Pelican Panorama

American White Pelicans, Baylands, California

Keeping with the bird theme - this post was originally published November 21, 2012.

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This is my first ever wildlife panorama, stitched together from four generously overlapped horizontal frames shot handheld. Come to think of it, this has to be my first handheld panorama, as well. Shot at a fast enough shutter speed, camera shake wasn’t an issue. Movement of individual birds during the sequence wasn’t an issue either, as I was careful to allow a generous amount of overlap between frames, around fifty percent, and place the edge of each frame between pelicans. I also needed to leave enough room around the line of pelicans to crop in on the panorama slightly in case my individual frames didn’t line up perfectly, which they didn’t.
These birds crack me up; they’re like caricatures from some cartoon.  Not only do they fly in line, they stand in line as well. The Sibley guide uses the adjective ponderous to describe them. Slightly larger than a male turkey, their landings may not be graceful, in the air they soar on nine foot wingspans.

The Birds Are Back In Town

Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus), City Creek Canyon Utah

A short hike in City Creek Canyon reveals a number of migratory bird species back in town from their wintering grounds. I was able to see and photograph Lazuli Bunting, Black-headed Grosbeak, Western Tanager, Chipping Sparrow, and Black-chinned Hummingbird. Made some progress on my Western Tanager trophy shot, but I haven't nailed it just yet.

Western Tanager

Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana)​, Killian Canyon, Utah

The Western Tanagers are in. I just found out a few days ago, on a short hike in Killian Canyon, where I was lucky enough to capture this image. The subject is sublime, even the situation with spring green leaves and red branches of dogwood creating the backdrop is ideal. The execution leaves room for improvement, and I'm looking forward to trying.

Really the only thing wrong with this image is the blurry foreground branches cutting across and cluttering the frame. However, they're also likely what's making this bird comfortable enough to stay put for a moment at close range. The compositions in my mind may require a lot of time in the field or very cooperative birds, and quite possibly both.

Not too many weeks ago I was staring at the snowy ramparts east of Salt Lake and daydreaming about photography in the high cirques of the Wasatch. Seeing flashes of red in the greening canyon bottoms has fixated my mind on other photographic goals. Right now is the time to be in the green zone photographing brightly colored birds alighted on flowering branches, as if in an Audubon print.

California Birding

Golden-crowned Sparrow, Baylands, California

Originally published December 7, 2012

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It’s been over a month since I was in California, but before moving on, I wanted to share a little about my new discovery. (Thanks, Chris) At the south end of the San Francisco Bay, on the edge of the city of Palo Alto is Baylands Nature Preserve, a premier west coast birding location. Preserving one of the largest tracts of undisturbed marshland in San Francisco Bay, Baylands has fifteen miles of trails through the wetlands. You don’t have to go far to see a wide variety of birds though. In fact, as soon as I was out of the car, I was greeted by a Northern Mockingbird. The highlight of the afternoon was seeing and hearing flocks of Marbled Godwit and American Avocet take to the air en masse and circle around. The numbers of birds and the variety was truly inspiring. Here’s a link to a map of birding hot-spots for Baylands, and a list of bird species and the time of year they’re likely to be seen.

April Gallery Stroll / Utah Arts Festival Gallery

Succulents - Pigment Transfer Print

Please join me Friday evening, April 19th, from 6-9pm, at the Utah Arts Festival Gallery for the April gallery stroll opening reception for “Contemporary Artists/Traditional Techniques”, a five person exhibit including yours truly.  All of my work in this show is based in the photo transfer processes I’ve been working with the past two years, and consists of one-of-a-kind, hand printed, pigment transfers on cotton papers, wood, and stone tiles. One of my most recent pieces, made specifically for this show, uses crinkly silver metallic paper mounted on foam board, as the substrate for a two transfer composite, where each image is allowed its own organic imperfections. For more information on the show and the other artists involved check the Utah Arts Festival website.

Run for the Roses

Pfeifferhorn Sunrise

Pfeifferhorn Sunrise, Lone Peak Wilderness, Utah

This image accompanied my third blog post ever, back on February 1st, 2009. It was also my second most visited post at the time I switched to the new website. Sadly I’ve lost the original text and the comments. The image is from July 2006. It’s another view from another summer, from the summit of the Pfeifferhorn, this time at sunrise.

The original text described the situation: I had come to the alpine ridge prepared to spend the night in hopes of taking advantage of two golden hour photo sessions. My intent was to spend the night on the unnamed peak just west of the Pfeifferhorn and photograph the imposing west face of the Pfeifferhorn at sunset. After about five hours of hiking with a full pack, I realized I hadn’t given myself enough time to reach that unnamed summit, and decided to stay put on top of the Pfeifferhorn to photograph the sunset.

A bit later I decided to stay put for the night.  Not a great place to camp, barely enough room for one body to lie flat without being jabbed by rocks, but I didn’t want to pick my way off the summit cone by headlamp, and I did want to be able to just roll out of my one-man shelter to photograph the sunrise. It was a lousy night sleep as the wind howled and I worried about the flashes of lightning I’d seen to the west, over the Oquirrhs, before turning in.

As it turned out, the night’s weather blew in a lot of clouds which made the sunrise much more colorful than the previous night’s sunset. I was glad I had made the effort to treat myself to two edge of day photo sessions, high in the Lone Peak Wilderness. My original post had a great closing line. I wish I could remember it, something about finding unique photographic perspectives on mountain summits. The effort always seems to be rewarded.