ligia_dovale
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Posts posted by ligia_dovale
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Ying, you do not have to necessarily hire a guide at Monument Valley, you can take the self-guided 17-mile tour, just a small entrance fee to visit the valley would be sufficient. This loop offers plenty of opportunities for photography. If you want to shoot beyond this loop, then you must hire a guide, as they would not let you go any further by yourself. You might encounter deep sand when you drive around the 17-mile loop, just be careful, I managed with a compact car.
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Actually, for lighthouses, there is the candy-striped, West Quoddy Head Lighthouse in Lubec which is approx. 50 miles from Jonesport.
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For your prints from slides, the best place I have heard of is The SlidePrinters in Colorado. www.theslideprinters.com. They are also inexpensive.
As for film, Velvia is a very good choice for photographing the Puffins at Machias Seal Island provided that the weather cooperates. If the day is overcast, the beautiful breeding colors of these birds would not show nearly as well, regardless of the film. Hope that you find wonderful weather, a blue sky in the background would make all the difference for getting great shots. If you need the extra speed, Velvia can be pushed one stop with excellent results. Best of luck!
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Another source for the Flash Extender: www.rue.com.
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With all my respect, this Kingfisher is not flying, it is just about to, which makes it easier to get his/her picture. You just need a fast AFS lens, get a good vantage point, wait and ... voila !
Pictures of birds in flight are very easy to get, you just need the right equipment and some practice, there is no secret about it.
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There are quite a bit of quaint harbors in Maine worth the visit, as mentioned above. I would add to the list of places to photograph, some of the lighthouses, like the Nubble Light at Cape Neddick, York and the Pemaquid Point lighthouse in Damariscotta. The latter probably offers the most beautiful views and setting to photograph, the layered granite rocks that surround it make this lighthouse unique, and it is not far from New Harbor. The Otter Cliffs and Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park are a must to visit, plus there are plenty of spectacular scenery along the Loop Road, it is the best place to experience the rugged coast of Maine. As for Baxter State Park, it is the best place to see Moose, do some hiking and take pictures of Mount Kathadin. If you are considering Baxter, you could email directly at Ligia123@aol.com for more information and places to stay.
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Very interesting topic indeed. Looking at images of wildlife can be absolutely boring for a wildlife photographer. Apart from our own ( it is bad enough to spend time and effort in the field just to get boring results,) I would particularly point to those portraits of �wildlife� taken at game farms and zoos. These animals seem to have no life in their eyes, their images are boring and sad to look at. In the case of the game farms, even worse are the images of the animals that are posed in a picture perfect environment. I just see a bunch of photographers at the other side of the image trying to get the same exact picture. Or in the case of a captive, perfectly posed bird, I see the cords that are holding the bird in place (those cords that are hiding in the actual picture ... )
Most of us can pinpoint these shots of captive animals and be forever bored, however, the average consumer might be enjoying these images, as pictures like these continue being sold and published
And by the way, it is an amazing fact to me that certain publications/organizations keep including the images of captive animals in their �wildlife� calendars. It makes me wonder how difficult it would be to find twelve good images of real wildlife to make a calendar.
As for portraits of real wildlife, they do not necessarily have to be boring or static, but 90 % of the images I see could be considered very boring. Again, the opinion of the general public might differ from ours. I have a portrait of a captive Red-tailed Hawk that was voted number one in a popular vote contest. I am not proud of it (just one time I tried shooting captives.) Although the image might be okay exposure and compositions wise, it has no life behind it. When we are able to get an image of a wild animal, either a dynamic portrait or the animal in its environment that conveys a feeling, all the efforts are worth it ... selling it becomes secondary, doesn�t it?
Ligia
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For locations in Utah, you might want to try the "Utah Wildlife Viewing Guide." Available at:
Ligia
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I have not heard of a magazine like the one you are looking for in the US. However, a good starting point for locations would be the National Geographic guides to birding. Or you could join the local Audubon Society or a photography club in your area where most probably, other photographers will share their photography knowledge and locations.
Ligia
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Bringing two 500 mm f/4 to the field? I had not even remotely thought about it! However, two years ago, I brought the 500 mm f/4 and the 300 mm f/2.8 to AK plus lots of extra photo equipment totaling 62 pounds (solo trip.) You make those mistakes once! Now, I am trying to travel light, that is why I had already canceled part of the upcoming trip where I would have stayed away from electricity for a week, so that I would not have to carry a Turbo and more batteries that add bulk and weight. After reading your latest advice, I might get the two portable mass storage devices and/or the Disk Steno CP100 ... and/or more microdrives! One thing is for sure, there is no inexpensive or easy way to go. If a ship the laptop, then there is the possibility that it could be banged or mistreated in the shipment.
In regard to digital failure, I have already had my share. During my first digital, wildlife photo trip at the beginning of the year, and after about six thousand shots, the D-100 refused to transfer the images from one of the microdrives. I tried deleting some of the files that apparently were corrupted, but the problem persisted and I was reluctant to reformat the microdrive and lose all the images. The solution came from �Ontrack, Easy Recovery,� a software program that repairs and restore corrupt files. By using this program, I was able to transfer the images.
Note: The D-100 is extremely slow in reading the TIFF or the RAW files, big problem for wildlife action shots, opportunities are missed while the camera is frozen reading. That is the only reason why I have had to opt for the large, fine JPEG mode for wildlife.
Ligia
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Hi there!
Thanks so much for all the answers this far.
Let me explain a little bit better about the upcoming wildlife digital trip situation. I will be flying with camping equipment, the 500 mm f/4, etc., so taking the laptop is just too much to carry. It will be one week of camping away from the vehicle and one week somewhere else in a regular room. Understand that there is at least one electric outlet somewhere near the campground to recharge the batteries, so that part of the problem is solved. However, the storage of the images is my main concern. When the opportunities are good for photographing wildlife action, I shoot over 10 rolls of regular film per day. That means that I could easily fill up more than one (1 GB) microdrive per day while shooting in the fine, large Jpeg mode. Even being conservative and using only one microdrive per day, I would still need 14 of them for the entire trip. The two (1 GB) microdrives that I have would not be of too much help.
After reading your recommendations, I now have another concern and that is, the possibility of having a portable mass storage device that might fail, that would be absolutely terrible!
Perhaps going back to regular film for this particular trip is the best solution.
Thanks again,
Ligia
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As a wildlife photographer going digital, who spends quite a bit of
time in the woods away from civilization and computers, I urgently
need a portable mass storage device.
While checking the previous posting about mass storage devices for
digital imaging in this forum, realize that there have not been any
updates since October last year. If any one has tried the 40 GB
Image Tank or any other, large capacity mass storage device, please
let me know about your experience and recommendations. Thanks!
Ligia
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I agree that it would be very difficult, perhaps impossible, to see a moose in Acadia. However, I just came back from Baxter State Park and there were plenty of moose to photograph at Sandy Stream Pond and also along the Golden Road, next to Baxter. Be patient, you never know at what time they come out to feed, most probably, early in the morning and late in the afternoon,
Ligia Dovale-Kiamco
Southern Utah Camping/trip Questions
in Nature
Posted
Ying, I took the same short trip two years ago in January. However, I had to add two more days because of the heavy snow storms that were causing too many delays. In your case, I am concerned because of the crowds, at this time of the year they may cause even worse delays. I feel that it would be better if you, either add two or three days to your trip or skip some locations.
My itinerary was very much like yours. I flew to Las Vegas from New England and drove to Bryce first. There, I was able to drive to Sunset Point only after digging my car from the 14 inches of snow and after the plows cleared the road. Then it was off to the South Rim in the Grand Canyon followed by Monument Valley. It was again snowing heavily early that morning when I arrived at the MV Visitor�s Center, the visibility was so poor that the mittens were nowhere to be seen! I was not about to give up photographing at MV, so I drove to Arches and back to MV. This time I was lucky to photograph the mittens partially covered by the snow. After that, it was Page, Zion and back to Las Vegas. No time to gamble, got there with barely enough time to catch my flight back. There was certainly a lot of driving involved, and hikes that had to be done in a hurry. Plus there was no time to relax or to sleep much, like most of us, I did not want to miss the early morning shooting. The daily entries in my journal from this trip are funny, they mostly start with sentences like, �I was so tired� ... �today, it was exhausting� ... and so on, but the trip was worth it. There are a handful of pictures from this trip at www.LigiaPhoto.com. Click on Galleries/Southwest.
A compact car should be fine during the summer time, that is the car that I was driving in January, I missed having the 4WD just because of the terrible snow storms that I encountered.
If I was going to do it again in such a short period of time, I would definitely skip the Grand Canyon. I agree, it is a long detour and it will be too crowded in June, you might end up losing precious time that you could use somewhere else.
Have a wonderful trip!