Posts Tagged ‘Conservation’Finally HereWednesday, May 19th, 2010
Woodpeckers, Fire & Acorns from Rick Brown on Vimeo. I finally posted my first documentary to Vimeo. It’s been a long and at times trying experience. Furthermore, there’s the frustration that always comes from knowing that you could do better at the process now. Overall though I am very excited about posting this movie. Certainly video is a fun and challenging experience. Woodpeckers, Fire and Acorns – the TrailerTuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Woodpeckers, Fire and Acorns Trailer from Rick Brown on Vimeo. This is a very exciting thing for me. I am publishing the trailer of my first documentary short. This documentary was shot entirely on a 5dMkII and edited in Premiere Pro. Success on the Flathead!!!Sunday, February 21st, 2010For those of you who have been reading my blog you know that I was very worried about some possible resource extraction activities harming the Glacier/Waterton International Peace Park and I was closely watching the ILCP and their RAVE on the Flathead Valley to fight this. Well folks, it worked!!! The Peace Park is a designated UN World Heritage site and the UN sent an investigation team and expressed their displeasure with the proposed plans. Earlier this month, the British Columbian government prohibited industrial development in the valley. I will not talk about this success in much detail here, but refer you to ILCP’s story, a story in the Missoulian, and NPCA’s coverage. However, I want to thank all of you who took action to protect the Flathead and the Waterton/Glacier International Peace Park based on my pleadings here in this blog. Now on to the meat of this post. My response to this issue illustrates very well an issue that is critical to the field of conservation photography. That is the old cliche “you love what you know, you protect what you love.” Just how my response illustrates this, is that ILCP has done quite a few RAVEs at this point, but the two I got the most enthusiastic with my support were the two locations that I have enjoyed in person; the Flathead and the Borderlands. This issue defines the very reason for the existence of conservation photography. Photos will never be a substitute for intimate knowledge of a landscape, but they are much better than nothing. So one of the primary jobs of the conservation photographer is that first step in the cliche; help your audience get to know the landscape, the critters in it, and the beauty of the symbiosis between the two. Many argue that too much ecotourism, resulting from people knowing just how wonderful a place is can be very destructive. I acknowledge this possibility, and some of our most popular and most fragile places are dealing with a little of the “being loved to death” syndrome. However, ecotourism is almost always better than development. Which do you think would be harder for say a gopher tortoise to deal with, having a bunch of tourists stick cameras in its face or its home and food put under a parking lot and mini-mall? Photograph PeopleSunday, January 31st, 2010Here I’m going to give a tip that is a painful one for many of us conservation photographers; if you want to maximize your impact, photograph people. Yes that’s right, Rick, the guy many think can only photograph ducks, is telling you to photograph people. Magazines are often looking to engage the reader in the article through the photographs and apparently many think humans can’t feel connected to a member of the species Anas acuta. Personally, I find this both sad and shocking. However, the fact remains that if you want to maximize the impact of your photography for conservation, you should probably also be photographing people doing the conservation work and enjoying the fruits of their labors. The latter are called “lifestyle” or “outdoor lifestyle” images, a genre that I myself am now pushing myself to get into deeper. Another tip with lifestyle images, if you want to maximize the versatility of the images, make sure your models are wearing modern and stylish clothes. This increases the odds of them being useful for advertising as well as editorial. You can see some of my work in this field in these galleries; lifestyle and conservation. Pintails Like Invasives ControlSaturday, January 2nd, 2010If you’ve been reading this blog, you are well aware that I am involved in invasive weed control through the Friends of the Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Today I saw some evidence that such programs have real benefits. I was at Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge today to photograph. The staff at this refuge has been working hard to control reed canary grass and other invasives in the marsh with the hope that doing so would promote the growth of more plants that provide high quality forage for waterfowl. Well, it appears to be working, at least as far as Northern Pintails are concerned. There are I’d say at least 3000 pintails on the slough. When an eagle or something would scare them off the water the sky was filled with them and the rest of the time the marsh looks like a mirror where someone spilled pepper with all of the pintails resting. Pintail music fills the air and birders clog the road. Unfortunately, I saw no Dusky Canada Geese today. If you don’t know this is the rare subspecies of Canada Goose that is one of the primary concerns on the refuge. These photos aren’t from today, but if you want to take a look at the critter you’ve just been reading about, click here. Rick & William Project?Friday, December 25th, 2009Yeah, I know, it’s a chick flick. But hey, some of them are good. Watched Julie and Julia last night and actually found it inspirational. Great to watch someone be brave about pursuing self-actualization. It was fantastic to see how a blog could be a part of that. I have found that blogging is a great outlet; a place where one can write regularly with at least some hope of others seeing the work, without the worry of if it is publishable in the traditional sense. One can ramble on about the weirdest things on a blog. Reminds me of a quote I heard on an episode of Criminal Minds “better to write for yourself and have no audience, than to write for an audience and have no self.” At this moment I cannot remember the original source for this quote, but find it illuminating. For Christmas, I received a book about William L. Finley, a pioneer conservation photographer and the man that the headquarters of the Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex was named for. He would go out into the field and photograph birds with a large format, view camera. Those who know much about bird photography and view cameras can imagine how difficult this would be. I often stay inside when the weather forces shutter speeds under 1/250 of a second and he was using technology that would have imposed these sorts of working conditiond constantly. He is definitely an inspiration. He was instrumental in the establishment of two Oregon National Wildilfe Refuges; Three Arches Rock and Malheur. I have written and spoken about him many times. Rough Cut DoneWednesday, December 16th, 2009Tonight has been a big deal for me. I just completed the first rough cut of my first documentary short. In the next couple of days, I will start writing the script for the voice over narration and adding the subtitles for telling the audience who certain people are. Then it’s on to sweetening the sound, mainly a matter of eliminating recording hiss. The audio system on the 5d MkIIincreases the gain level when there aren’t any loud sounds, this creates a lot of recording hiss. The 5d MkII is not a perfect solution for recording video, but does a very good job and serves its intended roles in video quite well. As I see it, the intended roles in video for the new video dSLRs are to introduce people to video and to allow for recording some clips for posting to the web without the photojournalist carrying additional cameras. I recommend following Vincent Laforet’s blog for cutting edge information about video capable dSLRs. Hopefully, this project will convince inhabitants of the Willamette Valley to help out with savanna restoration. Some of the invasive weeds project that the Friends of the Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex furthers restoration. Just about anyone around here can help us pulling weeds. Savanna OriginsFriday, December 4th, 2009I had been thinking about trying some sort of story to use my Fender’s Blue Butterfly pictures together with my horse-logging images. Something about oak savanna restoration here in the Willamette Valley seemed like the perfect idea. Thus, when I went to the 2009 NANPA Summit in New Mexico, this concept was one that I pitched to my portfolio reviewers. Turns out one of them was very interested. So began a very rewarding year in my photography. I have learned a great deal, been motivated to create what I consider to be some of my best work and my career has taken new and exciting directions. For example, this project has been very influential in my decision to expand my career into video. I mentioned to the editor that I now had a 5d MkII and could film the interviews I would be conducting and asked if he would be interested. He was very excited about the idea and through following discussions with him this grew into me producing a documentary short on the subject. I was skeptical if video would be interesting to me at the time, but I now find it exhilirating. It is very exciting to work with the concept of “story” in a way that still photographers normally do not. So that you might experience this sort of growth in your photographic career, I recommend that you register for the 2010 NANPAsummit in Reno. Have a few reviews, or perhaps contact me and volunteer to help myself and my co-chair Diane Shapiro at the review desk (we always have a blast there). Most importantly, you’ll share a great time with people who hold the same passions. See my savanna work here. Conservation = Christmas Trees?Tuesday, December 1st, 2009One of the main things threatening oak savanna in the Willamette Valley is encroachment by Douglas Fir. Our local oaks are not shade tolerant and as Douglas Fir moves in the oaks can no longer sprout. Thus, a common method for restoring oak savanna land is to cut down the fir. Now with the holidays approaching, the staff of William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge thought that the smaller Douglas Fir they are cutting would be useful as Christmas trees. If you want one they are being placed outside the Wild Goose Nature Store at the office at William L. Finley NWR. Donations in exchange for the trees are appreciated but not required. The donations will go to the Friends of the Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex and will aid in their mission to promote the refuges and conservation. So yes, conservation can equal Christmas Trees. Planting TreesSunday, November 29th, 2009Well, any invasives project has to have another side; restoration. If all you do is pull up weeds and don’t plant any natives in their place, most likely more invasives will return. That is one of the reasons that this next Saturday, 12/5/09, I will be involved in a tree planting at Ankeny, NWR. We will be meeting at the Rail Trail parking lot at 10:00am. The mission is to plant trees to help restore riparian habitat on the refuge. The Friends of the Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex will be providing chili for lunch. Should be fun, come by and check it out. |