Newsletter No. 4 – August, 2005
© Chris Harris. All rights reserved.
The Wonderful World of Bird Photography
I knew bird photography would be an important aspect of this Grasslands Awareness Project but it was one area of photography I had little experience with. Fortunately, a wonderfully kind gentleman (who wishes to remain anonymous) sponsored me with a telephoto lens designed for this very specific, challenging endeavor. If you can believe it, it was so big it actually came in a trunk! So this spring, I headed out into the grasslands armed with a lens larger than any lens I had every carried before. I was a little apprehensive but extremely excited. I had so much to learn – both in the world of birds and bird photography.
© Chris Harris. All rights reserved.
Canon EOS-1D Mark II; Lens: 500mm; Focal length: 1000mm; Shutter speed: 1/1000 sec; Aperture: 9; Exposure compensation: +2/3; ISO: 800On my very first trip with my new lens, I was driving along a backcountry road with a friend when we saw something large sitting on a fence post. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw this beautiful Great Grey Owl. I was totally unprepared, so I drove past the owl, stopped down the road, attached the new 500 mm lens to my camera, and drove back. Fortunately it was still there but I was so excited I gave little thought to the background and I cut off the owls tail! That was lesson no.1! Always have my big lens mounted and ready beside me in the truck, always have my camera settings pre-set ready for the unexpected, and always be calm with pre-visualized concepts on what to capture. The next evening I went back to the same area and sure enough another owl was out hunting in the evening light. This time I was completely ready and the results showed it. It’s the difference between "taking" an image and "making" an image – the most important thing I talk about in my photo seminars.
© Chris Harris. All rights reserved.
Canon EOS-1D Mark II; Lens: 500mm; Shutter speed: 1/400 sec; Aperture: 20
Exposure compensation: +2/3; ISO: 800While working on this project I have the good fortune of working with grassland ecologists, wildlife biologists, natural history groups and birders. The grasslands are vast and small birds and their nests are often difficult to find. Even when you do find one, it is one thing to watch them through a good pair of binoculars, it is quite another to get a photograph. But that’s only the beginning. It’s not just a photograph I am trying to get, it’s a GREAT photograph I am trying to get! This was challenging photography but I was learning fast.
One day, word came through that a Killdeer nest had been discovered in the open grasslands. Together with my good grasslands ecologist friend Ordell Steen, we set off to try and find it. These birds are so well camouflaged in the open grass, that even with directions, they are most difficult to find. This image shows a female Killdeer on its nest.
© Chris Harris. All rights reserved.
Canon EOS-1D Mark II; Lens: 500mm; Focal length: 1000mm;
Shutter speed: 1/800 sec; Aperture: 9; Exposure compensation: +2/3; ISO: 1600I soon discovered that birds were not as concerned with my truck (now called my "hootie blind" as a result of my first bird shots – above) as they were with me in the open grass.
One evening while driving along the Farwell Road near Junction Sheep Range Park, I saw a Meadowlark perched on an evergreen. The melodious song of the Meadowlark is well know throughout the British Columbia grasslands, especially in the spring during mating season. I slowly stopped my vehicle, rolled up my window a bit, placed my beanbag on the glass (I use this as my tripod when shooting from the "hootie blind") and placed my telephoto lens on the bag (remember, I am always prepared for the unexpected now!) and made this image. The Meadowlark was singing to its partner in the late evening light. Five minutes later the light was gone.The Meadowlark and Killdeer are but two of so many birds that nest in the open grass. When grasslands are mowed down or destroyed, so too are hundreds of nests. This is something to keep in mind as we ponder the future of this endangered ecosystem.
There will be more bird articles to come, but I must say, I have fallen in love with bird photography. It is extremely challenging in this open environment and it can be very frustrating, but when it all comes together, it is so very exciting and rewarding.
The Gallery – Building a Dream
By Rita Giesbrecht
© Chris Harris. All rights reserved.
At this point in publishing this newsletter, it occurred to Chris and I that there may be folks newly introduced to Chris" work and to the gallery, as well as those who know about it but have not yet visited, who might enjoy some news and an update.
Building a home and a home base for our businesses, including an exhibit gallery, is one of those projects which if we had known what we were getting into we probably would have been too nervous to embark on. However, innocence is bliss and we are now, after an amazing ride, in a position of incredulity at the idea that we may actually have realized our dream and accomplished what we set out to do. The added factor of using straw bale construction has meant that the home we have created has qualities inherent in its nature that make it a very different kind of project.
We were introduced to the idea of straw-bale construction by our good friend Gordon Milne, who has been our guide, mentor, skilled designer, artisan, carpenter, cabinet-maker and friend throughout. Along with Gordon have been many friends and skilled practitioners in the crafts needed to make a building, and it is the participation of these people, each adding their craftsmanship, energy and dedication to perfection, that we experience every day in living and working in these two beautiful buildings.
There are still some details to complete in the house, and the garden and landscaping will take time to fill out and mature, but the nature of the building is one of harmony with the natural world that surrounds them – quiet balanced energy, comfort and tranquility. Almost daily the world comes to our door in the form of visitors from all over the globe, friends coming by for coffee, overnight, or a few weeks. The bird conservancy we live in is a constant source of interest and interaction with the teeming social life of eagles, hawks, geese, ducks, woodpeckers, wrens, bluebirds, sparrows . . . and on.
We are experiencing more and more that as we live our love and passion, and welcome others to join us, that we are afforded the financial means to stay here working and living comfortably. It was a risk to take, to trust that if we do what we love and do it as well as we can and with all of our integrity, that the means to earn a living would flow from it. So far it seems to be proving out.
In future newsletters we will share with you the imagery and their stories that hang as prints in the gallery.
