I just watched a movie from Netflix called National Geographic: The Photographers. It was short (56 minutes), but excellent. I used to do field work–I was an ecology grad student–so it was interesting to hear about the challenges the photographers face. There’s also an extra about a couple who live in Botswana and make nature films.
When you see pictures or watch nature films, it’s easy to think there is always something interesting or exciting going on out in the wild. That’s actually not the case. Animals spend most of their time hiding, sleeping, or standing around not doing much more than grazing. Ecologists–and photographers–spend hundreds of hour trying to position themselves such that when something interesting happens for thirty seconds, they’re there to capture it.
The short about the couple in Botswana also touches on how simply they live. They used to live in the city, but chucked all of that to live in the bush. Sometimes I miss the simplicity of being in the field. It’s so peaceful to disconnect from modern life and culture. When you spend all day, every day, immersed in the wild, you become part of it and see things you would never see if you only visited for a day. I miss that sometimes.
Anyway, the movie is a good peek behind the scenes if you are interested in seeing what it takes to get the images. I also found it inspiring. I want to run out and work on my own photography now.
Did you take the pictures in your blog header? If you did it safe to say you’re already inspired.
Thanks, Jody! All the photos are mine, except the falcon/moon on the right. I did the Photoshop work on it, but the original images aren’t mine. I tossed it together when I was imagining a cover for my novel. I’d like to re-do it with my own pictures. Just haven’t found an opportunity to photograph a falcon!
I’d love to push my skills up to the next level, but I’d have to put in a lot more time than I have to do it.
Thanks Amy for the good movie review. I’m always looking for a new good movie to watch and I love photography as well as animals. It is funny how when we watch an “animal” movie and it looks like they’re always on the run and busy when I know they aren’t. I can sometimes tell the time of day depending on what I’m seeing out my windows. I will for sure check this out.
LOL…no recent contact with Falcons? Wow, I’m stunned I thought all Minnesotan walked around with one pirched on a leather glove…didn’t you get the memo?
Great photography.
Joy, you know exactly what I’m talking about–getting into the rhythm of nature.
Jody, are you teasing, or do you mean you *have* a falcon? There are peregrines in downtown Minneapolis, and I used to see them once in a while, but then my company switched to a different building, and I don’t see them anymore. They’d be really tough to photograph on the wing, anyway. The zoo also has one, but I don’t think it’s on public display–you can only see it during their bird show.
I was teasing:) The Minnesota Zoo does a really good bird show and I know they let some of them fly…maybe you could make a special arrangement if you were so inclined.
I live along side a very wooded river bank. I see scores of Eagles in the area, Hawks, not sure I’d recognize a Falcon but I periodically hear an Owl…maybe because their are so many Bats. Could be why I feel so at home here:)
Sounds like a wonderful place to live! Even here in the cities, I sometimes see an eagle flying over. Saw one over the warehouse district downtown a few years ago, actually. Mostly you just see red tailed hawks along the highways. There is a pair of sharp shinned hawks living in my neighborhood, though.
Someday I might get brave and contact a falconer and ask if I could come photograph.
So does the bird knowledge come from photography? I couldn’t tell identify different species like you can…
I took an ornithology class as an undergraduate and have been a birder ever since. Raptors (owls, hawks, eagles, falcons) are often tricky to identify, but the really common ones I know. I’ve seen the sharp shinned hawks enough times to get a really good view of them. Red tails are easy to identify, especially along the highway, where they sit on light poles, because of the tail.
I have a field guide devoted to raptors, so that helps. If you’re interested, it’s a Peterson Field Guide called Hawks by William S. Clark and Brian K. Wheeler. Here’s a link on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Hawks-North-America/dp/0395670675/ref=ed_oe_o
And, of course, a good pair of binoculars and an unobstructed view always helps. I rarely have binoculars with me, though, so if it’s not a species I know well, I’m like everyone else and go, “Oh look! Some kind of hawk!”