Life itself is a series of moments woven together into a great journey.  Moments are a very fleeting thing whether they are about our live’s or the making of an image.  One of the reasons I never went into the field of documentary (film or digital) photography was because I have been forever fascinated by the act of catching that one fleeting fraction of a second in time…..forever.  It is a medium like no other.  It is all about the moment.  What can you do with the moment?  Tell a story?  Create art?

While fall is arriving those of us in the north know that winter and snow will surely follow.  A time to catch a different “moment in time” with the wild animals we photograph.

The second I spotted this Ring-billed Gull sitting in the snow, I knew I had a moment that was unique and strangely beautiful.  The technical question of course was exposure.  I determined that exposing  for the darker details in the gull, was the only way to go.  I wanted the white parts of the gull and also the snow to remain light and wintry even if that meant there would be no detail in those areas.  The problem would be could I create any separation at all between the whitest areas of the gull and the snow.  I hoped for the best but upon review at home there was barely any discernible separation.  I only wanted ever so little.  Finally I used my Photoshop Magic Wand and drew a line around the white breast area of my feathered friend.  Then I dropped the brightness about six clicks and that gave me that ever so slight separation that I desired.  I was going to use a “drop shadow” or frame on this picture.  I decided to allow the snow and the page to run together as if the page was the snow, and vice versa. Sometimes it takes some thought (and work) to capture that “moment”

The colorful Ring-necked Pheasant always makes a nice study in a winter landscape.  They look like they belong in this environment.  I caught this handsome fellow just before he headed for the weeds.

Sometimes the photography gods smile at you at just the right moment.  I have tried in the past to find and photograph the diminutive Pika while in Rocky Mt. N.P.  No success.  In 2007 I spent two days in RMNP photographing the land and the always fun Yellow-bellied Marmot.  On my second day after capturing more than my share of moments with Marmots (sounds like poetry or a commercial slogan) there it was.  My tiny little round eared rodent.  To make it better it had a mouth full of plants.  There was a story to tell.  Pikas do not hibernate.  They stay awake in this extremely brutal high altitude winter.  They live under the snow and eat plants that they have cached during the brief summer.  The best was yet to come. The plant in my little friend’s mouth was Yellow-blossomed Alpine Aven.  This plant has natural preservatives that will keep the other plants that the Pika has stored, fresh and crisp until eaten.  A brief moment in time and another story told via the camera.

Portraits are moments too.  If this one qualifies as a moment it would be because a photo of a European Starling, dreaded by many Americans, in its juvenile form is rare and actually a difficult picture to find.

Much the same as with human beings, eye contact will certainly make for a more powerful portrait.  After all the eyes are the “window to the soul”.  This Bull Fog picture is well used.  It has been published and I have used it tooooo many times.  I have others but it just seems easier to keep on using this one.  This guy was stuck too far from water when I happened upon him.  I started at 300mm and worked my way to life-size with my 105 macro.  I did my work quickly and moved on so as to give him a chance to return the the near-by water, and apply some moisterizer to his skin.

Eye level flight shots of birds can be a difficult chore to accomplish.  Our long lenses (400-800) do flatten out the perspective and make it look like we are close to the same level as our subjects but there is nothing like actually being at the same height.  Along much of the Lake Michigan shoreline there exists a lake bank.  In many instances you can truly shoot at eye level, especially with the many soaring gulls that fly there.  This is one such gull, busy creating a moment for us the viewers.

There can be no question, in recent years if there is one sort of wild animal that I have had more special “moments” with than I could ever deserve, it would be the Red Fox.  Especially the family of which these two foxes below are members.  It became almost expected to photograph one special moment after another.  I will surely never forget any one of those moments.

An American Kestrel on a power line is certainly not an unusual moment.  One of these pretty birds caught in the beautiful light of winter is still a “moment” worth having.

I hope that within my blogs  (now well over 40) I have somewhere given each of you at least one good moment.  Maybe in my words but especially in my pictures, as I will always be a photographer first and foremost…

Wayne