Traveling the Journey of Light | Photoblog Thoughts, feelings, and techniques behind the photography of Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston

Slowly Moving AlongPosted by drfl on June 15th, 2010

It’s now less than a month away from when I exhibit at the Governor’s residence in Lincoln, Nebraska. When I initially got the invitation, it was over a year before I had to have everything prepared so I procrastinated. Of course, throughout that time I have had various things crop up, and of course, I have captured more images! Realizing my deadline, I just put in an order for 25 new Nebraska images so that I could rotate out some older (and non-Nebraska) stuff for the show.

Additionally, Nebraska Life magazine is doing a small piece on my exhibition, so if you are a subscriber, be sure to look for the information and an image or two in the next issue!

While this photograph will not be in the show as it is not an image from Nebraska, I felt it reflected the theme of the post - slow, but steady.   A little story about the image. My eldest daughter and I hiked a nature trail Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge in Missouri in early May and had come across this snail moving slowly and deliberately across a fallen log.  We watched him for a good ten minutes, all the while my daughter managed to accumulate four ticks which proved difficult to find.  After finding three, I called it good, loaded her in the car and proceeded to drive away.  When I was on the on-ramp to the Interstate I heard a shriek from the back of the car, “There’s a bug on me!”.  I immediately pulled over and ran to her to find a huge tick crawling up her arm.  Not sure how I missed that one.

Technical Details
Canon 5D Mark II, 50 CM lens, f/5.6, 1/50 sec.
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri

Looking for Inspiration #2: Do Something Creative - Other Than Photography!Posted by drfl on June 3rd, 2010

Listen to music, paint, draw, dance. Let it lead back to photography.

Technical Details:
Canon 50D, 300 f/4l + 1.4 tc, f/7.1, 1/5000 sec.
Bald Eagle, Squaw Creek NWR, Missouri

Muskrat ProfilePosted by admin on March 19th, 2009

Squaw Creek has many muskrat huts throughout the refuge. It is not unusual to see many of these guys working away, eating, or just swimming around. They are a little skittish and don’t like it when you get out of your car. I managed to capture a few of them, but when you approach they tend to dive under the water and never come back up. In this case, this guy was close to shore and I was able to stick half my body out of the window to get a tighter shot. When I finally did open the door, he took off. I don’t like startling these guys too much so I moved on. I never really knew that much about muskrats before taking this guys photo so I did a bit of research. Here’s a tidbit of what I found out (wikipedia - it’s probably accurate - right?)

Muskrats are found over most of Canada and the United States and a small part of northern Mexico. They always inhabit wetlands, areas in or near salt and fresh-water marshlands, rivers, lakes, or ponds. They are not found in the state of Florida where the round-tailed muskrat, or Florida water rat.

Muskrats continue to thrive in most of their native habitat and in areas where they have been introduced. While much wetland habitat has been eliminated due to human activity, new muskrat habitat has been created by the construction of canals or irrigation channels and the muskrat remains common and wide-spread.

Muskrats are most active at night or near dawn and dusk. They feed on cattails and other aquatic vegetation. They do not store food for the winter, but sometimes eat the insides of their lodges or steal food that beavers have stored. Plant materials make up about 95 percent of their diets, but they also eat small animals such as freshwater mussels, frogs, crayfish, fish, and small turtles.

For this image I utilized a Nik plug-in called “Vienza”. It allows spot changes to saturation, contast, and brightness. I was a little skeptical about this product as I figured I could always mask the object in photoshop and apply whatever I needed to the mask, but I find that this plug-in helps cut down on the work. I am sure at this point, I am only scratching the surface of what it can do, but here it helped me apply a bit more saturation to the muskat, raise the brightess on the facial area, and increase the contrast slightly for a little more pop.

Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1/4tc, f/7.1, 1/1000 sec.
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri

TogethernessPosted by admin on March 17th, 2009

I made it down to Squaw Creek again for another trip on the way through to Kansas City. On one of the trips around the lake, I captured these two Canada geese hanging out on a muskrat hut. They just watched as I took their photo, content to be together. I felt the black and white treatment here was the best to isolate the subjects.

Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/8, 1/1600 sec.
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge

Coot on the RunPosted by admin on March 11th, 2009

I wanted to get some up close shots of the Snow Geese at Squaw Creek, but every time I got fairly close, they decided to up and run away. So, I tried my hand at the American Coots. I got a little close, and when they go they almost look like little road runners before they take off.

Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/5.6, 1/8000 sec.
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri

Tornado of BirdsPosted by admin on March 10th, 2009

Another type of image I wanted to capture from the visit to Squaw Creek was a wide-angle view of all the birds. In this photograph, some of the birds are discernible, while the majority exist only as a large black wave in the background. This really exemplifies the shear magnitude of this flock of geese on the lake.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 40mm, f/7.1, 1/2000 sec.
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri