New Kittens

About a year and a half ago my kids found two darling little kittens in the shed at their grandmothers house.  They were in ill-health, and had been neglected or abandoned by their mother.  They were so small and adorable we took them in and nursed them back to health.  Apparently we brought them back a little too far as one is now 18 pounds and the other over 16 pounds!

One thing I regret was not having taken a lot of pictures of them when they were tiny little kittens because they were so cute and adorable.  However, I did get a second chance this past month when the kids grandmother called and said she found two more kittens in the same place.  The new ones were even smaller than the first two.  We are in the process of nursing these back to health.  We plan to put these new ones on some type of weight control as they get older.

Below are some images of the first one a grey tiger striped kitten.  I am processing images of the second kitten.  Its black color makes him much harder to photograph.

Black Bears

These images are from a photo shoot at the Vince Shute Bear Sanctuary in Orr, Mn. The sanctuary is the work of a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public on the habits of wild black bears.

During the months of June, July and August there are workshops to photograph and observe this magnificent animal. This was my second time at the sanctuary. I chose the month of June to visit the sanctuary because the bear cubs are still quite small and their antics are delightful to watch.

I used a 70-200 mm F2.8 lens with a teleconverter to capture these shots.

Submitted by Dynolights Member Lil Polley

Monterey Bay Aquarium – Monterey, California

This March my wife and I traveled to California to visit our daughter and son-in-law in Los Angeles.  However, instead of traveling directly to LA we flew to San Francisco, and then drove down to LA stopping several days in Monterey to visit the aquarium and some of the magnificent coastal areas south of the city.  This excerpt deals mainly with our visit to the Monterey Aquarium.  I am an armchair underwater enthusiast.  I just love the diversity and colors of undersea creatures.  Since I don’t get many chances to snorkel and don’t care to invest in all the underwater camera equipment I do the next best thing; I visit aquariums whenever I can to photograph the sea creatures there.

As far as aquariums go, the Monterey Aquarium is top notch.  One of the exhibits that completely captivated us was the Sea Horse exhibit.  This was one of the most outstanding exhibits we have ever seen of this particular animal.  It was easy to spend an hour or more watching and trying to photograph these amazing little creatures.  Although there were about 15 different varieties of sea horses on exhibit, the two most fascinating to me were the “sea dragon” and the “leafy sea dragon”.  These creatures are not sea horses per se but are related to the sea horse.  They survive in their native habitat off the Australian and Tasmanian Coast through the use of amazing camouflage that keeps them well hidden in the sea weed and sea kelp of their environment.

Watching these small creatures was fascinating, but trying to photograph them was a difficult and time consuming challenge.  Typically the light in the aquarium is subdued, and you must shoot through glass and water.  I had forgotten my fast 50/1.4 lens at our hotel, so I tried to photograph them using a 18-200 F3.5-5.6 lens on my D300 body.  I was getting a pretty good exposure at 1600 ISO, but I really was having a hard time getting good focus through the cylindrical tanks and water.

As I was struggling to get some decent images, I happened to notice a number of small children coming up to the tank with their small point and shoot cameras and cell phones taking what looked like sharp and nicely exposed pictures.  This seemed pretty amazing to me.  So I thought why not give it a try?  I used my android cell phone and started taking both still and video pictures.  I just couldn’t believe how well the cell phone was doing, especially on video capture.

If anything, a photographer has to be adaptable to capture the right image under any circumstance.  In the future I will always consider carrying my point and shoot camera and cell phone as additional camera equipment to be prepared for all shooting conditions.

If you ever are in the area of San  Francisco make sure to put the Monterey Aquarium on your itinerary.  It is a remarkable place to visit.

Submitted by Dynolights Member Steven Shor

Trumpeter Swans – Monticello, Minnesota

MONTECELLO SWANS ~ A tribute to the beauties of nature and the efforts of “Sheila Lawrence, the Swan Lady of Monticello. Armed with a Fuji FinePix S6,000fd, even a relatively new digital photographer can capture nature’s transient beauty and intimate moments. This rare opportunity to see these beautiful birds up close is due to the efforts of Sheila and her husband Jim, who feed the swans all winter long strengthening them for the spring nesting season.

Even without a separate telephoto lens, you can capture special moments of :

This winter Sheila and her husband counted 2200 swans outside their home and adjacent small park eating the corn and enjoying the open Mississippi waters on the east side of Monticello. This trip is a must for bird and nature lovers… but be prepared, it can be very cold and very noisy!

Unfortunately, Sheila died last week. Her volunteer efforts to feed the swans spanned many years. These efforts were mostly funded out of her own pocket, by donations from family, neighbors, nature lovers and photographers (both amateur and professional) who came to take pictures.

This amateur photographer is grateful for Sheila’s efforts in supporting this unique ecological nitch so close to urban living! I’m sure your donation this year and each time you make this surprising and rewarding short “photo safari” will help preserve these wintering grounds for many years into the future…

Submitted by Dynolights Member Linda Taylor