Join Portia Polar Bear’s Birthday Wish Facebook Fan Page

Today I’ve posted the video that describes the making of Portia Polar Bear’s Birthday Wish. Margie Carroll and and I teamed up to showcase the life of a polar bear cub that comes to realize she isn’t like everybody else in the arctic. Her mother tries to console her but she also turns to her other arctic friends for reassurance and confirmation. It’s a feel good story that will introduce young people to one of natures most charismatic and beautiful animals and tells a positive tale that inspires acceptance of others that are different.

It’s a book that Margie and I are self publishing  This is a big day for us both. I’ve published seventeen books to date, all with so called normal publishers. But this book is different. With Margie and I self publishing this title it means we have full control. No longer will we have to accept the publisher not promoting our book in any way. Our first trade show is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums where we’ll be talking to people about Portia, polar bears in general and helping Polar Bears International staff their booth. It will be a great way to jump start the christmas season and get the word circulating about Portia Polar Bear’s Birthday Wish.

We hope you can all help us do that. One way will be to sign up on the Portia Polar Bear’s Birthday Wish Facebook Fan Page. We’re planning a unique opportunity for all of you who love polar bears, are concerned about how the warming climate will affect these amazing animals  and want to help raise funding for all the projects Polar Bears International is supporting through Research, Stewardship and Education. We’re calling it the Portia Readers. We’re currently working on this program but in short it will consist of individuals taking Portia Polar Bear’s Birthday Wish in to the neighborhood and hosting readings to the local children. Stay tuned and chime in on Portia’s Facebook Page if you would be interested in this unique opportunity.

My merry band of photo buffs getting serious about their photography

June 18, 2010
It’s a gorgeous day as I  make my way to Seattle from Bozeman.  Lots ofholes in the clouds that give intermittent views of thesaturated, verdant greens of the Pacific Northwest. The pines show patches of dead, rust colored needles. The pine bark beetle has ravaged SW Montana, Idaho and parts of Washington. It’s been a wet spring, with torrential down pours from peaks to valleys for several weeks and admittedly it’s become a bit old but you won’t hear me complain. I’ve spent too many years in the mountains with too little moisture. Often, by fall the place is burning to the ground. I’m hopeful that won’t be the case for 2010 but only time will tell.

My journeys end is the great state of Alaska. I’m leading a small group of photo enthusiasts on a weeks worth of brown bear photography. Not sure how many times I’ve stepped foot in this last great land of wilderness and wildlife but it must be at least three dozen times since my first Alaska adventure back in 1986. I never tire of this land where the wildlife outnumbers the people. The variety of photographic possibilities are endless. Over the seasons I’ve shot humpbacks in southeast, grizzlies and muskox at the base of the Brooks range, Dall sheep in Denali, Fall colors in the Alaska range, aurora borealis in Fairbanks, black bears along the coast, moose on the peninsula, gyr falcons, ptarmigan, ice bergs and polar bears. It’s the land you can’t forget.

See more photos by clicking on this link.

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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.

Cover of Portia Polar Bear's Birthday Wish

A few days ago I mentioned that we had a new children’s book coming this fall. It’s a book I’m especially proud of due to the  incredibly creative way the author weaves a positive life lesson into a book about baby polar bears. It will be great reading for the young and young at heart and I’m hopeful you will enjoy the photos as well. The author Margie K. Carroll selected the pictures and did all the design work on top of writing the text. She’s a very talented lady and a very good friend.  We’re both pitching in to split the costs of self-publishing and I could never have picked a more qualified and unique individual to be business partners with. I’ve included a photo of the cover for a sneak peak as well as a shot of Margie working in my studio selecting photos for the book. I was quite humbled and amazed at her ability to find just the right image to tell the story she had already written. Margie sorted through hundreds of thousands of images over a three day period, 12-15 hours/day. We plan to have books to market by September 1, 2010 just in time for the Christmas season. We’ll be adding a sample of the book in the near future in a format that will allow a viewer to flip through pages on a computer similar to looking at the actual publication. Stay tuned. Let us know if you enjoy the cover. You can see photos of Margie’s big adventure to Montana by clicking on this link.

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.

Dan's image from Africa used in American Photo

The May/June  issue of American Photo magazine recently featured one of my images in a story titled the Worlds Best 25 Locations to Shoot. It was an image representing one of my favorite place on earth, Kenya, Africa. I’ve been traveling there for fifteen years now and I never tire of it. You can take a look at a video of our last trip this past January. It was another fabulous year of great photography. We’re doing it again in 2011 and you can find out more by visiting our web page detailing the adventure. Or you can click on the Africa video below for a look at what we all experienced on our last trip to this amazing continent.

Kenya Africa 2009

This blog entry marks the beginning of an adventure, actually more like a mission. A mission to document the changing arctic, its wildlife, landscapes and the people who make this part of the world their home. And in all reality it’s not truly the beginning for I’ve been working on this assignment for nearly my entire photographic career.  It’s actually the start of me making a decision to create a cohesive project. To compile my work in an organized manner that captures an ecosystem and it’s time in history.

Take a look at my recent shoot with Musk-ox for The Arctic Documentary Project

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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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