It’s amazing what you can find on the internet. I was recently doing a search for some of my work, trying to track down a particular web interview I had done and instead ran across a video that was shot a couple of years ago at PhotoExpo Plus in New York. At the time I was working with Hewlett Packard, helping them showcase their new Z3200 printer. They in turn  produced a number of large format prints showing the quality the Z3200 produced and presented the large format images a gallery like setting at this annual trade show in New York. Amazingly my interview is as appropriate today as it was two years ago. The main difference is that the Arctic Documentary Project has officially launched but the message is the same. Thought I would share this with all of you.

If you’re interested in seeing the official Arctic Documentary Project booklet that describes it all in words and pictures you can click on the image below and be taken to an online version of the official publication.

Tonight was the official launch of the Arctic Documentary Project here in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It’s been a long time coming, something I’ve been working on unofficially for many years. It wasn’t until I was inspired by a good friend that offered a substantial donation that I realized I really needed to get this officially organized and officially launched. So here it is. You can click on the image and you will be able to review the ADP promotional booklet. Let us know what you think. It’s a work in progress but it really is officially off the ground.

After spending much of August searching for polar bears on ice near the archipelago of Svalbard, I’m not surprised by the latest headline on Polar Bears International’s most current electronic newsletter. The headline reads Historic Sea Ice Losses, Polar Bear Encounters.

During our nearly five week expedition looking for polar bears, and all other creatures of the arctic, we found no sea ice to photograph the bears the bears on. We did find bits and pieces of ice berg chunks that had broken off from the glaciers on shore but nothing even remotely close to the ice pack. Our guide said the ice pack was typically 18-20 miles off shore from the north end of Svalbard but this summer it was nearly eighty miles off shore. Needless to say it wasfor us but even worse for polar bears. Take a read of PBI’s electronic newsletter and find out more about the historic loss of sea ice and what you can do to help polar bears. Click on the link above or the image below to be taken to PBI’s newsletter.

The image below was first run as part of my final post for our Arctic Documentary Project in Svalbard/Spitsbergen, Norway. It’s kind of buried in the main blog so I though I would pull this out for easier reading. The key elements I used to create this image include the Nikon D7000, Nikon SB900 wireless flash, Aperture software and Nik Viveza that was used as a plugin within Aperture.

A skeleton of a Svalbard Reindeer lies relatively undisturbed on the tundra of Spitsbergen, Norway.

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August 10, Danskøya Island 37F

Click on this link to see photos of our favorite images from the Svalbard shoot for the Arctic Documentary Project.

This morning is cold. Most definitely the coolest we’ve experienced. Danskøya Island is on the northwest part of the archipelago and is on the edge of better polar bear habitat. The ice is nearly 80 miles offshore, so any bears that are stranded on the Islands of Svalbard migrate towards the top getting as close to the ice pack as possible. Mark tells me that, “typically the ice is 15-20 miles offshore but this year is unusual.”  Surprising how often I keep hearing something similar to “this year is unusual” from people that work in the arctic. That’s been the description for hotter than normal temperatures and the varying climatic changes they’ve caused. Equally amazing is that I first started hearing people talk about the “unusual year” over ten years ago. My wife Tanya is stepping in here to describe our morning and the rest of the day as we head further north and east.

A Polar Bear wanders the snow-covered rocks in Holmiabukta, Svalbard, Norway. Nikon D7000, 200-400mm lens

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August 8, 2011, Cloudy and 43F

Tanya and I spent the past three days in Lonyearbyen in a small, very European, apartment, catching up on business matters, writing and a little rest before our next group of guests arrived.

Tanya and Dan in the rented apartment having dinner.

The first trip went really well, but every adventure to the field is new, so it’s always in your mind that the the next can be even better. Our boat is full again, housing our eight invited photo enthusiasts that all arrived on schedule. Jeanne, one of our dear and long-time friends, and a retired, 30-year 757 pilot for United Airlines, arrived in Longyearbyen minus her luggage. True to form she had a huge smile on her face and lots of great stories about the turmoil she faced trying to explain to the “lost luggage department” where they needed to deliver her bags once they found them. The story Jeanne described, as usual, was hilarious with the central theme pivoting on the idea that the agent just could not get the concept that the boat she was scheduled to board was something smaller than the typical 1500 passenger cruise ship. And, unlike the cruise ships, there was no port she would be visiting that had an SAS office she could check in with. Suffice it to say, it’s people like Jeanne who take a very bad situation and turn it into a comedy routine, that makes this job so worthwhile. Read the rest of this entry »

July 23, 2012

Polar bears feeding on the carcass of a Fin Whale. Svalbard, Norway

Two years ago on my first trip to Svalbard we found a dead whale, floating in the waters of Holmiabukta. It was partially beached, the underside of its large, bloated carcass coming aground on the bottom of the fjord, 50 feet or more from the gray, rocky shoreline recently void of ice. During our original visit we spent several days working the nearly dozen or so bears that were feasting on the Cetaceation’s rotting flesh. It was a surreal site, sometimes four polar bears distributed its length, standing their ground, their teeth tearing at the hide of the ghastly, bloated corpse. A young ice bear, maybe 3-4 years in age, gorged itself as a mother and two cubs came swimming from shore. The moment she boarded the bobbing smorgasbord of blubber, skin and barnacles, the feasting young bruin came sprinting down the carcass length, diving off the other end, leaping into the water in a full race horse gallop. Gulls scattered in every direction lifting off to hang in the gusting winds blowing from the glacier. There in the midst of darkest death was the angelic like wings of an Ivory Gull as purely white as its name described, a bird of such beauty in this scene of death. Read the rest of this entry »

June 10, 2011

My last trip to Svalbard was almost two years ago. Soon I will be there again and this blog post is the beginning of my report from what is an incredible land of ice, water, wildlife and sky. If you’re interested you can read about my last Trip to this amazing wilderness on our  Blog/Corkboard.

A polar bear makes its way over barren rocks surrounded by patches of snow near Svalbard, Norway.

This time my wife Tanya is accompanying me. We’ve incorporated this trip into our Invitational Photo Tours schedule so we’ll be meeting numerous guests who’ve become friends and a few new faces that have never traveled with us before. You can find out more about the details of our cruise in the spectacular waters of Norway by visiting our Invitational Photo Tours web page. Here you will find all the details and if you like  you can even signup for the same adventure yourself for next year. Yep, we’ll be doing it all again in 2012.

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Daniel Cox meets with aspiring photographer Jae Seifert

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting a very pleasant young man from my home state of Minnesota. His name is Jae Seifert and he’s currently attending college in Bemidji, Mn. Jae and I met at a presentation I was giving for the Boca Grand Camera Club in Boca Grand, Florida. After the event he came up to introduce himself, we chatted briefly and he requested an opportunity to sit down for a short interview. I agreed and the next day we met at my parents home in Placida, Florida. I share this with you to set the stage for what I feel is a very important obligation in any persons life, the gift of mentoring.

When I think back on my early years as a boy the first mentor in my life was my father. Many of us are fortunate to have had a male person for guidance but there are many others that have not. More so today than ever before and I can only imagine were my life would be without that person in my life I call my dad. He gave me much of the foundation I use today.

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London's Telegraph Highlights Daniel's Arctic & Antarctic Photography

Recently my work in both the arctic and antarctic was featured in several newspaper articles. The inspiration for this interest by the media came from the heart wrenching video I shot this past fall of the dying polar bear cubs. Though most of my work in the antarctic was done a number of years ago it was a pleasure to have an interest in many images that have never been published before. You can see the different articles for yourself by following the links below.

Dr. Amstrup pauses while documenting polar bear behavior

Dr. Steven C. Amstrup, senior scientist with Polar Bears International, addresses the question of the Dying Cub Video. He also discusses the paper he recently published in the prestigious journal, Nature, which offers hope for polar bears if we significantly reduce carbon emissions.

There are many unknowns about the dying cub, but the behavior is consistent with starvation. The mother bear is obviously very, very thin and probably had not been lactating for some time. And, greater nutritional stress is something that we already have observed quantitatively (as opposed to qualitatively, as in this video) in the long-term data on the Western Hudson Bay bears.

It is important to emphasize, that when biologists report findings—as they have with the Western Hudson Bay population—that survival rate of young is reduced, what that means is that mortality has increased.  And starvation is a principal mechanism of increased mortality in polar bears.  With ever-longer ice-free periods, we will see ever-increasing rates of starvation.  I think that most in the media and public, and policy makers, don’t really understand that when we speak of lowered survival in scientific papers, what we really are referring to is starvation. This video is a painful reminder of what declining survival means, and of what our greenhouse gas emissions are doing to polar bears and other wildlife dependent upon cold conditions.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Our paper in Nature offers hope for polar bears if we can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and not let them rise beyond 450 ppm. It disproves the idea of an irreversible tipping beyond which arctic sea ice can’t recover.

Some have questioned whether the 450ppm scenario on which we focused is not really possible to achieve.

It surely is an aggressive scenario and would take considerable political will and leadership.  The criticism has been stated in the context of the lack of progress, in the Cancun climate change, etc., toward even more modest changes.

When such comments come up, it is important not to confuse physical possibility with political plausibility.  There has been an incredible amount of material written on this and other reduction scenarios.  Those documents describe in great detail how we would have to change our economy and society, but they do not describe anything that is not physically possible.

Cover of Nature. Click photo for larger view

One of my co-authors, Eric DeWeaver of the National Science Foundation, spoke with Leon Clark, lead author on the main Climate Change Science Program document, regarding this scenario. Clark stated that he felt it still was physically possible to achieve, although certainly challenging politically.

We chose this scenario, which allows CO2 to rise to 450ppm by the end of the century, for a variety of reasons. One of those was the fact that it is very well documented and that the pathways for achieving it have been discussed extensively in the literature.  Also, it is consistent with the goal of keeping temperature rise below 2 C, which is a target many have suggested is necessary to prevent significant anthropogenic interference with the climate.

James Hansen, in fact has argued that 450ppm is too high and we need to get back town to 350ppm.  There is debate about Hansen’s concept. But perhaps the biggest limitation in discussions about achieving 350 is that we already are beyond that. So, focusing too much on 350 risks people feeling there is nothing they can do.  The message of our paper is HOPE—that there is something we can do.  So, I am not inclined to deal much with 350 until we have made it well along the way to achieve 450.  Once we have demonstrated we can do that, then we can work our way down to 350.  But that is a bit beside my current point: that point is not to confuse physical achievability with political plausibility.

Even more important, is that this criticism loses sight of one of the main results of our paper.  We did not see evidence of irreversible thresholds in our model outcomes—sea-ice habitat features smoothly declined as temperatures rose.  And even after modeled rapid ice-loss events, we showed recovery could occur if GHG concentrations were lowered.  Therefore, the biggest news is the simple message that conserving polar bears is a matter of minimizing temperature rise.  This is important because the smooth relationship between temperature and sea ice habitat decline means that if we strive for really aggressive mitigation but don’t quite make it, or if we overshoot before getting down to our target, we still will have preserved more sea ice and more bears.   The message is that to save polar bears we need to lower temperature rise and that by doing so we will have gone a long way toward saving the climate in which humans, and the rest of life currently residing on earth, have flourished.

We should not allow ourselves, therefore, to become embroiled in an argument about taking significant steps versus taking no steps at all.  Rather we need to keep the focus on the need to act strongly and quickly and focus on reducing temperature rise as much as is humanly possible.

Dr. Stirling had requested a more in-depth response than what the normal blog comments allow. His response below is in regards to my earlier post of the polar bear cub dying of starvation video

Dr. Ian Stirling worlds leading authority on polar bear research

Posting this video of a polar bear cub dying of starvation on the western coast of Hudson Bay, only a few weeks ago was both a brave and important thing to do. Although it clearly and understandably upset some viewers, it was not an act of either heartlessness or exploitive sensationalism. Life in the natural world is tough. Animals kill and eat each other in ways that are difficult to watch every day and the weaker, for whatever reason, die regularly in sometimes gruesome fashion as we have seen in the video.  Some people have asked why the bears were not fed. The animals were in Wapusk National Park. National Parks are dedicated to maintaining natural environments and natural biological processes without the hand of humans to the greatest degree possible. Thus, it would have been illegal to try to feed these bears and even getting close enough to do so would have caused further unacceptable disturbance. Most likely, the bears would have tried to escape from an approaching vehicle, or charged a human approaching on foot, neither of which would be ethical treatment of the bears, not to mention being illegal. Even if they could have been fed, the cubs in particular were already so far gone by the time they were first observed, it is unlikely they could have been saved. I think the survival of the female is questionable as well because of her poor condition – she looks like a bone rack and appears to be having some difficulties with walking as well. Analysis of the video by veterinarians confirms the convulsions were the result of the last phases of starvation, not shivering because of the cold. Read the rest of this entry »

British Newspaper The Telegraph Runs Starving Polar Bears Video

Recently the British Newspaper the Telegraph ran the story of the starving polar bears video I shot last month. As predicted there are lots of negative comments about the validity of the claims of starvation. One blogger, Tom Nelson laid out some questions that I  answered on his web site but his blog would not accept the length of the answers. That being the case I wanted to make sure he got the answers he was searching for so I’m posting them here for all to see. The following was exactly what I typed into his blog comment section, tried to submit but was told it was too lengthy.

You can see his original post at Tom Nelson’s Blog

Tom,

Daniel Cox here, the guy who shot the starving polar bear video. I would like to answer  the questions you have.

1). (Your Question)  If warming is killing this bear, why is there so much snow around, why is the temperature “well below zero degrees Fahrenheit”, and why is the cub described as “shaking and cold”?

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The following entry is from my Field Journal originally posted under the title, “Another Season of Cape Churchill Polar Bear  Photography”

The days beautiful light was tempered by a scene I will never forget. Earlier this week we saw a mother bear with two little cubs. All three were extremely skinny, bones protruding from the hide of the gaunt and sickly looking adult. The cubs looked equally at risk. It was a horrible sight but it got worse. The next day we found the mother lying in a snow bank taking refuge from the wind as best she could. She was very close to camp and showed no concern for the buggy as we slowly approached to get a better look. At first none of us had any idea it was the mother and her cubs we saw the day before but as another bear came by she rose from her bed of drifted  snow and charged as best she could. It was obvious this mother and her cubs were in exceptionally poor condition. Though we so far have no proof it looked as though all three were on the verge of starvation.

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November 17, 2010

Aerial view as we fly into Winnipeg

On my way to Winnipeg. It’s a beautiful clear, blustery day in Churchill. Winter has finally arrived. Not as cold as it should be by 5-10 degrees but the wind has blown in from the north making it’s presence known with chill factors cold enough to get your attention. Today was supposed to be the blizzard of the century, so said the guys from Hudson Bay Heli.  Sadly it never arrived. It’s just windy. One could possibly get the impression mother nature is loosing her steam.

My two weeks of PBI volunteer work has mostly ended. I may be recruited for help dismantling the houses and packing the gear that spends the winter in Churchill. But for the most part I’m now on the clock for Frontiers North and Tundra Buggy Adventures. My trip to Winnipeg will be short. I’m heading south to greet the guests who will accompany me back to Churchill to photograph the polar bears. I’ve been doing this now for about eight years for Frontiers North and have loved every minute of it. They’re a great company and I’m thankful to be a part of such a great team.

The trip I currently lead for Frontiers North is known as the Cape Churchill Adventure. It’s the photographic tour I’ve been a part of every year, minus one, since 1988. The first ten years I was a paying guest. In the mid 90’s I drove a buggy for three years and in the late 90’s I began my stint at what I fondly call my role as “Photographer in Residence” for the Cape Churchill photographic tour. It’s been a great gig and has given me the opportunity to meet lots of interesting people, many who have become friends. Robert Buchanan of Polar Bears International, who I consider one of my closest, is one of those individuals. Robert and I met during my first trip to the Cape back in 1988.

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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.

Take a look at a mini video I shot today. A friend of ours flew to Hawaii for a wedding we’re attending. She spoke to me about the melting ice on Hudson Bay. International flights fly over Hudson Bay on their way to the US coming from Europe. Robert Buchanan of Polar Bears International talked to me earlier this week that reports were coming in that the ice on Hudson Bay is breaking up much earlier than anyone has ever heard of. Polar Bears in this region may be forced off the ice months ahead of their normal time. I thought this mini-interview with someone who saw the broken ice first hand would be of interest to those of you who follow the plight of the polar bear due to climate change. It was +40F in Churchill this week. Usually it’s -40F. Big changes on the way.

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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Robert Buchanan of Polar Bears International addresses The Polar Bears Sustainability Alliance

This past week I spent time in Portland, Oregon shooting photos and attending meetings with Polar Bears International. PBI was asked to join the Association of Zoos and Aquariums  at their annual conference. PBI’s mission to help all polar bears includes working with zoos and aquariums which have tremendous outreach to help educate the public to the issues effecting the climate and eventually the habitat polar bears call home. Jane Goodall was there to give the keynote address and it was hearing her speak is always incredibly inspirational. You can see more photos from the event by clicking on the following link Portland PBI Event