Update: Sigma 8-16mm Ultra-Wide Angle Lens

Bullfrog in Wetland on Horseshoe Lake, Parry Sound, Ontario

For those folks who have been following the blog for some time now you may recall my review of Sigma’s 8-16mm ultra-wide angle zoom lens. For those who are new to the blog and for those who might like to read the review of this great lens again please click here for the complete article with loads of accompanying images photographed with the lens.

In the April issue of Canadian Geographic Magazine the above photo has been used as a double-page spread for the beginning of the article ‘A Frog for the Killing‘ found on pages 46 & 47. Bullfrogs are an invasive species in British Columbia and are a very serious threat to the ecosystem in that province and must be eradicated. The frogs are not to blame – we are! Bullfrogs have actually invaded at least 15 countries as a result of importing them for the farming of frogs legs. Bullfrogs are known carriers of the deadly chytrid fungus which has decimated frog populations throughout the globe. To better understand just how this deadly fungus is affecting frog populations I urge you to please click this link.

The use of the image above as a double-page spread is a testament to the image quality that one can achieve with this amazing lens. I have primarily used the lens for bullfrog images in the wetlands of Horseshoe Lake, located near Parry Sound, Ontario. And because the lens focuses very close I am able to fill a large portion of the foreground with the frog while maintaining the vast expanse of their wetland homes.  I have also used this lens with great success in my waterfall photography as well. If I had to describe this lens in three words I would have to say it is a “ton of fun” to use.

The Canadian distributor for Sigma lenses in Canada is Gentec International. I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to Gentec International for loaning me this lens to create specific photographs that will be featured in my eBook on Frog Photography, which is in the writing stage and will be an extensive guide to creating stunning images of these amazing amphibians.

Please do remember to click on the above image to view the larger, sharper version.

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OOPS! Ghost Crab Composition Correction

Ghost Crab on San San Beach, Port Antonio, Jamaica

Above is an optimized photo of a Ghost Crab captured on San San Beach in Port Antonio, Jamaica. These crabs are relatively easy to photograph but you do need to remain very still. Often they will disappear into their tunnels in the sand if they detect the slightest movement made by a ‘potential predator.’  In this case that was me, but by lying on the sand motionless this crab soon emerged again to forage on the beach for food. As the crab began moving further to my left I found it difficult to contort my position on the sand to suitably follow it and wound up creating the image below with the crab practically walking out of the frame. How did I fix this composition? I used a series of quick masks, layer masks, move tool, and some touch-up work with the clone stamp tool to create the optimized version. I learned how to perform such fixes to such images by reading Robert O’Toole’s APTATS 2. APTATS stands for Advanced Photoshop Tips and Techniques and for $30 is well worth the investment. Final tweaking to the image above was performed by using Nik Software’s (now Google) Viveza 2 and Color Efex Pro’s Detail Extractor filter.

Original RAW Capture of the Ghost Crab

Sigma Scholarship Contest Note:

Only one month left to enter Sigma’s Scholarship Contest. Please click on the link in the sidebar of the blog for more information on contest rules and how to enter. Best of luck to all entries!

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Open Up and Say Ahh!

 

One from back in the summer during a visit to the Metropolitan Toronto Zoo. I see Common Snapping Turtles frequently during my travels and equally so when snorkeling in Horseshoe Lake near Parry Sound, Ontario but they never put on a show like this. This fella was not too impressed with me standing beside his large aquarium, and put on this threatening display to scare me off as he swam towards me. I was using my Nikon D800 with a 105 macro lens and a rubber lens hood attached to avoid scratching the aquarium’s glass. I then positioned the lens up to and parallel to the glass and was able to fire off two frames before the turtle closed its mouth.

While the turtle’s one eye is slightly out-of-focus I still think the gaping mouth makes this image work. What do you think? Do remember to click on the image to see the much larger version.

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Horses for…

 

As most folks know, who follow my blog, I live in a rural region of south-central Ontario. On over-cast days, when time permits I enjoy driving around the ‘neighborhood’ in search of various farming-type images, particularly cattle and horses. Images of cattle and horses often look more pleasing in the even light of an over-cast day. I have a large collection of un-edited horse photos to optimize. Since it has been raining most of this weekend I chose to process a few horse images to share with you on this day. Horse often make me think of the Old West, when folks didn’t depend on gasoline to travel, and they remind me of old Clint Eastwood movies too Hope you enjoy this collection of recently processed horse photos.

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Fractastic Day At The Zoo

Lionfish – Glow 100 preset

A few weeks ago I made a trip to the Toronto Zoo for a fun day of photographing animals from all around the world. While meandering my way around the zoo, I thought that many of these animals would make wonderful subjects for the photoshop plugin Fractalius by Redfield Plugins, so after arriving back at home I immediatelybegan playing around with some of the presets and adjusted the sliders to taste until I came up with this assortment of fractalius renderings. When I use the Fracatlius plugin I always apply it’s effect on a duplicate layer. This is done for two reasons. First it allows my to mask back in the eye(s) so that the filter has no effect on the eye(s) and secondly, I may want to reduce the overall effect of the filter and the easiest way to do so is to reduce the opacity of the layer to which the Fractalius effect is on. Most often I go straight for the ‘Glow 100′ or the ‘Rounded’ presets as these are my favorites to use. I have indicated below each image which preset I selected, however, the effect was achieved by adjusting the sliders to taste. Please note, this fun and addictive plugin is only available for folks using Windows and is available for purchase here.

Hope you enjoy this collection of artistic renderings from my Fractalius addiction and naturally I could not resist the temptation to include a frog image from the zoo too

Please take a moment to let me know which is your favorite and why.

Waxy Monkey Treefrog – Rounded preset

Gorilla – Rounded preset

Gaboon Viper – Rounded preset

Meller’s Chameleon – Glow 100 preset

African Penguin – Glow 100 preset

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Opossum

Opossum

Today, while driving home from spending some time trying to create some new images of the male Snowy Owl an Opossum waddled across the farm road slowly and began climbing up the steep embankment beside the road. Naturally, I hit the breaks grabbed my camera and quickly walked up the hill for a few images.

Opossums are generally nocturnal and are the only marsupials found in North America. Over the years they have steadily been moving further and further north and now are frequently sighted near my home in south-central Ontario. Our bitter cold winters tend to be hard on their naked ears and rat-like tails which are prone to frostbite. They do not hibernate, however, during extremely cold weather they will usually hole up somewhere until some warmer weather arrives. This winter has been exceptionally warm with only a few bitter cold nights and very little snow fall. Below you will see two artistic renditions of the above photograph. Please take a moment to let me know which version you like best and why?

Opossum – Fractalius

Opossum – Topaz BW Effects

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An Old Friend’s Smile

After a wild wind and rain storm yesterday the skies cleared and the temperature stayed relatively warm throughout the night. Perfect conditions for resuming my frog pond adventures. Every year when I venture out in to the vernal ponds ( created by melting snow and rainfall) in the 40 acre, abandoned cattle pasture behind my home I wonder if I will see the turtle again. The turtle is a snapping turtle, one of the largest I have ever seen. Last night we crossed paths while I was stalking the chorusing frogs. Since I was wearing my chest waders I sat down beside the turtle and waited for it to come up for air. When it did I captured the above image. I was rather glad to be wearing my chest waders as there were numerous bloodsuckers on the turtle, as can be seen in the photo, and many swimming among the grasses. I have absolutely no idea where this turtle goes once it leaves these ponds, it will leave in about a month or two, but every year it returns to hibernate here and for the last 14 years we cross paths in the ponds. I sat with this old friend for about half an hour and also had the opportunity to photograph a Giant Water Bug that was no doubt feasting on the bloodsuckers. I was also able to find a few cooperative frogs. The toads have just begun to arrive at the ponds, so they should commence chorusing in the coming days.

Hope you enjoy the photos.

Giant Water Bug

Green Frog

Spring Peeper with vocal sac inflated

Wood Frog with vocal sacs inflated

Common Toad

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The Official Arrival of Spring

For me, spring has not officially arrived until the first frogs begin to sing in the vernal ponds behind my rural home. Today when I took my dog, Koko, for her afternoon walk we heard a few chorus frogs singing. While some of the ponds still have ice on them and snow remains in the deepest shaded areas, it is very welcoming to hear these little frogs singing. Trying to photograph these tiny frogs is somewhat like trying to find a needle in a hay stack, but once the numbers of frogs chorusing increases, I will no doubt be pulling on my chest waders, putting on my head-lamp and generally looking like some kinda odd-ball, head out into the ponds to shoot some fresh images. For this post I have used an image from the archives – captured with a Nikon F80 and 105 micro lens with a small flash on a home-made flash bracket.

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Captive Wildlife

While I find photographing animals in the wild to be a much more fulfilling and rewarding experience, controlled subjects can also offer unique opportunities. I will often attempt to capture images of a given subject that I know will be virtually impossible for me to capture in the field, such as the Bobcat portrait above. I also tend to select subjects that are threatened or endangered. Here is a collection of some of my favorite images of controlled subjects. Hope you enjoy this collection of photos.

This Red Fox was trying to sleep while keeping a watchful eye on a pair of young Siberian Tigers were playing in an adjacent enclosure.

I highly doubt that I will ever see a Wolverine in the wild so when the opportunity to photograph one in a controlled situation presented itself I jumped at the chance.

A young Siberian Tiger hissing at its litter mate while playing. Would you really want to be this close to a tiger in the wild with this menacing look?

A Lioness photographed near my home at a sanctuary that gives exotic pets a home when there owners realize that big cats don’t make good house pets.

A beautiful, captive, Swainson’s Hawk spreads its wings in the wind for a pleasing pose.

Great Horned Owl

Turkey Vulture – ugly as they may be, vultures are one of the most beneficial species on the planet – nature’s clean-up crew.

Lynx – I’ve seen one Lynx in the wild, in Ontario, in my lifetime. It ran across a highway with no chance to photograph it.

Eastern Screech Owl – difficult to find and photograph with a pleasing background.

Green Water Dragon – by using a flash I was able to eliminate many elements in lizards enclosure and give the illusion that it was photographed at night.

A highly endangered Cuban Crocodile photographed at a breeding facility in Cuba. These crocodiles are now thought to only exist in Cuba’s Zapata Swamp.

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Horses

Getting caught up on processing some image files that I have not had the time to process until now. Last autumn, neighbors of mine asked me if I would be able to photograph some of their horses – here is a small sample of the results. I am hoping to capture them this winter in a gentle snowfall also. Whenever I see horses in my travels I always stop to grab a few shots of them. They are such beautiful and graceful animals. They remind me of a time when gasoline was not required to travel great distances. They also remind me of a saying I once heard – diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but only if she can trade them for a good horse.

When I was photographing the horses I could not resist getting a few shots of my neighbors 10 month old English Bulldog too. You can see his image at the bottom of this post. The reddish horse’s name is Scarlet and the darker horse is named Muffin.

You gotta love that face. What a cutie eh!

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