Amateur Nature Photographer's Vacation (1997)

How do we amateur nature photographers spend our "photography" vacations. These are the vacations that we take, with our without non photographer family and friends, that have photography as one of if not the primary reason for the trip. I thought we might share where we are or have gone in 1997, what our photgraphic goals where, what equipment/film, books, or other stuff we brought to help achieve the goals, and any other information the photographer thinks is pertinent or just would like to share.

 

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I have noticed that much learning takes place when a person sees or hears something unexpected and demonstrates a new interest that he or she didn't know existed. Perhaps we can learn from each other by posting a few narratives about our photo vacations.

Vacation? what is that?

I assume then, for Dan, that life as a nature photographer must be

a permanent vacation...

 

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I would have thought that for any nature photographer, a trip to

almost any of the National Parks would be a good compromise

between a purely photographic trip and one the whole family

would appreciate.

 

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For those who do not appreciate the total wilderness experience,

Acadia (Maine) is a park which offers lots of photo oportunities,

yet is still close enough to civilization (Bar Harbor)that those who wish

to can shop, eat, drink and party until they drop. The same could be said

for Rocky Mountain NP (Estes Park)

Life. Life is a vacation. It's taken me decades to adopt that philosophy...

 

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This past year, though, I'll have to admit I've done no vacation travel in the strict sense of the word. I've been fortunate to have been given the opportunity to work on some photo projects and my travelling has been oriented towards them.

 

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However, the shooting still feels like a vacation, in part I suppose because I'm not dependent on this (still minimal) outside income for my living. Even my "vacations" are serious, anyway, my volunteer work as a field biologist banding hawks is another example of a vacation. So maybe I'm with Dan, after all. "Vacation" just means doing some kind of work other than software engineering, for a lot less money.

 

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It is hard to feel like a shooting vacation is really a vacation when faced with sorting and labelling tons of film afterwards (I labelled 300 slides yesterday, thank God for computers, even those running Windows!)

 

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Heck, on my last trip to southeast Oregon I ended up helping tend bar and running the store at Frenchglen, Oregon so the male half of the pair that runs the place could take a two day break from servicing tourons.

 

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Enough of that. Thus far this year I've spent five weeks in southeast Oregon, about two weeks on the Oregon/California coast, and about a week and a half invading Dan's domain (NE Utah) on two separate trips.

Oh, and a quick trip to the Olympic Penninsula and tons of day trips.

 

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My last trip to Utah was probably the most exciting as on the last day I got up at out at about 6 or 6:30 AM after staying up 'til midnight talking to Dan Smith, shot until 9:00 AM or so, then drove 723 miles home to Portland...some vacation, huh?

 

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It was a lot of fun, though, believe it or not! That kind of mileage probably sounds a lot more strange to someone from the East Coast than , say, Fish Springs Nevada.

1997 is the year of the volcanoe for me. I have two trips planned, one to Mt. Rainier and the other to Mt. Saint Helens. Volcanoes are of interest to me because there is not guarantee that they will not be different tommorrow, so any picture I take may truly be unique in a few days or maybe decades.

 

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About 5% of my photos will probably be the standard images of the mountain with a blue-cloudy sky above. However, I intend to seek out some of the other signs of volcanic activity and see how well I can photograph them with an artistic twist. Mt. Rainier has interesting valleys and ridges that are a result of erosion due to volcanic processes and I hope to photograph them and the life that lives on them. Also, the glaciers make beautiful pastel colores and I hope to be able to capture them also. Mt. Rainier has some excellent old growth forest because it was made a national park many years ago before many parts of it was cut so there is another opportunity for photos. And, of course, there are those neat rivers and waterfall full of glacial sediment that tints the water a dull grey color. I really want to look for signs of ongoing geothermal activity. Mt. Rainier while not active is certainly not dormant. The last eruption was about 100 years ago and many geologists believe it is just a matter of time before it becomes active again. I'm glad I am not among the tens of thousands who have built homes in the traditional paths of the mudflows!

 

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Mount St. Helens is, of course, rather unique. Hopefully, I can find some interesting old stumps, creeks meandering through ash covered valleys and little critters making new homes on the blasted landscape. Alas, the vast acres of logs that were blown over no longer exist because they were "logged" to make good economic use of the timber. Too bad really. I hope some of the huge piles of bulldozed ash are still around. There are several new lakes that did not exist before the blast and I hope to get some good images of them. They won't be as easilty recognizable as Lake Tenaya and Crater Lake.

 

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For equipment I will bring my N90s loaded with ISO 400 print film. It will be used to stop subject motion or when light is just plain lousy. The FM2 will be the landscape camera and it will probably carry some Fuji Super G+ (iso 100 and 200) that were recently given to me by a friend. When that runs out I will go back to my workhorse Sensia 100 for subjects that doesn't move much. I will probably try a roll or two of Fudgie Velveeta simply because everybody raves about the stuff and the two test rolls I shot a while back didn't familiarize me enough with the film.

 

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Lenses will be the standard stuff, 24mm, 35-80 zoom, 80-200 zoom, and 400mm tele. Polarizers for all lenses and graduated neutral density filters for the 24 and 35-80.

 

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If a long hike or strenous uphill climb becons I will carry the Pentax MX with its 28mm lens and 75-150 zoom. This combo is a lot easier to carry than the 80-200 Nikkor heavyweight. I also have a 3 lb tripod that goes with me on hikes over 1 mile. Film for the MX will be the Fuji Super G+ 200 which is a nice compromise between quality and speed.

This year I managed to travel with my wife to Australia for a scientific congress. After the conference we travelled to tropical Queensland and, in particular, the Daintree National Park.

One of my principal goals was to take pictures of the local crocodiles which are supposed to be the largest reptiles in this world. We also took a couple of binoculars to do some birdwatching. Australia is the home of an amazing number of bird species.

We came home recently with some rather good pictures of wild Saltwater or Estuarine Crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) and some less spectacular frames of wild Australian birds. The crocodile pictures had been made possible by the help of a local guide and his small boat. The better bird shots had to be taken in walk-through aviary close to Port Douglas. A lot of information abou the Daintree National Park is available on the Net and there are some good books to buy when you arrive in Australia. For the birdwatching we used Simpson and Days "Field Guide to the Birds of Australia".

The cameras in my equipment were my old and trusted Canon F-1 New and T90 bodies (yes I still have a manual focus system) with an 80-200 mm zoom and a 300 mm telephoto lens and, of course, a sturdy Manfrotto 055 tripod with a German FLM ballhead. The film I used throughout was Fujichrome Sensia 100 (about the same quality as Provia but half the price) although taking pictures in the rainforest would certainly benefit from a faster film speed.

Australia is a fascinating place offering a wide variety of different landscapes from arid deserts to wet tropical rainforests and marvellous sandy beaches (beware of the sharks!). I am sure that this was not my last holiday in this gorgeous country!

In September my girlfriend and I are planning on going to the NP's in Utah. Two years ago we went spent two weeks in Washington and went to Olympic NP and St. Helens as well as some time in Seattle. We also went over to Victoria Canada where we visited Buchart Gardens(highly recommended).

 

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Bob is right, National Parks are good compromise vacations. It helps that my girlfriend is good at picking out subjects and I allocate time with her where I'm not concentrating on photography(which to me means not using a tripod).

 

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For equipment I'll bring my N90s, 20-35/2.8, 50/1.4, 80-200/2.8, TC16A and 105/2.8(probably). I'll also bring along my GR1 and my tripod. All of this will go in a Eureka backpack. Before you say "What about a backup body?", when I bought my N90s, I gave my 6006 to my girlfriend along with a cheap zoom lens. If my N90s dies(unlikely), I take the 6006 and she gets the GR1. Depending on how I feel about weight, I'll bring my F3 as well.

 

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For film I'll mostly bring E100SW along with some Super G 400, Velvia and/or Royal Gold 25 and probably a roll or two of Kodak B&W IR.

Before graduating from college, "vacation" referred to the 2 weeks over Christmas at home without 1) money, 2) a car, 3) money. So, there was not much photography going on. Summers were spent working 80 hours a week to get where I am now...not much further along...

 

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My employer was magnanimous enough to give me 2 weeks of vacation per year PLUS a guilt trip for taking it! Wow. So kind.

 

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So in the last 4 years, my wife and I have typically spent 1 week per year on a "Beach" vacation, and 1 week per year on a wilderness vacation. The beach vacations have not been very photo-friendly (Cancun is not very pretty from a nature photography sense). The other weeks, we've gone to Europe, Hawaii (combo--2 week beach and wilderness honeymoon), Grand Canyon, and this year--Grand Tetons.

 

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Next winter, we're going to St. Lucia, which appears to be an amazing place. There will probably be ample photo opportunities.

 

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However, none of these trips will hold a candle to the sabatical that my wife and I are planning for next year. We are going to take a leave of absence from our jobs, sell the house and fly to Cape Town, South Africa and backpack/hike/4wd our way to Cairo, Egypt. Including a couple of safaris and a climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro. We are probably going to be gone for about 5-6 months (our current estimate is 4.5 months, but something's bound to come up and delay us).

Oh. I forgot to mention. If you want to see the itinerary for our trip to Africa, check out http://www.erols.com/tarquin/

In February, I returned to Sanibel for the first time in several years. A fellow photographer and I met up there and we did the highlights: Ding Darling and Venice rookery mostly, plus a trip down the Anhinga Trail in the 'Glades and a side trip to Cape Coral to photograph burrowing owls. I also had some time alone and hit the west coast, Meritt Island in particular, as well as the Loxahatchee Preserve.

 

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I am a manical planner for such trips, because I want to optimize what little time I have in the field, particularly for sweet light in the AM and PM. I gathered information from rec.photo.technique.nature (yes, unbelievably, there are nuggets there once in a while, like Grover Larkins' post about where to find the owls and how to be careful about the lunatic neighbor who trashes equipment) as well as a trip two years ago to GAPW on Sanibel, as well as personal experience from many trips prior. There are a ton of books on the area also.

 

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I plan trips on an itinerary. It shows where I'll be in for first light, whether I'll use mid-day to travel to another locale, where I'll be at sundown, and whether I'll need to travel after dark to get ready for the next morning's shoot. This way I can make my way across the countryside in somewhat an organized manner. Although it never works out exactly as planned, of course, because something unexpected and usually better comes up. So I take along the refuge guides, maps, etc. to make last-minute changes as required.

 

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Images from the trip can be seen at http://wild-light.com/DGalensky/images.htm. If there are any specific questions about locations, equipment, or technique, feel free to give me a holler.

 

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More recently, I travelled back to the Smokies, ostensibly for wildflowers. It rained miserably for most of the trip. I do have some decent azalea that I'll be putting on the site soon, as well as some yet-undeveloped swallowtail butterfly, etc. This was a driving trip, so I took along about every piece of gear I owned. I used about two lenses and one camera body for the entire trip!

 

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Hopefully in the autumn I'll head back out to the Rockies for some elk, goat, etc. Maybe even a bear this time.

I just returned from a trip to Mt. Rainier. The photographic opportunities where good but rather dissapointing in many places due to many small patches of bright snow. The winter's snowfall was heavy and many landscape shots were ruined by multiple patches of dirty snow that added nothing to the composition and harmed the image by creating lots of bright white spots. YUK! There were so abundant that it was difficult to compose them out of the picture. The waterfalls were marvelous. And for those of you who like close-ups there were plenty of fresh, healthy wildflowers, interesting tree bark, bugs, lichen, moss and so on. I had two encounters with deer. One dashed across the trail about 20 feet ahead of me and was far to fast to allow even attempting a photograph. Later that day I encountered a young buck on a rocky area near the side of road. I reached down to get the N90s with 80-200 that I always keep nearby only to discover that it was still attached to the tripod in the back of the van. (sigh!) So we spent a few minutes eyeballing each other and then he took off.

 

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Bye the way the NPS and the USGS are getting very serious about warning people who build and buy homes near Mt. Rainier that it is expected to become active again. As I recall the mountain experiences a major activity every 100-300 years and its been over 100 years since the last one. Tens of thousands of people live on old mud flow paths near the mountain and there is no guarantee of any warning before an earthquick triggers a new one. So get your "classic" shots now.

I'm a little behind the crowd in responding to this question. Mainly because I was on VACATION when the question was posed. Life as vacation...sounds good to me!

 

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I spent the first week this summer with about 180 Cub Scouts at Cub Day Camp. Not much "nature" photography going on there, but I did contribute some nice photos to the Cub Scouts for use in promoting next year's camp. The camp was located near Round Valley Reservoir (NJ) where there are several active bald eagle nests. Those who came to camp early each morning got some nice opportunities to watch the balds looking for breakfast.

 

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Last week I was in Avalon, New Jersey for a family beach vacation. By spending early mornings and some evenings on the dunse, beaches, salt marshes and islands of Cape May County I was able to combine shooting and vacation. I concentrated on the wading and shore birds in that area (herons, egrets, ibises, plover, skimmers, gulls etc.). My three sons took it pretty well if Dad was already gone shooting when they got up in the mornings. Overall, it seemed to be a good balance between family needs and personal (shooting) time.

 

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My wife and I will be going back to Hawaii in January (slightly dealyed 10 year anniversary!) and I'll spend some time shooting then. I'm still negotiating the "terms and conditions" on that one :-).

 

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As a father of three active boys and a Cub Scout Leader, etc. my biggest challenge is finding time for photography. I'm trying now to combine business trips with short-duration photo side-trips. I'll be in Salt Lake City this October, Tucson next March and perhaps a few other locations also. We'll see how successful I am at combining business and personal...certainly makes packing a challenge :-).

 

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One idea I'm experimenting with is getting off to work early and shooting before going to the office. Our laboratory is surrounded by about 200 acres of woodland and wetland which Princeton University has designated as "open space preserve." It's kind of like being located in a little wildlife refuge. We actaully had to trap and relocaate one wild turkey that got too friendly last year!

From the other responses it sounds like I am lucky in that my wife and son enjoy camping, backpacking and photography as much as I do. For my real vacation this year, my son and I decided to spend two weeks photographing Bristlecone Pines in California and Nevada. (My wife had to work, so the son and I went by our ownselves.) Great trip, and some good images too. We also get out to the Sierra Nevadas as often as possible, and plan to spend as many weekends in Yosemite NP as we can this winter. Next year, my wife and I plan to ship the son to her parents and take ourselves backpacking in Hawaii.