Feeling Sorry for a Goose……..

And laughing a bit about it as well. Sometimes the impact of an image is that it makes you laugh. On this blue sky morning at a local lake I was working during morning rush hour (geese taking off and landing after roosting all night). These are really fun birds. They talk up a storm before taking off and are of various degrees of skill when it comes to landing again. It’s hard not to think of these birds as people commuting to work.

For this type of image, I am working with long glass (500mm with a 1.4X teleconverter) and on a tripod. I keep autofocus on the continuous mode and select a large array of sensors to keep the birds in focus while they are flying towards me. I want an image with little or no overlap of the birds so that each is a distinct form. The one bird on the upper right is just plain having some trouble. Maybe it’s just not comfortable with the whole flying thing, but for some reason Don Knotts comes to mind.

(c) Paul Grecian – http://www.paulgrecianphoto.com

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It’s a Secret……..

I have been wanting to print a new fox image for a while. In reviewing images I made at one particular den, I chose this image to be a new 7×10 print. These two kits were part of a den of 6! Romping around and playing with each other, they provided a lot of entertainment and some frustration. Their almost constant movement made it challenging to create anything coherent.

I wanted to create behavior pieces but ones that were visually pleasing as well. Composition is always important as are color and lighting. The soft light kept highlights under control and the warm-toned grasses work well with the fox’s fur. Ultimately, it was just a lot of fun to work with them for the 8 days I could spend hanging out in the field.

In this image of two kits, one certainly seems to have something to say that is not meant for my ears!

It’s a Secret!

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Winter Visitor

Winter is a stark time of year visually. I think about it in terms of black and white with various shades of gray. In this part of the country (Bucks County, PA), we get a special little visitor that seems to perfectly fit with my vision of the season – the Dark-eyed Junco!

This rather mono-chromatic flier blends in well with the gray-skies and snow-covered landscape. In this image the background and perch mimic the colors of the bird and convey a sense of the season. I like the simplicity of the tonalities in the image and the very limited depth that I was able to achieve with a large-aperture long telephoto lens (Canon EF 500mm f4.0 L IS with Canon TC 1.4X).

Compositionally, I wanted the bird to not overlap with any background elements in which it would merge tonally. Being down low enough to the ground to keep the portrait intimate, that is, at about eye-level with the bird, was also critical.

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Looking Up

It’s hard for me to not anthropomorphize the behavior of animals looking up to the sky as being spiritual. There just seems to be a natural interpretation of any animal with their eyes searching the “heavens” as seeking guidance or being lost in a sense of wonder.

As someone who spent their college career in the study of animal behavior, any form of anthropomorphizing was unscientific. As an artist now, I don’t have to fight that urge. In fact I think it has become a part of my image-making process. I look for the “expressions” in animal subjects that relate to my own emotions and feelings. My work isn’t just about the animal in my image, but also about how their behavior speaks to our own lives.

This little kit Red Fox was part of a den I worked at for over a week. I  feel like I caught it in a private moment of youthful contemplation of the universe. Color isn’t important to the image, so I rendered it as a black & white. To instill a sense that it was unaware of my presence, I composed so that it blends into its surroundings but made sure that the eyes and ears (pointing forward with its line of sight) are clearly visible.

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First is Last

I was at Artists’ Gallery in Lambertville, NJ this past Sunday (Dec. 30) meeting and greeting visitors. A very nice couple came in sometime during the middle of the day and selected a framed piece of mine to purchase. The sale represented my last sold piece of the year and so that made it a bit more special. The image is of a flock of Cedar Waxwings in a tree against a winter white sky. I titled the piece Birds of a Feather and printed it a bit high key in order to bring out color and details in the birds and limit any texture in the sky.

The image itself was made during my first outing of 2012 (in January) and the last image that sold in 2012. The print itself was the first that I made of this image as I introduced the print late in the year. The sale made me feel like I was completing a circle of sorts.

I used a Canon EOS 1D Mark III camera with a Canon EF 500mm f4.0 L IS lens fitted with a Canon TC1.4X III to make an optic of 700mm. This rather heavy combination is placed on a Gitzo tripod with a Foba Superball tripod head and Wimberly Sidekick.

 

(c) Paul Grecian

 

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The Maine Thing – Day 7

At this point in our trip to Maine we were staying with friends who recently bought a house just outside of Acadia. My friend Mark is a highly accomplished photographer and has a nice bit of land that attracts some local wildlife.

The Red Squirrels around his property are a bit crazy. They are very territorial and quite vociferous. They are also pretty cute and have a lot of character. This image was made handheld with a Canon 7D and Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8 L Mark II with Canon TC2x III.

Red Squirrel, Maine

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Pennsylvania Guild Show this weekend – Aug. 4-5

The Chase Center in Wilmington, DE is a great venue for a show and no one puts together a better show than the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen! I’ll be exhibiting and selling my work this weekend at the Chase Center and looking forward to seeing current collectors and meeting new ones as well.

Red Fox in Golden Grasses

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Audubon Show – Recapped

The Audubon Art and Craft Festival was well attended and a fun event. I missed having a couple of friends there who had previously participated but was pleased to find other familiar faces I haven’t seen in a while. Such is the nature of these types of shows. The weather could not have been better and the new location for the show worked out well.

The magazine This Week in the Poconos did a cover feature about the show accompanied by my image which I’ve titled simply- Blue Bird. It is an image I made here in Pennsylvania some years back and one which is part of many private home art collections.

 

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Audubon Show – Hawley, PA (July 21-22)

This weekend I will be participating in the Audubon Art and Craft Festival (http://www.audubonfestival.com/)  in Hawley, PA. This is a fun show with a nature oriented theme. There are live animal shows and a variety of some fine craft and artworks. Held around Lake Wallenpaupack, it’s also just a nice day out.

Great Blue Herons are wonderful birds and a favorite subject of mine. These two images are titled after the yoga poses that this bird is “obviously” holding (Warrior III on left and Downward-facing Dog on right). Both images were made at Lake Galena in Bucks County, PA . I used a Canon EOS 1D Mark III camera with Canon EF 500mm f4.0 L IS and Canon TC 1.4 (700mm optic equivalent). To hold this system stable and yet still have mobility, I use a Foba Superball tripod- head and Wimberley Sidekick.

“Warrior III”

Kutztown Folk Festival starts Saturday June 30!

My 9 days at the Kutztown Folk Festival starts this Saturday (http://www.kutztownfestival.com/ ). This summer staple is always a fun time and draws an audience from around the region which can number over 100,000!

There will be a lot of early mornings in my future and 9-days of smelling funnel cake, but the opportunity to meet new customers, and see some previous ones as well, makes it all worth while. 

One of the newer pieces that I will have at the show is this image – “House Finch”. It has become an image that I particularly like as it has many of the elements that I try to bring to my work. Much of my imagery that is about birds includes a good deal of habitat, some painterly selective focus, and soft light. The bird is  relatively small in the frame but the composition still make it the clear point of interest. The photograph was made with a Canon EOS 1D Mark III camera with a Canon EF 500mm f4.0 L IS lens and a Canon TC1.4X on a Gitzo Tripod with a Foba Superball head and Wimberley Sidekick attached.

“House FInch” available as a 6.75 x 9.75 print matted to 11×14

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