Predators, Prey and When Nature Turns the Tables

One of my great joys in being in nature, with wild animals, is having the tables turned - everything I thought I knew, tossed on its ear, and I was forced to rethink who I am and what I'm doing on this planet. The following by underwater photographer Paul Nicklen describes his most amazing experience as a National Geographic photographer - coming face-to-face with one of Antarctica's most vicious predators and things not going at all the way he imagined.


PS - just a note, film crew for David Attenborough's Life in the Freezer series on Antarctica had a very similar experience - perhaps we've unjustly named this selective, and sometimes sensitive predator?

"I didn't want a cruel image."

October was the month of extraordinary images if your passion is wildlife and nature photography. This year's winner of the prestigious Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009 award was by Jose Luis Rodriguez (photo captured the imaginations of the judges with a picture that he had planned for years, and even sketched out on a piece of paper. "I wanted to capture a photo in which you would see a wolf in an act of hunting - or predation - but without blood," he told BBC News. "I didn't want a cruel image."

A photo I wish I had created

"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it"

- Hannah Arendt

Last Wednesday evening I a bit of good fortune fell down on me, along with the rain, while strolling about Georgetown (DC). I stumble upon this image by photographer, Monica Szczupider - which has become cyber-viral in the last couple weeks after appearing in the current, November, issue of National Geographic. Fortune measured about 24x36 inches. The print was part of the photo festival DC Foto Week going on across Washington DC this week. To see this image first large was unbelievable serendipity. While the pages of NG would have been fine, seeing it large on a wall in a gallery was perfect - the mind and eyes were in full exercise mode, ready for exposure to new, delighted to be surprised and forced to reconsider. Large - the image gives you space to contemplate it - those faces behind the fence become personal, they etch their expressions deep into your planetary perspective of what it means to be a species. You find yourself stepping slowly face to face, expression to expression.

In my career I have come across few images, maybe two or three, that I wish I had created - this is one. Beautifully done Monica.

More creation of the photo

Clash of the titans filmed at last - and we owe one man

Long before I took my first flight overseas, created that first truly memorable image, saw my first extraordinarily rare creature, or live with some forgotten culture, I watched an amazing exuberant British chap with child-like zeal and curiosity climb breathlessly over mountain tops to reveal fossils, dangle from treetops in the Amazon, and lie nose-to-nose with army ants on the march. That Brit was David Attenborough (not yet a Knighted) and he gave me hope - hope that I too could remain connected to my child-like curiosity and love for the things that go bump in the night, wriggle through a swamp, and soar beyond the clouds. He continues to do so - and I am deeply indebted to him for that gift.

The BBC wildlife film crews have long been know for pushing the envelope to discover, record and share the most amazing events in nature. Much of that must be credited to Sir David Attenborough. While to many he is now just the voice of these great visual works, the fact of the matter is they would quite possibly never found there way to the little screen - or web - had he not years ago doggedly persevered to bring this work to the masses in such groundbreaking works the 1979 TV series Life on Earth: A Natural History by David Attenborough and followed five years later by The Living Planet.

In each of the series then and now teams have fanned out around the planet, often craft methods, tools and techniques never before tried. The results have been breath-taking at the least, and simply jaw-dropping at other times. This sequence of clashing titans from the newest series Life is one such example - as described in the BBC web article (linked via the title below):

"During the first complete sequence of this behaviour ever captured, the male humpbacks swim at high speed behind the female, violently jostling for access.

The collisions between the males can be violent enough to kill.

The footage was recorded for the BBC natural history series Life."

Epic humpback whale battle filmed and scroll down the article for another clip on how they filmed it.

Wild Orphans specific website and blog

A few months ago I started this blog with a posting about my original Wild Orphans baby African elephant project. In that and subsequent blog postings I mentioned that I was exploring a return to Kenya and renew the Wild Orphans journey. The first steps in that journey are now a reality with the launch of a Wild Orphans specific website and a Wild Orphans specific blog. From this point on I will be posting most of the details, plans, thoughts and travels, along with photos and video relating to the Wild Orphans on those sites - please follow me there as well.

WildPhotos - A chance to see beyond your borders

If the UK is on your travel schedule in the coming weeks or you are simply wealthy and free enough to drop what you are doing, tell the world to take a hike and go (assuming you don't live there), then something well worth considering is the WildPhoto 2-day seminar/program in London. Great opportunity to see some inspiring imagery and connected with a international collection of photographers that are focused on seeing the world a bit differently.

From their site: "WildPhotos 2009 offers a wealth of award-winning photographers, including a keynote presentation from Michael ‘Nick’ Nichols, [see my post 'When a Picture becomes a Project'] the world-renowned National Geographic photographer."

When a Picture becomes a Project

This NPR story (Biggest, Tallest Tree Photo Ever) caught my ear for a couple reasons, first, it connects directly to a post I have been working on for this blog called Pictures vs Projects, and second, it sends a wonderful message out there to young photographers (of any age) that the world is still full of things to create great projects around; and if so inclined, involve all kinds of whiz-bang gadgetry and software.

So the deal is longtime Nat Geo photog Nick Nichols (pictured above) set out to take a photograph of a full redwood tree as part of a full story on Pacific Coast redwoods. Here’s the catch, these redwoods are over 300 feet tall and unless one is standing in the middle of a recent clear-cut chances are it's going to be damn difficult to see the whole thing much less back up far enough to photograph it. So the challenge - how to create a "single image" from close enough range to capture the detail of these extraordinary leafy leviathans? Nick's solution: Build a custom gyro-stabilized camera rig to take multiple shots and stitch them together for a composite photo. (See Redwood Photo - At least 1,500 years old, a 300-foot titan in California's Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park has the most complex crown scientists have mapped. This photo, taken by Michael Nichols, is a mosaic composed of 84 images.)

Nichols, with the NG staff, created a system to holding a trio of Canon cameras focused to the left, middle, and right of the tree. The frame includes a gyroscope to keep the cameras steady. By lowering the cameras from the top to the bottom of the redwood they were able to capture 84 pictures to assemble the final shot. The result is featured in the October edition of National Geographic magazine. I’ve included the final picture (via link above) and embedded a video of the rig in action (below).

I'll go into it further in the Picture vs Project post soon, but the bottom line is interesting and unique visions of our world and interactions are all over the place; even more so with new technologies and software like the stitching option employed on the Redwood photos. (More on stitching check out All Things Photography and Luminous Landscape)