Wildlife Photographic

The March / April 2017 issue of the on-line photography magazine Wildlife Photographic is now available on the Apple App Store & the Google Playstore. This issue features many great articles, by accomplished photographers and is accompanied by equally fantastic wildlife imagery. My Bullfrog image appears on the cover of the magazine and my FROG-scapes 101 article on how I go about creating my signature frog-scape photography. If you do not already subscribe to this magazine please use this code freetialwp to receive a free three month subscrition. At the end of the three month trial you will need to subscribe through regular methods to continue receiving this great magazine. Please follow these instructions to start your free three month trial:

Download Wildlife Photographic from the Apple App Store  http://bit.ly/1aKP3qR or on Google Play http://bit.ly/1JOhMcW

Tap ‘Subscribe’ on the app home page

Tap ‘Current Subscribers’ from the drop down menu

Enter code freetrialwp

This code will be available to use until April 30, 2017

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Frog-scapes and the Brachial Plexus

Bullfrog in Wetland
Nikon D800, Sigma 15mm Fisheye lens
ISO 400, f16 @ 1/200 sec.

This post is intended to be a cautionary note on photographing from canoes. My frog-scape imagery is always created from a seated position within my canoe, while I lean over the edge of the canoe’s gunwale. I have done this thousands of times however, on the day of August 27th while doing so my left hand went to sleep. I shook it off and was good to go. Later that evening my left shoulder began to ache. By the next morning the pain was worsening and by the following day my left hand began going numb. I figured a visit to the emergency ward of my local hospital was in order. I was told I had a swollen rotator cuff and that I would be all better in one week. This was not to be and in fact my left arm is still sore and my left thumb, left index finger are still numb, and my tricep muscle will not flex. After 5 weeks I do believe I finally have an accurate diagnosis as to what happened. While leaning over the edge of the canoe, I was leaning in such a way that my underarm was directly over the gunwale putting too much pressure on the brachial plexus, which is the network of nerves that control the shoulder, arm, and hand. The resulting pressure has bruised or damaged my brachial plexus and now I require a referral to a neurologist for a nerve conduction test and to determine the extent of the injury. Hopefully there will be a full recovery but it will take a very long time as nerves regenerate at a very slow pace. Fortunately I do have full movement of my arm with the discomfort subsiding to a very tolerable level however, the arm is weak due to the inactive tricep muscle and the thumb and index finger numbness is rather annoying at times…time will tell if these issues will resolve themselves. Here are some of my most recent frog-scape images that I created prior to this injury.

Bullfrog in Wetland
Nikon D800, Laowa 15mm f4 1:1 Macro Lens
ISO 1000, f16 @ 1/30 sec.

 

Bullfrog in Wetland
Nikon D800, Laowa 15mm f4 1:1 Macro Lens
ISO 800, f16 @ 1/100 sec.

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Loving the Live View

Bullfrog and approaching storm

(Nikon D800, Nikon 12-24mm lens with a 2-stop ND Grad Filter)

One of the features that I am absolutely in love with on the Nikon D800 is the “Live View’ feature. While this is not new to DSLRs, it is new to me and it is saving me boat-loads of time when I am creating my frog-scapes. To photograph my frog-scapes now I simply activate the feature, extend my arm out from the canoe and position the camera at the water’s surface, compose the scene and press the shutter. Presto! I have the image I wanted. Prior to this I would be shooting ‘blind’ firing off many frames and then review the images on the LCD screen to see if I captured the one I had hoped too. The images above was photographed using the Nikon D800 in crop sensor mode as I was using my Nikon 12-24mm DX lens. A 2-stop Graduated Neuratl Denisty Filter was used to hold back the cloud formations of an approaching storm. Below you will see a couple of additional images that were photographed using the live view feature. Please note that when I am utilizing the live view feature on the D800 for my frog-scapes I am still using my double bubble level in the hot-shoe to make sure the camera is square with the world. Even though the D800 has a ‘Virtual Horizon’ feature I find the double bubble level to be more practical for my frog-scapes.

Please click on each of the images to view a much larger version. And stay tuned tomorrow for an announcement about a very cool e-mini mag that I am honored to be a part of.

Bullfrog in wetland

(Nikon D800, Sigma 8-16mm lens)

Bullfrog at dusk in wetland

(Nikon D800, Nikon 105mm lens)

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