Kodiak Brown Bears captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC Some of the best photography is in some of the worst weather. I know that my Nikons can take as much wx as I can permitting shooting some incredible moments like with these Kodiak Brown Bears. The key is a simple tool, the white towel. I use white as it shows dirt, and I don't want to dry gear with dirt.

Stono Self captured by Z 9 / Z26f2.8 The Z600f4TC over the shoulder, I slowly, slowly crossed the boardwalk at Stono. The tides were slowly rising, forcing birds like the Clapper Rail out of their normal cover. The sun is coming up, the moon racing for the horizon. A gorgeous morning, but at this moment, no birds. I put down the rig and looked around.

Sanderling captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC w/Z2x A couple of lifetimes ago, my mentor told me I needed to see the mass shorebird migration in fall at Folly Beach. I didn't have the means back then to make that trip, so I'm been doing it now. Ted's photo showed a beach covered with little peeps, a birders' paradise! This pass week I struggled to find just one bird each session to photograph.

Clapper Rail captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC In South Carolina, spending time on its beaches looking for shorebirds. And, not finding more than a handful the entire week has been very disappointing. Might be because of the Nor'easter, maybe the heat, or we've likely done a number on their habitat, or a combination of these and more factors. Whatever the reason, after lots and lots of time in the field, not a feather!

Moose Podcast #521 - "The Storage Question" with prices skyrocketing and with all the summer shooting, the questions are flooding in! So, we're going to spend some time talking over at least one strategy. Let's talk!

RR 747 captured by Z 8 / Z24-120 Traveling from the shores of Kodiak and its Brown Bears to the coast of South Carolina for migrating shorebirds has been a hoot! First morning out, dealt with the winds from the storm hitting north of us. Wind sent the birds for cover, so had little hope of much shooting this morning. After a killer breakie, went south to find just two birds.

Kodiak Brown Bear captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC Alaska is a glorious place to explore with a camera, there are stories at every step! One of the aspects of shooting there that has to be mastered is, shooting in the rain. Life doesn't stop for an act of nature that happens all the time. This Kodiak Brown Bear we named Goldie, she had one COY (Cub of the Year), which was on the smaller side of life.

DeHavilland DH-2 Beaver captured by Z 8 / Z70-200f2.8II With a couple hundred pounds of gear piled up at the end of the dock, waiting for the Beaver to pick us up and ferry us into bear camp, the clock ticked. We had about forty-five minutes, and the usual Sea Otters that keep us entertained weren't around. Watching the second hand tick away the moments isn't my thing.

deHavilland Beaver DH-2 captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC The Fox Sparrows were bouncing around in the tree when I heard Wes arrive in his Beaver. There wasn't time to move, change gear or switch to Shutter Priority as Wes made a dramatic turn and performed a perfect landing. Panning took care of capturing a sharp Beaver, but the prop disk requires a slow shutter speed.

Moose Podcast #520 - "The List" If good enough for Santa, must be for our photography! My 1min KelbyOne post though brought a bunch of questions about the list. Let's talk

There I was in Monument Valley, the vistas before the camera sweeping, epic, gorgeous! Working on "teaching" moments, I wanted to use the camera's bracketing in the camera to do a White Balance bracket series. I went into the menu to set it up, only to find, the options grayed out. I had another setting "conflicting" with the WB Bracketing, so I couldn't do it.

B-29 "Doc" captured by Z 9 / Z180-600 The B-29 when it first took to the skies in the 1940s, it was a technological wonder. I'm often asked what is my favorite aircraft. I don't have a favorite but one that always gets all my love whenever it's around is the B-29! That's because that's where my father was for two wars and his passion for this aircraft was handed down to me (along with a name).

B-1B Lancer captured by Z 9 / Z180-600 Oshkosh is such a marvelous event to get close to come really cool aircraft. The Bone is one of them. It's one of the few aircraft I work hard at not to fill the frame with it. It's huge so it's a challenge to make it small and romantic for me. A major reason I approached the B-1B slightly differently is because of the family ties to the plane.

This is the next in a series of videos, Some Simple Advice, that might help move your photography forward. It's like any advice you might receive, you gotta take it in and decide if it works for you. If it does, perfect. If it doesn't just forget it and continue on 🙂

photograph by Vincent Versace, all rights reserved Travel with the Master to bring Life to the Dead! A mentor of mine, Vincent Versace is leading an epic adventure to the Festival of Death. Go with him to bring life to your photography!

Moose Podcast #519 - "Flashbulb Memories" with a title like that, you would think it's about photography .. but it isn't, and then again .. it totally is. And that's because our photograph is our memory. Let's talk

East Mitten captured by Z 6III / Z70-200f2.8II It doesn't matter if it's West Mitten or East Mitten in Monument Valley, every sunrise I tended to put them dead center in the frame! I sure didn't realize it while I was there, and in fact, it was a week after finishing all the images from the week that the pattern registered with me.

P-38 "Glacier Girl", F7F "Here Kitty Kitty" & F7F captured by D3x / 28-300 Two hours prior to launch, Val approached me with a simple question: "How would you like to go up for the A2A?" The ramp was a buzz with the proposed flight, two F7Fs and two P-38s. It was a flight not seen for a very long time and, to this date, has not been repeated.

F8F "Rare Bear" captured by D3x / 70-200f2.8 The Air Races at Reno is where the passion took hold. I was very fortunate, like I always seem to be, to have this dynamo of a nice lady take me in, open the doors, and set my camera and passion loose. With the access Val made possible and the credibility Bob lent to this greenhorn, I was figuratively and literally off to the races.

Kodiak Brown Bear captured by Z 8 / Z600f4TC They were new to us, and we to them. Bears tend to do one of two things, in my experience, when they see humans, walk in the opposite direction or ignore you. In this case, we were in a boat, and while the engines had been cut and we were drifting with the tide, this mother and cub didn't know what to make of us.

Moose Podcast #518 - "I Can Hear Your Stare" If you have a Beagle, you know this phrase all too well. If you're a photographer, you might know this as well and that's not healthy. How to get heard, let's talk!

Monument Valley "Classics" captured by Z 8 / Z24-70f2.8II You're on location you've spent lots of time and money to arrive at. You simply walk out the door of your home. You're there because of the promise of the possibilities life might bring to your viewfinder. The only way you find out the promise of the day is to meet it at least halfway.

White-tailed Deer fawn captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC Say hello to Scratch! One of the five fawns born on the property this spring, if you look at it left hind leg, you see a kinda nasty gash in its leg. It's how I recognize Scratch. Now you might think the fading spots on its flank are the sign I'm talking about, and while that's a good sign that fall is here, it's not the sign I was thinking about.

Cessna 180 captured by Z 8 / Z400f4.5 Two pieces of unusually packed gear in the kit were required to make this shot. Swim trunks and surf shoes, since the image was taken while standing in the water. The white towel was present as well, not for me but to keep hands dry while working with the gear. The water wakes splashing up on my sides made keeping steady to shoot at slower speeds were as much a challenge as keeping gear dry.

N3N-3 captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC @840mm Warm, clear skies and open water are all it takes to get a seaplane to visit! All you have to do is touch down once, and you're hooked. It's such a marvelous way to explore our world, no wonder they are out every hour of the long summer days exploring. Having been so fortunate to participate in splashing many times (though never in the N3N), I understand the love of water.

The wonders, beauty and romance of Monument Valley is timeless! In this simple video, I go through some of the basics of when, where, and why you want to shoot at this epic location. Enjoy!

Moose Podcast #517 - "Peace of Mind" the creative process and confidence in what one's doing can be boiled down to this simple phrase. And yet, getting to that point us in large part, subconscious. Let's talk

Kodiak Brown Bear captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC While the weaning summer has me missing certain aspects, the promise of fall and working with mammals is exciting! I have a number of mammal adventures on the docket for the fall, Kodiak Brown Bears are at the top of the list. The planning to be with them started nearly a year ago, that's a long time to wait, but it's required.

Heavenly Bodies over Monument Valley captured by ZR / Z24-120 on Supadupa Monument Valley is such a spectacular place that one camera at a time is simply not enough! I have always had at least one camera out on the balcony shooting either Time Lapse or Interval Timer while I'm either shooting stills beside it or, out and about shooting. In the past, I used a tripod, which works, but I didn't really like how it hogged the space on the balcony.

MiG17 captured by Z 9 / Z180-600 Bringing the sense and feeling of motion to a jet, that requires a bit more thought. When you have an afterburner like the MiG17 has, it's a tad easier. That red exhaust tells the viewer the plane is moving, we mean, really moving. But that's a small sense of movement. When you have clouds, and they are slightly blurred, you've got more sense of movement, and we make some progress.

C-47s & DC-3 captured by Z 9 / Z180-600 The sky was filled from horizon to horizon with 841 C-47s on D-Day. The sight and sound are ones I often ponder. At events like Osh, one can look up and gain a glimpse into what it was like, if just for a moment. What you see are all the same airframe for the most part.

Them aren't stars the arrows are pointing at! When I first watched the Time Lapse video you see at the top of the Landing Page, I was very happy with the results of the lightning (even though it was cut very short because of the downpour soaking the ZR). When I looked at the Time Lapse video on the computer, though, I was so mad at myself!

Hardy Creek, MT captured by Z 8 / Z70-200f2.8II Putting the viewer of our photograph next to us when we took the photograph is just part of the journey. We also need them to feel the heartbeat of that moment that made us stop in the first place. Adding to this is bringing a visual depth to our landscape photograph so the viewer can walk through it over and over again.

Lewis's Woodpecker captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC My last photograph of the Lewis's Woodpecker from two weeks ago, it's not been seen since. Same with our hummers, they too have disappeared and not been recorded by the game cameras for the last week. While the heat wave seems to have moved on, it took with it many of the summer residents that fill our forest.

Moose Podcast #516 - "Monumental Task" It's a feeling that often comes up when I head out to shoot. You ever felt it? Yes, it still happens to me all these decades later. There is a path through it. Let's talk

Downy Woodpecker HY captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC First, the parents come back. You can tell they are the parents as their feathers are severly warn and stained. Within a day, normally, you see fresh looking and you know those are the kids. The kids for the first month are very entertaining as they chase the parents around to be fed.

Monument Valley sunrise captured by Z 6III / Z14-24f2.8 This was live 06:33 this morning ... wow!! What a spectacular start to a day!

PB4Y Privateer captured by Z 8 / Z50f1.2 Basically a converted B-24, the wing span of the PB4Y is truly impressive at 110'! I truly wanted an arse shot, but the background was way too busy, so I decided to go forward. Not really what I had in mind, especially when I saw I would be shooting directly into the sun.

PBY-5A Catalina captured by Z 9 / Z180-600 The restoration on this PBY-5A is spectacular! It was at #OSH26 and shown to all its hidden glory. A hidden and silent hero of WWII, the PBY served many roles, including patrolling our coastal waters. This particular PBY is credited with sinking at least one German submarine, dang! The work that went into making this, like, out of the factory is astounding, and to see it fly in the evening light is something I won't soon forget.

Mitchell Mesa, right image with uncorrected tint captured by Z 8 / Z24-70f2.8II w/Breakthrough Mag CPL Tint can and does play havoc with B&W, especially in certain situations. Those are when there is a preponderance of red or green. In Monument Valley, there is plenty of red. So if your B&W appears "flat," you might have a tint issue and didn't even know it.

Moose Podcast #515 - "Your "Stupid" Question" The only stupid question is the one you don't ask! Dust, filters, Switching for better images, tripods, photopacks and more. Let's clear that air on this important questions!