NANPA’s Board terms end on June 30, and new directors take office on July 1, which is also the date that presidents change. I had the privilege of working with Don Carter for a year as president, and on July 1, Don passed the gavel to Gordon Illg. To say that Gordon jumped in with both feet would be putting it mildly.
© Cathy Illg
There was a time when every photo my wife, Cathy, and I took had a purpose. We had a market in mind every time we pushed the shutter button, and we pursued subjects not because we were wildly crazy about them, but because of how likely they were to sell. Elk were a natural, exciting target, and they were only 90 minutes from home, but even back then the market was saturated with elk photos, so we rarely pointed a lens at them. We went years without taking a landscape image, no matter how beautiful the scene was unless it had a person in it because people shots sold better than straight scenics did. Each trip was analyzed. Did the resulting photos pay for not only gas, mileage, and lodging, but also for our time and effort? Consequently, we were able to do most of our photography within two hours of home. It’s a lot easier for the photos to pay for a short trip.
All of this week’s Weekly Wow! images can be seen in the slideshow on the NANPA homepage at nanpa.org.
Leaping Gentoo Penguin, Sea Lion Island, Falkland Islands. © Indranil Sircar
The following Showcase images have been selected to appear on the NANPA home page for the week beginning Monday, July 30, 2018 –
Nature photographers heading to Yellowstone National Park would have to be a little crazy not to think about the potential for photographing the park’s herds of bison and elk, the striking mountain vistas and waterfalls, and the extraordinary thermal features of geysers, fumaroles, and mudpots.
I’m no different. I especially love to photograph Yellowstone’s charismatic megafauna. In fact, my favorite is bison as they roam Lamar and Hayden Valleys. But I also seek out the little critters as well.
Of the 67 mammal species documented in the park, the majority are the smaller ones, including such personal favorites as golden-mantled and Uinta ground squirrels, least chipmunk and yellow-bellied marmot. But the one mammal I absolutely love to watch and photograph is the pika—undoubtedly the most charming and photogenic mammal in Yellowstone.
American pika, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. © Jim Clark
Moose cow and calf at Schwabacher Landing, Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, WY © Alton Marsh
Macro/Micro/All Other Wildlife Runner Up: This House is Mine-Showcase 2018. © Lee Friedman
© Kerrick James
This story was originally published in 2015. Good advice for today! DL
Like many of us, my love of photography began with the wild landscape. My early years were spent emulating icons like Ansel Adams, David Muench, and Eliot Porter. I followed the grand landscape dream all over the American West, and after years of chasing light and doing “pure” landscapes with no signs of humanity whatsoever, I began to feel a little boxed in, as if I was repeating my favorite lighting formulas everywhere I went, and missing something I could sense, but not see. Continue reading
Saguaro in Bloom, Saguaro National Park. © Peter Hawkins
