toughest animals to shoot and kill (lion, elephant, leopard, rhino and Cape buffalo).

The New Big 5 project has a better idea: to create a New Big 5 of Wildlife Photography, rather than hunting. Shooting with a camera, not a gun. It’s about celebrating the incredible creatures we share the planet with and helping to protect them.

I’m excited to be supporting the New Big 5 project which is on a mission to raise awareness about threats facing wildlife around the world, including habitat loss, poaching, human-wildlife conflict, illegal wildlife trade and climate change, as well as conservation ideas and solutions.  

The international initiative is supported by +150 international photographers and working with conservationists and charities, including The Jane Goodall Institute, Conservation International, Save The Elephants, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Polar Bears International, Save Wild Tigers, Wildlife Direct, Save The Rhinos, Lion Recovery Fund, Cheetah Conservation Fund, Snow Leopard Trust, WildAid, IUCN and more…   

Please go onto the New Big 5 website and VOTE for the 5 animals you want to be included! Voting ends April 20. The results of the international vote will be announced May 17.  

 

“What a great project the New Big 5 is. I wonder what the final choices will be. There are so many incredible animals in our world, all fascinating in different ways. Any project which brings attention to animals, so many of whom are threatened or endangered, is truly important.”

-Dr Jane Goodall

 

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#WildlifeWednesday – Monarch Butterflies in Mexico and Their Protectors


Today is “Monarch Butterfly Day” according to whatever mystical powers-that-be control the hashtags! I’ve had the pleasure of photographing Monarchs over the years at many of Mexico’s renowned preserves that harbor millions of butterflies as they migrate.

It’s with a heavy heart, then, that I make this post – one that should be about the beauty of this creature and the symbolism and joy it brings world-wide. However, tragic events that have befallen a pair of conservation heroes in Mexico should be taking center stage right now until answers are found.

As you may have heard, activists and outspoken critics of the illegal logging activities in preserved areas of Mexico, Homero Gómez González and Raúl Hernández Romero were recently found deceased, both under mysterious and possibly malicious circumstances.

González was an agricultural engineer and the manager of the El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Preserve. Growing up in a logging family, he was a skeptic of conservation efforts and their possible impact on contributing to poverty in the region. His background and education gave strength to his voice when, in the early 2000’s, he became an advocate for curbing the deforestation he was seeing first hand.

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Wildlife Wednesday – Black Bears in British Columbia


Simply put, black bears are very challenging to photograph. Their inky fur absorbs light, and if you try to get the correct reading off it, everything else gets overexposed. Whenever possible I try to shoot a variety of perspectives of the same subject. Even with the advances in digital technology, there is still no substitute for getting the correct exposure the first time out. In the days of film, we bracketed in the hope that one frame would nail it. Now we can happily get immediate results, but too much time spent fooling around with your camera settings may result in losing the shot as the bear (or whatever wildlife you are photographing) shambles away.

In this recent shoot in British Columbia, the light conditions were overcast, not from fog, but from smoke from forest fires burning from California to Canada. This actually helped me get the correct exposure much more easily than I would have had the sky been clear and sunny, adding even more contrast to difficult lighting evaluations. The end result – black bears doing some coastal fishing, with some success! I was photographing these bears with both an EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM and an EF200-400mm f/4L IS USM EXT lens in an attempt to get the subject at different depths in this colorful and unique environment.

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New Photos from the Sea of Cortez!


This past week I set out on an adventure with good friends to the Sea of Cortez and we were not disappointed. Aboard a boat with an excellent crew, we were treated to a variety of creatures quite literally great and small –  pilot whales, dolphins, a variety of rays, and much more. A blue whale made an appearance, it’s massive size not quite apparent until we had a drone in the air.

Among the other revelations gleaned from having the ‘eye in the sky’ came when a leaping ray caught our eye. We sent the drone over to capture it from above, only to find it was just one particularly active member of a large fever of rays – a pleasant and unexpected surprise!

Enjoy the slide show, and stay tuned for more photos from several upcoming trips. My schedule is filling up, but it’s nice to be back out there!

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Cute Foxes for Monday Motivation!


Before I headed out for a few weeks of traveling, my friend Bill and I made it up to San Juan Island here in Washington to photograph the plentiful foxes in the area. I was exceptionally happy with the variety of color in their coats, and the playful show they put on for us! Remember – be the fox, not the bunny!

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Guest Photographer: David FitzSimmons

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Award-winning author and photographer David FitzSimmons has a unique approach to animal portraiture, and he loves sharing it with kids. Instead of seeking rare animals in exotic locations, David photographs common animals—many found in your own backyard—against plain, white backgrounds, producing detailed close-up images that motivate children and their families to appreciate and explore nature. The striking images are the visual foundation of his Curious Critters children’s picture book series. Volume one (2011) won five national book awards and sold over 100,000 copies. Curious Critters Volume Two, featuring amazing animals from across North America, will be released in February.

David FitzSimmons is an award-winning freelance photographer and writer. His first book in the Curious Critters series won the coveted IBPA Bill Fisher Award for best first book (children’s/young adult). A Sigma Pro photographer, David has exhibited works at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, the National Center for Nature Photography, and the Telluride Photo Festival. He is a life-long educator, teaching students from kindergarten to college. Currently David is an Associate Professor at Ashland University. He has appeared on ABC, CBS, and NBC-TV. You can see more of David’s photography at www.fitzsimmonsphotography.com.

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FitzSimmons’ unconventional approach to wildlife photography allows animals’ colors, textures, shapes, and seeming “personalities” to shine through. “Kids focus on the animals. That’s when the learning begins,” David explains. “They focus on and notice clues about animals’ behaviors, diets, life cycles, and habitats.” The first image in Curious Critters Volume Two is a monarch butterfly preparing for its 2,000 mile flight from Milkweed, Minnesota, to Oyamel Fir Forest, Mexico.

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In writing the Curious Critters children’s picture books, David imagined that each critter talked to him during its portrait session and that he just wrote down what was said. The audiobooks for Curious Critters Volumes One and Two capture the sometimes calm, other times excited, and occasionally irascible personalities David envisioned. For the audiobook version of the conversation among four recently-born Eastern cottontail rabbits, David cast his two oldest daughters and two nieces for the voiceovers.

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Besides the extraordinary photography, each of the twenty animals in Curious Critters Volume Two gets a chance to tell its story. The indigo bunting talks about calls in his “song neighborhood.”  The indigo bunting reports that some “songbirds complain because I repeat myself, but I enjoy saying things twice, sometimes in very long songs. Sweet! Sweet! Chew! Chew! Where? Where? Here! Here! Sweeter! Sweeter! Chew! Chew! What! What! Sweet! Sweet!

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Curious Critters Volume Two is not only entertaining but also educational. Before David began composing the short vignettes accompanying the photos, he reviewed national science education standards. Curious Critters Volume Two meets all the life science standards for grades K-4, making the nonfiction picture book appeal to teachers, librarians, and education-minded parents. In the narrative alongside the green frog, the powerful male boasts about his healthy diet, including eating his own shed skin. “Hey! if it’s nutritious, I eat it.”

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Adding to children’s enjoyment of the Curious Critters series, David partnered with nature-folksinger Foster Brown, who sings the predaceous diving beetle’s song, “Row, Row, Row Your Legs.” Beginning and ending both audiobooks is Foster’s catchy Curious Critters theme song, rich with the bluegrass sounds of guitar, banjo, mandolin, and upright bass.

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David hopes that his Curious Critters picture books—featuring captivating animals like the vivid Northern Cardinal—will inspire children and adults to conserve nature. “To protect our natural world, we first have to care about it. I hope that my animal pictures allow people to see common animals—from frogs and fish to beetles and birds—in a whole new and meaningful way. It’s my goal that the close-up photography and playful prose in Curious Critters will captivate readers’ imaginations and motivate them to get outside and interact with nature.”

Curious Critters Volume Two (Wild Iris Publishing, hardback, 32 pp., ISBN 978-1-936607-70-9, $19.95) is available in bookstores, nature centers, museum stores, and other specialty shops, as well as online retailers Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Copies bought directly from Wild Iris Publishing are signed by and, if desired, dedicated by David FitzSimmons.

Check out other Curious Critters media, as well as games, parent and educator materials, sample flipping book pages, and other fun stuff at www.curious-critters.com. You can like Curious Critters on Facebook. To hear samples from the Curious Critters audiobooks, including tracks from Curious Critters Volume One, or to purchase MP3s or CDs of the audiobooks, visit the Audiobooks page on www.wildirispublishing.com.

What’s up next for David?

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David can’t wait to share a variety of sea creatures with children and families. Coming soon is Curious Critters: Marine. Meet fish, birds, crustaceans and other animals from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as the Gulf of Mexico. Hear what the black sea bass, candy stripe shrimp, pencil urchin, crested puffin, California sea slug, horseshoe crab, roseate spoonbill, blue lobster, and other salty Curious Critters have to say! Available Fall 2014.

 

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On Location: India – Kanha and Mumbai

For the last couple weeks I have been traveling in India with some very good friends.  As a last minute change in our itinerary, we decided to head off to Kanha, where we enjoyed seeing the abundant wildlife and the adjacent villages.  Then we headed off to Mumbai and the Dhobi Ghat (the world’s largest laundry), which couldn’t be any more different than the bucolic countryside.

Click the play button to see all the photos, or click HERE

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