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Figure 1. Red-Winged Black Bird.In California, and perhaps other places, red-winged black bird is a common sight in spring and summer. This one is shot with Canon 50D with Canon 100-400mm lens. This combo of equipment is not supposed to get a shot like this. As this is a small bird, it tends to fly away when you are trying to close in. Most of the time, I can only fill at most one ninth of the frame at the distance it allows me using this combo.
In early March 2012, I was in Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, which is quite remote from any big cities. I saw this bird when I was still far away on the auto route. Somehow it didn't fly away when I approached. I didn't expect this and so I had to back up my car to get a good angle of it. Surprisingly enough, it still allowed me at a close distance like this, which is my ever closest distance to this bird. So I have good opportunity to get a close up of this bird.
The time is around sunset and the horizon is quite hazy. This provides a good background for this bird. This is especially useful for a bird or animal (bison, moose, and black bear) in black. If the background is too bright, it is difficult to get the details of the subject. In addition, the bright background competes with the subject. The soft effects from the bokeh work pretty well in this case. It is not easy to wait for all conditions right, especially for wildlife. But sometimes it just cooperates!
Figure 1. Colter's Hell.Yellowstone is a hotspot for not just geology, but also tourism. Over 3 million tourists visit this park every year. Winter offers a special treatment to see how the hot and cold co-exist. In fact, John Colter, first recorded white man to visit here, spent his first time in winter. Most people didn't believe what he saw and gave this place the name Colter's Hell.
While many places can claim its world-class scenery, Yellowstone features the hell-like or alien planet kind. After you have visited here in person, you won't blame why those people didn't believe John Colter, especially visiting here in winter.
I stayed in Old Faithful Snow Lodge some days during Christmas in 2011. One of my goal is to catch a Yellowstone-like winter scene. I got up early and headed out on Christmas Eve. The temperature is above 0.0 F, which is warm by Yellowstone standard. The sun was not up yet. I just walked in Geyser Hill and saw if I can find a place to get a special shot.
Basically, I need both thermal features and snow to show off Yellowstone's winter. This seems simple, but it is not easy to find a good lighting with a strong composition at the same time. After I walked a while and arrived around Giant Geyser, I saw the anticipating potentials and determined to stay put here. Here I had lots of snow on the ground and trees. The right hand side trees looked eerie and left hand side trees with mist gave some sense of the depth of the scene. I also had steams rising up to show the thermal feature of the park. The sun was peeking through the mist every now and then. Mostly it was blocked but sometimes found a hole to show up. I also liked the soft lighting condition for the cold feelings of the winter. he scene was dynamic and so I have to take lots of shots. Whenever the sun peeked through, I took some shots. Figure 1 is one shot during about 30 minutes staying alone here.
In term of good lighting and strong composition, this is the shot I tried to achieve. It is also special as you won't see similar kinds of photos often. For this shot, however, it still looks good without the steams. I wish the effects of the thermal feature can be stronger. This is a successful shot, but it does not entirely meet my expectation.
Well, this is about photography. To wait for all conditions right is extremely difficult. Most of the time, one can only try to get the most and hope for the best.
Figure 1. Pronghorn buck, Ash Creek Wildlife Area, CA.Talking about the pronghorn, it is usually related to states like Wyoming or Montana. In fact, they are quite abundant today due to the conservation efforts. Most western states have herds of pronghorns, including California.
Modoc Plateau in the northeast corner of California is the best place to see pronghorns. There are about 5,000 to 7,000 pronghorns here and their population continues to increase. Unlike most populous places in California, Modoc Plateau is quite remote and thus pronghorns have space to thrive. Alturas is the major town in this area. US-395 south of and CA-299 east/west of Alturas are the places to see pronghorns. If you are lucky, they may even stop at the roadside.
Ash Creek Wildlife Area is located along CA-299 near the town Adin. This place belongs to California Department of Fish and Game (DFG). July and August are the months to see pronghorns here. I saw about 10 pronghorns, bucks and does, during a trip in early June. I suspect some does may have or be about to deliver fawns, but I just can't sight them. Fawns are usually born in late May and early June. They are still too young to outrun predators. So they hide most of the time until they can run well.
To my delight, these pronghorns didn't run when they saw me. They showed some sort of curiosity and keep watching me for a certain time. Some even walked closer to have a better look at me. Although the lighting at high noon is not good, I have no complaint about the photo quality with the Canon 100-400mm lens and Canon 50D body.
Most people living in California don't know they have an easy way to see pronghorn. Well, maybe it is not that easy because of the long drive to get here. For people living in the Bay Area, it takes about 6 to 7 hours to arrive this region, which is better than flying to Wyoming or Montana.
For people living in southern California, Carrizo Plain in Central Valley is within the reasonable driving distance, though pronghorns there are not doing well. I will cover this part later.
Figure 2. Pronghorn buck and does, Ash Creek Wildlife Area, CA.
