Those of you who have been regular visitors to my new site will notice a few minor changes.  I changed the menu ever so slightly to make its design more compact, I created a new portfolio index page and also changed a few of the images in my portfolios, I updated my resume and stock lists, and I added a new link to my friend Alex Mody’s website.  The big change though, is my the addition of my new stock gallery. 

Designed to be easy to navigate, the stock gallery has multiple image categories and subcategories, each one linked via a thumbnail and paired text.  As you navigate through the galleries, a breadcrumb at the top of the page makes it easy to backtrack.  On individual image pages, arrows allow you to go from photo to photo.  There are currently 443 individual image pages featuring 399 different photographs in the stock gallery, and I plan to add plenty more photos in the upcoming months.

Despite all of the hard labor I have put into my website up to this point, I still have quite a bit of work to do.  My shopping cart and automated checkout are still being developed and as of right now, most of the order print buttons or text featured below each photograph do not work.  I also need to update my alphabetical stock list of flora and fauna species and create links on that page to species galleries.  Please ignore these inconveniences for the time being!

I encourage you to go ahead and browse around my new site (and tell all of your friends about it too).  If you notice any problems other than those I have specifically mentioned, please either email me or leave a comment on this post so that I can fix such errors.  I am also open to constructive feedback and suggestions about the website design and content, so if you have an opinion about it, please share!  Thanks and enjoy the new website.

Here’s my winning photo:

And here’s the link to it on NSN: http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=141854

My absolute favorite subjects to photograph at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge are the wild ponies.  Ever since I first read Marguerite Henry’s classic novel Misty of Chincoteague as a little girl, I had always wanted to travel to Chincoteague to see the wild ponies, and now I still get excited everytime I see one.  On my recent trip to Chincoteague, two wild ponies, a mare and another smaller pony, possibly her foal from this past spring, spent all day Saturday grazing along the beach drive.  While I’ve had close encounters with the wild ponies at Assateague National Seashore, on the Maryland side of Assateague Island, I had previously only seen the ponies on the Virginia side of the island from a distance.  So you can just imagine how thrilled I was to find these two in such close proximity.

Since the ponies were so close, I tried to get some unique of shots of them, different from the shots I already had.  Whenever possible, I like using wide angle lenses up close while shooting wildlife, as they give a different perspective and allow you to include the environment in the shot.  Since these ponies allowed a very close approach, I took a variety of shots of them with my 17-40mm zoom lens.

This shot illustrates the advantages of using a wide angle lens when photographing wildlife.  In this photo, the viewer gets a very clear picture of the habitat these ponies live in.  By including the environment in your photos, the resulting images tell more about the subject and this can make your images more saleable.

Techs: Canon 1D Mark II N, Canon 17-40mm f/4L IS USM, handheld.  To order this print, purchase stock rights, or view other photos I have for sale, please visit my website at www.karipost.com.

Anyway, I just wanted to take a few minutes to post and wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!  Hopefully, you will be able to share the holiday with loved ones and enjoy a tasty meal this evening, just like I will.  Oh, and in between bites, don’t forget to take a moment to be greatful for all that you have.  I know I am!

In the meantime, I promised I would share some more shots with you from my trip to Chincoteague.  This photograph, of a Mourning Dove, is probably one of my favorites from the trip.  I really like Mourning Doves and have plenty of them around my home, but they are quite skittish and rather difficult to photograph.  While at Chincoteague, Chris and I came upon a couple of these doves foraging for food in the dried grasses and pine needles along the beach drive.  Since nothing else on the refuge was particularly photo worthy at the moment, Chris carefully pulled his car up alongside where the doves were feeding.  Knowing the species was flighty, we stayed in the vehicle and photographed the birds from out the windows of his car.  I used a molar bean bag by Vertex Photographic (the best photographic bean bag on the market IMO) to steady my camera and shot my lens nearly wide open, in an attempt to diffuse the distracting background caused by my high shooting angle. 

Knowing the species you are photographing is important to getting good shots.  By understanding how timid this particular species is, I was able to carefully photograph the birds in a way that did not disturb them.  If I had gotten out of the car to shoot these birds from ground level, which would have resulted in a better out of focus background, they would have taken flight the second I stepped out of the vehicle.  Most of the time, any photo is better than no photo at all, even if it means the background or setting in the final shot isn’t perfect.

Techs: Canon 1D Mark II N, Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS USM, Canon 2x Mark II Extender, 1/500s, f/6.3, ISO 250, natural light, bean bag.  To order this print, purchase stock rights, or view other photos I have for sale, please visit my website at www.karipost.com.

On one of our beach drive bys, the sun began to break through the clouds and offer some decent light.  Some Great Black-backed Gulls had been hanging out on the beach, and I really needed better shots of the species, so I decided to focus on photographing them.  For the most part, the gulls stayed huddled on the beach, bunkered down to avoid the harsh winds as much as possible, but every once in a while one would fly by.  In order to maximize my chances at getting some shots of the birds in flight, I found spot between where most of them were flying and made sure to position myself upwind of the gulls, since birds generally prefer to fly into the wind whenever possible.  And I waited.

That’s the name of the game in nature photography.  Waiting.  You wait for the right moment, the right light, the right composition, the right expression.  You wait and wait and wait and hope it will all come together the moment you press the shutter.  And when its no more than fifty degrees out and the 25 mph wind at your back makes it seem a good fifteen degrees colder, finding the patience to wait for the right moment only gets harder.

But, the results are often worth it.  After maybe five or ten minutes, an adult Great Black-backed Gull flew right in range, passing by me just close enough to fill the frame with my 300mm f/2.8 IS and 1.4x converter mounted on my 1D Mark II N.  I managed to get a few nice shots of the bird in flight, like the one below.

I’m pretty happy with this shot, as it’s definately the best I have of the species.  I really like the wing position of the bird, the soft light, and the muted palette.  It just proves that good photographs (like all other things) are worth waiting for!

Techs: Canon 1D Mark II N, 300mm f/2.8L IS USM + 1.4x Mark II Extender, handheld.  To order this print, purchase stock rights, or view other photos I have for sale, please visit my website at www.karipost.com.

The past three years, I’ve gone there in November to meet other nature photographers from the online nature photography forum, Naturescapes.net, for our annual Mid-Atlantic group gathering.  Highlights of our November trips usually include good numbers of Snow Geese, several species of waders including Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets, cooperative Cormorants, shorebirds, and plenty of gulls.  Unfortunately, in the past three years that I have been on the NSN outing, we’ve also had some pretty bad weather.  This weekend was no exception!  We experienced thick fog, plenty of rain, dark skies, and sustained 20-30 mph winds for much of the trip.  This combination of weather made photography pretty difficult (and camping on the island overnight quite interesting).  Even so, Chris and I spent many hours at the refuge searching for good subjects and suitable settings, determined to get some usable shots from the trip.

In the past, trips to Chincoteague have nearly always resulted in portfolio worthy photographs for me.  Even in bad weather, I’ve usually managed to create some unique image that stands out enough to become a favorite of mine.  Browsing through shots from my recent trip, I can’t say any quite make the mark this time.  Even so, I’m pretty happy with several of my pictures, and will be glad to add some new images to my ever growing stock gallery.

I’m back in New Jersey now, working the last few days of the fall season at Wildcat Mountain Wilderness Center before we shut down for the winter.  As I process my photos from Chincoteague, I’ll post them on my blog, so be sure to check back later this week to see my newest shots.

In addition to the “new look” of my blog, I’ve decided to give it a new “feel” as well.  I’ve found that, since I have been shooting so little recently, I’ve ended up posting random photos whenever I get the chance and usually pay little attention as to why I’ve chosen to post a particular image.  The end result, I feel, just doesn’t flow the way I want it to.  To me, my blog feels disorganized and disconnected.

You see, I originally began blogging as a way of telling my story as a photographer.  For me, it was to be a way to keep family, friends, and fans in the loop, to let them know what I had been shooting and share with them new photographs and stories.  My recent, random posts have strayed far from that original goal.  I’ve ending up posting just to have something new up, and it doesn’t really say much about me or what I’m up to.

So, to put it simply, I’m going to strive to get back to my original mission.  I’m going to start posting more regularly about whatever happens to be going on at the time.  Sometimes, hopefully more often than not, I’ll have new photos to share and exciting trips to tell you about.  When I don’t, I’ll write something anyway, maybe about how I’m feeling about photography, or a note about the release of a new photographic accessory.  I love nature and wildlife photography, and even when I’m not shooting, I’m thinking about it or working on it somehow, be it processing images and updating my website, planning trips, making submissions to magazines, or even admiring the work of other photographers.  So I really shouldn’t have any problem finding something current to write about!

This post, the one you are reading right now, will be the start of a new beginning.  It is the first of many that will tell a story, that will reveal more about who I am and why I am a nature photographer.  My future blog posts will allow you to travel with me and see the natural world as I see it.  Consider this an invitation, to join me as I explore the wild and untamed land that nature has to offer.

From the start, it appeared as if I’d be lucky to get worthwhile shots, as the morning’s conditions were less than ideal for waterfowl photography.  A fairly regular autumn wind tore across the water, creating ripples of uneven color.  From my perch atop the culvert, I was forced to shoot at a higher angle than I wanted, which made the ripples even more obvious.  To make matters worse, the batteries in my flash, which I had mounted atop my camera to balance out any uneven lighting and add dramatic bold colors to the water, were quickly dying, and the two sets of backups in my bag were dead as well.

Regardless, I stayed, prone on the asphalt, photographing the Mallards when they came into range.  I became more careful with each shot I took, waiting for the angle of the head of the bird to catch the light just right, and keeping an eye on the background, refusing to press the shutter unless the area around the bird was clean, fairly calm, and clear of debris.  I aimed for the perfect shot, straight from the camera, with as minimal cropping, cloning, and adjusting as possible, and focused on my nemesis, the male Mallards in their brilliant green bonnets.

Despite the fact that the ponds in my area have tame Mallards year round, I have had yet to get a nice photograph of a male in full breeding plumage.  Somehow, I have always ended up with better images of the females, probably due to their duller color, which is a bit easier to expose for and allows the details of the bird to show up well even in harsher light.  This morning, I managed to get at least a couple decent shots of the males in full color, despite the conditions.

Techs: Canon 1D Mark II N, 300mm f/2.8L IS USM + 2x Mark II Extender, 580EX Flash, 1/400s, f/6.3, flash -1 compensation, tripod.  To order this print, purchase stock rights, or view other photos I have for sale, please visit my website at www.karipost.com.