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

Yesterday I accompanied a group of volunteers from Polar Bears International who flew by chopper out to Cape Churchill. Our mission was to refuel the remote, robotic camera that is perched in the tower and used for science and data collection. It’s October 29, and Hudson Bay is wide open. There’s not an ounce of ice anywhere on the big open water. Three days ago the fresh water lakes began to freeze and today the temperatures have been no higher than about 16 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s good news for the polar bears. Hudson Bay needs to freeze so they can get out and start hunting again.

From the Cape tower we counted 14 large males just hanging out in the willows. A couple showed some curiosity when we began our chores of hoisting the fuel cell fuel in to the tower. A couple of cracker shells had to be fired their direction to keep them from coming closer. So far this year at the lodge the number of bears have been sparse. Maybe a half dozen here and there.

What concerns me is how gaunt the bears have looked around the lodge. One female with two cubs hasn’t moved more than a few hundred yards in the three weeks I’ve been here. I thought maybe this was normal but checking with others I’m told it’s fewer numbers than we usually see this time of year. I’m typically not here this early in the season. The predictions by the scientists PBI works with talk about how the polar bear numbers in this area will decrease slowly. First to be missing will be the young and the very old. The strong and healthy will survive the longest. Seeing the large, healthy males at Cape and so few young bears around camp makes me concerned the change in climate might be talking it’s toll faster than expected.

A recent report put together by Dr. Steve Amstrup gives us much to be concerned about regarding the speed that climate change is taking place. The following is a quote from Dr. Amstrup in a recent email he sent Polar Bears Internationals president Robert Buchanan. He said “Compared to the long term mean summer ice extent, this year alone, we lost
over a million square miles of sea ice. That is an area the size of Alaska
plus Texas plus Washington State combined”.

Photos from the trip to Cape Churchill.

About three weeks ago I spent time in Churchill, Manitoba helping Polar Bears International (PBI) with a program they call Leadership Camp. More than a dozen kids from around the world came to the Tundra Buggy Lodge to learn about how the warming climate will effect the arctic and polar bears in particular. The sponsored students spent the week discussing climate change issues and learning how to present the information to their peers as well as anyone else interested in their recent adventure.

The goal of this camp is to send these kids off with good fact based information and the skills to communicate what they’ve learned in a professional and engaging manner. In short their mission is to be PBI Ambassadors of the Arctic.The following QuickTime video is their message to young people around the world. Special thanks to Apple Computers, Frontiers North, Hudson Bay Helicopters and the Sheraton Hotel in Winnipeg. We could not have done any of this without you.

Come see what it took to put it all together. Customizing a Tundra Buggy into a sophisticated, mobile, video production studio was no easy task. A week before our contract with National Geographic we had had to replace virtually all of the wireless radio system that the whole project depended on. 110 mp/h winds rattled the wires to their breaking point and lots of connections needed changing. Some of those wires were 200 feet up on top of a tower that could only be accessed by climbing and it needed to be done during the tail end of the windstorm in gales that had subsided to 80 mp/h. It was truly a challenge and you can see it for yourself by visiting the Building Buggy One page.

You can see some of the amazing video produced by my good friend and four time, Emmy Award winning videographer, Daniel Zatz. Polar Bear Video

Greetings Nature Enthusiasts,

Welcome to my first column here on the Corkboard at Natural Exposures. I’m writing to you from the shores of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba. It’s hard to believe but I’m sitting in the comforts of a Tundra Buggy, running a streaming video feed for Polar Bears International, which is being broadcast across the Internet via the National Geographic web site. All of this 1000+ air miles from Winnipeg and over 20 miles from the town of Churchill. Churchill doesn’t even have cellular service but they do have cable and it’s the cable line that we’re tied in to by way of a wireless Internet connection from our buggy to the cable station in town. I’m presently assisting a four-time Emmy award winning cinematographer Mr. Daniel Zatz of See More Wildlife and WildlifeHD. Daniel is a technical and artistic wizard who’s combined his love for electronics, cinematography and the outdoors to create a high speed, digital highway that allows us to bring this annual congregation of polar bears to the world.
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