Mother polar bear and her two cubs recently out of the den. Canada

I recently helped Polar Bears International and our good friends at Frontiers North Adventures (FNA) put together an informational sheet about polar bear facts and figures. It’s a sheet FNA will be giving to their guests who come to witness the annual polar bear congregation that takes place each fall in Churchill, Manitoba. My contribution consists of  a small list of tips on photographing white subjects, in this case polar bears, on snow. Even more important are the facts it contains such as:

• May 2008 the US considers polar bears an endangered species.
• 60% of all polar bears live in Canada
• Polar bears depend o sea ice to hunt and in some cases den.
• Scientists have concluded that the biggest threat to polar bears is ecological change in the arctic due to climate change.
• Biologists estimate there are 20,000-25,000 polar bears in the arctic.
• Support PBI’s Adopt a Polar Bear Campaign. Read More at the PBI web site.

One of the little cubs in the photograph above is the cub featured on the cover of our upcoming book Portia Polar Bear’s Birthday Wish. You can read more on an earlier Blog.

Photo tips for capturing Polar Bears or other white subjects on snow.

• When shooting a white subject on a white background—such as a polar bear on snow—first make some observations. Is it a sunny or cloudy day? If it’s cloudy, you need to compensate for your camera’s meter by turning your exposure compensa- tion dial to +1.3. If it’s sunny, you don’t need to add anything—just shoot.
• A good composition is key to a good photo. So, apply the rule of thirds. That is, think of your viewfinder divided with lines like those on a tic-tac-toe board. Align your shot so that important elements of your picture appear along these lines or at their intersections. Your images will have more energy, tension, and interest than if you center your subject.
• Even quality autofocus (AF) camera systems can be fooled by the light-colored fur of a polar bear—especially on a cloudy day. If your camera isn’t focusing, position the AF sensor on the bear’s nose or eye. Press the shutter button just enough to lock in the focus, reposition the camera for better composition, and shoot.

Outdoor Photographer ARTtrust Article

We just recently had an article published in Outdoor Photographer describing my work with a new company that helps photographers and other print media artists prove the authenticity of their work. It’s called ARTtrust and was developed by a company working with Hewlett Packard. HP is the company that produces all of the Fine Art printers I use in my office to produce my Fine Art Prints. ARTtrust is a great new tool and we’re happy to offer this service to all of our art enthusiasts who collect my prints.

Harlequin Ducks with the Nikon D3S

I’ve just returned from the Alaska tundra where I was producing material for a new book project on documenting the changing arctic for Polar Bears International. Before I left Nikon was kind enough to send me their newest digital SLR the D3S for testing and evaluation. I was most interested in the video features so much of this blog will relate to that. There are numerous web sites that go into lengthy details about this camera so this is a relatively short but real world analysis of this amazing new camera.

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Mother brown bear plays with her cubs

Our Alaskan Brown Bear trip is fast approaching and I wanted to take a few minutes to post some information for those of you who plan to join us. For those of you reading this that may still have an interest we do have two spots open for the spring adventure. The dates are June 18-25. Give Tanya a call if you’re interested.

Summer brown bear photography in Alaska has a few special requirements. I’ll start with clothing then move on to photography equipment. First and foremost when in the Alaska wilderness you want to make sure you stay dry so I highly recommend bringing a good quality rain/waterproof jacket. Not necessarily a rubber coat but Gore-tex or equivalent is ideal. I’ll be wearing a Mountain Hardware breathable, outer shell. I’ll also have a fleece inner coat incase the temperature drops, as it can in the north. I’ll be wearing a capalene tshirt under a heavier outer shirt. The capalene is essential for keeping you dry next to the skin and makes a huge difference if you somehow get wet. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been using Lowepro camera bags since the start of my career back in 1980. I’ve always been impressed with their durability, attention to detail and overall design. My first Lowepro bag was the Commercial over the shoulder model. As time went on I made the decision to start using their camera backpacks and it was then that I really became sold on their ability to design a pack that excelled at carrying heavy loads.

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Store front of F/11 on Main Street in Bozeman, Montana

When I first came to Bozeman back in 1987, one of the first places I stopped was the local camera shop called F/11. The owner at the time was Duncan McNab. He had a well earned reputation for being one of the best photographers in the Pacific Northwest and even better he had the most incredible photo store I had ever walked in to. At any given time you could enter that store and find a 15mm/2.8, a 600mm f/4  and everything in between actually sitting on the shelf ready for purchase. Time passed and eventually Duncan decided to retire. One of his sharpest employees was first in line to take the reins. That person was Marsha Phillips. She and her partner Doug have taken the shop to a new level over the twelve years since they became owners. There have been drastic changes in the photography world as we all know since 1987.  F/11 has done a great job changing with them. Not only can you still find the exotic Nikon 200-400mm f/4 on the shelf but you can also find Apple computers and all things for digital capture. F/11 is an Apple Value Added Reseller and having so many options in photography and video production equipment at your doorstep makes it difficult to keep budgets in line.

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A couple of months ago a good friend of mine and frequent Natural Exposures Photo Adventure traveler Leon Soriano introduced me to the amazing new Panasonic/Lumix camera called the GF1. It’s part of the  Micro Four Thirds system created by Panasonic and Olympus back in August 2008. It’s all a part of the quest to make still cameras smaller as well as merge the world of still and video capture. I’ve been waiting for my favorite camera company, Nikon, to do something in the small point and shoot department similar to the GF1 but alas it hasn’t happened. So for the time being I’m using this new, spectacular little image capturing device. Take a look at our recent Africa video. All of the people scenes were shot with the GF1.

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This is a bit of a short and late entry. I wasn’t able to get this to the blog before I went to Africa but wanted to share the Yellowstone video with everybody so I’m posting this now. Better late than never as they say. As you will see in the video we had some great photographic opportunities during our week and half in the park. When Tanya and I talk to people about our winter adventure in Yellowstone I never discuss seeing wolves. Our guests and potential guests always ask about seeing them but when you go into the park on the west end , the wolf opportunities are typically few and far between. However, if pushed, I tell people the wolves are there so it’s always a possibility. This year the wolves showed in a big way. On our second trip into the park we saw canis lupis three out of the four days. One occasion we spent nearly half a day watching and waiting for three wolves trying desperately to catch and consume a yearling elk. Thankfully, we never did see them connect and there was no indication that they eventually did. I like to think she did get away.

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For those of you interested in doing your own printing you should check out  my good friend and master printer extraordinar David Saffir’s upcoming  printing workshops. He’s a great guy and has been extremely helpful in  guiding me and my office staff in our quest to produce the highest quality Limited Edition Fine Art Prints. Take a look at the cities he will be visiting Digital 2 You

For the past five years I’ve been predicting that the day was not far off where we would see the convergence of still and video images. About 3 or 4 years ago a new video camera was introduced called Red One. It shoots such high quality video that you can actually pull still images from the files it creates and use those individual images in printed materials.  Take a look at the current upcoming cover of Esquire magazine. I’m often asked by my workshop students, university students I work with here in Bozeman and others from across the web, how to get in to the business of wildlife and nature photography? My standard response in the past several years has been, “don’t even think about becoming a still shooter. You need to learn how to shoot moving images. Movies are the future. It won’t be long before the still shooter is nothing different than the guy who used to shovel coal in to steam trains and eventually lost his job due to trains moving to diesel power.” Still shooters could very well go the way of the dinosaur.

I wasn’t exactly excited about this move I knew I would have to eventually make, but…… I’ve done it. I recently took a course from a gentleman named Bill Gentile of American University in Silver Spring, Maryland. It was sponsored by PBS. Bill was originally a still photographer working in South America documenting wars, poverty etc. That was back in the 70′s and 80′s and he saw the train coming then. He moved in to video production in the early 90′s and has been shooting for some of the top news organizations evert since. Clients such as PBS, ABC TV and many others. Bill’s course was called Backpack Journalism and it was a great way for me to jump in head first. So without further ado I would like to present my first semi-serious film. It was shot with a Canon XH G1 HD video camera and was produced using Final Cut Pro. It’s not wildlife or nature but it’s about one of my other favorite subjects–Art

If I recall correctly we had 15 students in our class. We were instructed to come up with an idea, shoot it, edit and produce the final piece all in four days. As a group we voted on what we thought were the best films with the winners  honored by being featured on the PBS web site. You can see the winning entries for yourself at Backpack Journalism & PBS. I won’t be winning any Academy Awards with it but it’s a start.

Take a look at A New Face in Town

A New Face in Town from Daniel J. Cox on Vimeo.