State of the Art

"I'm not a screamer"

Some news stories beg a photograph for verification. Such is the case with the alligator that strolled into Sandra Frosti's kitchen in Oldsmar, Florida. Fortunately someone had the presence of mind to snap several pictures of it before it was removed (our favorite shot is at left).

"I was in my bedroom and I heard a noise. And I walked in and he was in the kitchen," Frosti told ABC News. "How about that? But I'm not a screamer, so I just went 'Oh my God' and I ran to the telephone."

After reading this, what I'd really like to see is a picture of the unflappable, 69-year-old Frosti. But all Google Image searches of her name lead back to photos of the interloping gator. However, Frosti's voice has been immortalized in a clip of her 911 call about the gator's intrusion that has become a big internet hit.

During the call, the dispatcher asks Frosti if the animal might be an iguana. “Oh-no, no, no, no, no,” Frosti answered matter-of-factly. "It's huge." And the photos bear her out.

But on a much sadder note in the Animals Gone Wild department, the grizzly bear that appeared in the Will Ferrell film "Semi-Pro" reportedly lashed out and killed one of his trainers yesterday. Of course, this story also begs a photo — one of the bear's publicity stills is at right. — Jack Crager

Is This Any Way To Treat An Iconic Image?

I saw this week's Time magazine cover while getting coffee at our local newsstand, and I must tell you, I felt odd about it. As a visual device, the idea of using Joe Rosenthal's famous World War II image of the flag raising at Iwo Jima as the basis for a cover about global warming...well, it seemed just over-labored. I can't quite bring myself to equate the bitter fight for Mount Suribachi with the effort to control climate change. I think for me it's an aesthetic thing, however, not an emotional one.  According to this report, some war veterans also object to the cover, on very emotional grounds. (I don't agree with the guy who says Time's editors are going to hell for this. I just don't like the cover.) Who's right? Should iconic images be off limits to other uses? --David Schonauer

Science as Art: Stereo View of Mars Moon

That super-camera on the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter has done it again. This time in 3-D, almost. What you see here is a stereo view of the Martian moon Phobos. The Orbiter is equipped with a camera what scientists call the HiRISE camera (it stands for High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) which is a ridiculously long name for a camera, no matter how good it is. But we’ll forgive them, because some scientist at the control has the soul of an artist.
   The HiRISE made two different snaps (scientists call them “observations”) of the Martian moon on March 23. The two images were made ten minutes apart and show roughly the same features, but from slightly different angles. They were then combined to made a stereo view.
    As my colleague Russell Hart points out, that’s essentially how stereo aerial images used to be made. But in this case we’re talking about vastly greater distances. Go here for more information, and to see a short video clip of both HiRISE observations.—David Schonauer

Nigel Barker Document's 2008's Seal Hunt

On America’s Next Top Model, photographer Nigel Barker faces the fiercest fashion that Tyra Banks can throw at him. But Barker came face to face with real ferocity recently when he went to Canada on behalf of the American Human Society  Humane Society of the United States to photograph (and videotape) the annual hunt for seals hunt (Yes, it’s springtime, when the days grow balmy, blossoms appear, and men with spiked clubs kill baby seals.) Recently I went to see him at his Manhattan studio to look at his pictures and video clips, which were made on two separate trips to Prince Edward Island—one prior to hunt (see video clip here) and one during the hunt itself. Barker’s blog has some pretty dramatic images and tales about the two shoots. I think it’s brilliant of the Humane Society to enlist someone from the fashion world—the seals are killed for their desirable fur—who at the same time can document the practice.
     The seal hunt got lots of negative publicity a decade or so ago, and a lot of people kind of assumed it was stopped. But according to National Geographic Canada’s “harvest limit” for 2008 was set at 275,000 harp seals, which is 5,000 more than in 2007. About 800 seals were killed on March 28.
      Back to Barker: I don’t think I’ll spill too many beans by revealing that we are working on a story about him, which will appear in our September/October issue. (The whole issue will be focused on fashion.) He’s even shot an entire fashion story exclusively for AP. Those pictures, however, I will keep to myself for now. From his work on America’s Next Top Model, Barker has become one of the best-known photographer’s in the world. He also produced VH1’s reality show about up-and-coming photographers, called The Shot. I think our article will show him to be fairly fierce in his own right.—David Schonauer

Every Grain of Sand

Photos © Dr. Gary Greenberg

"In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand."
– Bob Dylan

That couplet has long struck me as among the most heartfelt and poetic ones in Dylan's entire oeuvre. But I never thought it would make a great lead-in for a photo book report.

A bit of background: Recently I posted a Web story on a book called The Art of the Snowflake, by Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht. That book features mesmerizing images of snow crystals, a photographic subject rarely explored since Wilson Bentley's pioneering snowflake images back in the late 1800s. Seizing on one aspect of Libbrecht's project, I titled the piece "No Two Alike?"

"People make a lot more out of that saying than they ought to, you know," Libbrecht replied when asked if every snowflake was unique. "No two grains of sand are exactly alike either, but nobody really cares about that." Later, I joked with Libbrecht about the possibility of him doing a book on sand. "People have done this with sand," he said.

He's right. The day after the story was posted, I got a note from Libbrecht's publisher: "This spring, Voyageur Press will publish a new book that will do for sand what Ken Libbrecht’s photographs did for snow," wrote marketing rep Maurrie Salenger.  I just received the new title, A Grain of Sand: Nature’s Secret Wonder, by Dr. Gary Greenberg ($20, voyageurpress.com). And this book, too, is a revealing, iridescent study in microphotography and nature, drawing equally from science and art.

Friday Photos in the News

Flooding the Grand Canyon:
In an effort to mimic the natural floods that once gushed through the Grand Canyon, water was unleashed from Glen Canyon Dam this week. This attempt at rejuvenating the ecosystem of the Grand Canyon at the very least provided a wonderful photo op. Are you picking up on any symbolism in the Associated Press picture here? Or did I simply have too much coffee after lunch?

Obama, On the Record—and How!
The day after Hillary Clinton defeated Barack Obama in the Ohio and Texas primaries, the New York Times ran this image, by Win McNamee for Getty Images, showing Obama talking to reporters on his campaign plane. The Times unfortunately cropped out the best part, which is the reporter at right holding a bunch of cell phones or tape recorders or something. Gawker happily showed the entire image. What in the world is she doing?

Rare Helen Keller Photo Found
This week the New England Historic Genealogy Society released this photographic of an eight-year-old Helen Keller with her teacher, Anne Sullivan. The rare image also shows Keller holding a doll. The word “doll” was the first that Keller ever spoke. The image, made 120 years ago at Cape Cod, was found in a photo album by Thaxter Spencer, 87, whose mother was a close friend of Keller.  Go here for more of the story.

The English Earthquake
How do you depict the violence of an earthquake in a still photo? David Moir of Reuters shot scientists with the British Geological Survey scanning a seismograph readout of the U.K.’s strongest earthquake in more the 20 years. The quake registered a 5.3 on the Richter scale.--David Schonauer

Science As Art: The Earth, From Mars

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a gifted photographer. Below, see a photograph made on February 19, showing at least four avalanches (or debris falls) at the Martian North Pole.  The camera aboard the orbiting satellite is called the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiement—otherwise cutely known as HiRISE. (Scientist/Artists back here on Earth add colors to the images to make them more media friendly.) While the avalanche images are amazing, more breathtaking in my opinion is the shot that the HiRISE camera made of Earth and the Moon last October 3 (above). I don’t think I’ve ever seen our planet in this perspective. I want a big print!—David Schonauer

Giant Leap for Mankind (or, Why is This Man Jumping)?

Since it's Leap Day — that once-every-four-years phenomenon that lets people jokingly claim to age more slowly and stay newlyweds longer — we've been looking for the perfect photo event tied to this Gregorian intercalary anomaly. (We threw in that last $15 term in honor of the late Wlliam F. Buckley Jr.)

One cool contender is an homage to Philippe Halsman's Jump Book — including the classic shot of Richard Nixon at left — staged by Rich Janzaruk, photo editor of the Times-Mail in Bedford, Indiana, called "Leaping for Leap Day." Unfortunately, most of Janzaruk's shots of leaping local celebs are not posted online yet, but the story links to a great Owen Edwards piece recounting Halsman's original series published in 1959 (one of the most inspired leaps of imagination in modern portraiture, IOHO).

Then there is this Leap Day how-to article on adorama.com that tells you all about how to catch people in action (start with a cute and fearless model, as below).

Frans Lanting's Amazing Chimps--on TV and online

Nature photographer Frans Lanting is in the spotlight with a new project that has just been launched online at National Geographic’s website. The story, called “Almost Human,” is about an unusual group of chimpanzees in southeast Senegal who are making scientists redraw the boundaries between apes and humans.
    Lanting traveled to Senegal with filmmaker Chris Eckstrom, who shot video footage of the chimps. That video work will be included in a NOVA-National Geographic TV special called “Ape Genius,” which airs tonight at 8:00 pm on PBS. You can bet I’ll be watching. (Later I’ll be going out to try to take a decent picture of the full lunar eclipse on the east coast.)
    You can find an interview with Lanting (shown here with his  wife and partner Christine) about the chimp project by going here. As he notes, the Fongoli chimps—so named because of a stream in the area—have been observed sharpening sticks into spears, with which they kill bush babies for food. This tool-making behavior has stunned scientists. The area is not the dense forest in which chimps are usually observed; rather, it is a savanna-woodland, much like the open terrain in which humans evolved. It’s a fascinating piece.—David Schonauer

The Photo As Evidence: Truth in Whaling

This photo, credited to Reuters, shows a female minke whale and her calf being towed up the rear ramp of the Japanese whaling vessel Yushin Maru No. 2 in the southern Pacific Ocean. The image was among a group of images released on February 7 by Australia as part of an action challenging Japan’s whaling practices. Go here for details.
      I titled this post as I did because the image is certainly a kind of graphic evidence of the reality of modern whaling. The image suggests that whaling now is less of a hunt than a harvest. It’s certainly not like Moby Dick, with intrepid men in long boats being towed around by leviathans. Like 19th century whaling ships the Yushin Maru No. 2 is essential a whaling factory, just infinitely more efficient.
     I had briefly thought about titling the post “The Photo As Propaganda,” since its use as a handout was meant to stir public anger over whaling. I believe that would be unfair to the image and the power of the facts it contains. The picture speaks for itself, and viewers can draw their own conclusions. I have.—David Schonauer

A Wrap-Up on Photo News

I vowed to avoid work over the longish weekend and forbid myself from posting. But the news of photography and our modern culture piled up. Here is a short, slanted wrap-up:

LINDSAY LOHAN POSES AS MARILYN
I really wanted to say something about this when I saw the images in New York magazine yesterday, but wisely held back. This was a promotional ploy, and it worked—lots of publicity all over TV and the web. But photographically it caused me to wince, and I don’t wince easily. Bert Stern, who famously photographed the “last sitting” of the real Marilyn, took the new photos, but he did Lohan no favors. She looks like a transvestite in that blond wig. She also looks about 10 times more haggard than the real Marilyn did when Stern shot the originals—and that was only a few weeks before Marilyn committed suicide. Above all, the new photos remind us that Marilyn was simply transcendent in photographs. She made pictures better just by being in them. Sometimes photographers have to put their egos on the shelf and admit that it’s the person in the image that makes a picture great.

THE PRICE IS RIGHT: MICROSTOCK FOR $7
Photo District News reports on the on-going effort by microstock agencies to find the optimum price for royalty-free photographs. According to Adam Brotman, senior vice-president of SnapVillage, that price is $7. SnapVillage, owned by Corbis, lets photographers assign prices to their images, and, as Brotman notes, the average price paid for images is $7. The news could be worse, since SnapVillage allows such images to be prices at $1, $5, $10, $25, or $50.

BABY PHOTOS EARN BIG MONEY
But photographers probably don’t see much of it. AdAge.com reports that People magazine is prepared to pay Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony between $4 million and $6 million dollars for exclusive U.S. rights to the first photos of their expected twins. People also reported paid $1.5 million for the first pictures of Christina Aguilera’s new baby. The magazine was rumored to have paid $4 million for pictures of baby Shiloh Jolie-Pitt. According to AdAge, those images drove up sale 45 percent. However, the issue with the first shots of Britney Spears’s son Sean Preston saw a decline in sales of 15 percent. Anyway, being a good baby photographer might be a good business—better, at least, than microstock.

MONKEY PARENTING IS ALWAYS GOOD, PHOTOGRAPHICALLY
With all this otherwise negative news, I’ve got to end on something photographically worthwhile. Below you see one of pictures of the week from nationalgeographic.com. It shows Vale, a four-week-old titi monkey held by his father, Thiago, in London zoo’s new rainforest habitat. Beautifully framed, the photo was made by Peter Macdiarmid for Getty Images.--David Schonauer

Better Shoot Lake Mead Now

Nature photographers, travel photographers, fine-art photographers and tourists should plan on getting to Lake Mead in the next few years--that is, if they want to get any pictures with water in them. The lake behind Hoover Dam has been getting smaller and smaller for a while. (I saw it last summer, and it's shocking how low it is.) According to various studies, there is a 50-50 chance it will be completely dry by 2021, And there's a 1-in-10 chance that is will be dry by 2014. The cause of the big drain? Increased water us and climate change: There's not as much snow falling in the Rocky Mountains. --David Schonauer

The Art of Extreme Shutter Speeds

The history of photography is filled with innovators who came up with new ways of capturing movement. Eadweard Muybridge used a system of mechanical devices to capture a horse galloping in 1887. (Exposure time: 6 milliseconds.) Harold “Doc” Edgerton developed a way to have moving objects trigger strobes, as in his 1964 image of a bullet ripping through a playing card. (Exposure time: 1 microsecond.) Back in 1952 Edgerton used an even more exotic method to capture the early stages of a nuclear explosion. (Exposure time: 10 nanoseconds.)

 Now, scientists are using lasers to photograph events with shutter speeds measured in femtoseconds and attoseconds. How fast is that? I’m not a scientist, but I sometimes play one on this blog, so here’s the math: A millisecond is 10 to the minus 3^rd degree. A microsecond is 10 to the minus 6^th  degree. A nanosecond is 10 to the minus 9^th degree. A femtosecond is 10 to the minus 15^th degree. And an attosecond is 10 to the minus 18^th degree.

 That is about the time is takes light to cross a hydrogen atom. Or so it says here.

     Though scientifically interesting, these new images don’t seem to have the artistic merit of Muybridge’s or Edgerton’s. The photograph below was made in the 1980s shows aluminum melting at the atomic level. Boring. Edgerton knew how important a Jack of Diamonds could be to a photo.
--David Schonauer

Nature and Humanism at National Geographic

National Geographic’s annual photography seminar was pretty much a homerun, at least as I viewed it. The day-long program, which took place on Thursday at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., began by celebrating one of photography’s greatest names, then proceeded to some dazzling nature photography. Surprisingly, most of the program was devoted to humanistic themes. Is this a clue as to the future of Geographic?
      Leading off the day in a big way, National Geographic magazine director of photography David Griffin introduced a special guest, the famed photojournalist David Douglas Duncan, who, though nearly 92, flew in for the event from his home in the south of France. He was interviewed on stage at the seminar by Jean Francois Leroy, the director of the VISA Pour L’Image photojournalism festival in Perpignan, France.
     There is no underestimating the importance that Duncan held for this particular crowd of photographers. Photojournalist David Burnett summed it up when he said that Duncan’s book “This is War! A Photo Narrative of the Korean War” was the work that inspired him to become a photographer. On stage, Duncan’s memories came in lovely, meandering waves. Often a question would bring him to the edge of tears. “Change the subject,” he would then say. It was possible, in such instances, the catch a glimpse of the emotional soul that lies at the heart of great photography.
     On to natural history: Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen showed work from his recent series on leopard seals. He focused on pictures of one seal in particular, a 1,000-pound female (above). Though leopard seals are known for their aggressive behavior, this one, he said, seemed to take pity on him as “an inferior mammal” and brought him dead penguins to eat. (Go here to see the images on Nicklen’s website, and here to see the story in National Geographic.) You could call this nature with a humanistic backlight.
     After being named the recipient of National Geographic’s first Grant for Photography (worth $50,000), photographer Eugene Richards showed work from his project “War is Personal,” a multi-media piece on damaged American soldiers coming back from Iraq. The project has all the hallmarks of Richards’ work: it dwells fearlessly, relentlessly in a world of tragedy.
    Alec Soth, best known for his book “Sleeping by the Mississippi” and for his work in the New York Times magazine and other publications, gave a brief overview of his career, which started in the art world and then veered toward journalism.
    Louisiana-born Debbie Fleming Caffery, another photographer with roots in the art world, showed a group of post-Katrina images and work from her noted “Sugar Cane Harvest” series. Then came Larry Fink, who, as he himself noted, has been called “the world’s greatest party photographer.” Fink’s images of high-society soirees, distinguished by his off-camera flash and willingness to focus on legs and feet, are in fact not party pictures at all but ironic meditations of social class and identity.
     The show closed with the announcement (by photographer Michael K. Nichols) that his Look3 Festival of the Photograph would again take in Charlottesville, Virginia this June 14-14. This year’s festival will focus on the work of Mary Ellen Mark, Joel-Peter Witken, and James Nachtwey. Go here for information.

Nature Watch: Fireworks for the New Year

Lots of cities around the world greet the new year with pyrotechnics, by mother nature beat them all this year, as you can see in this image by photographer Jose Luis Saavreda for Reuters. The light show is provided by the LLaima volcano, one of Chile's biggest, during an eruption of Tuesday, January 1. Go to National Geographic for more on this. Speaking of National Geographic, I'll be heading there this coming Thursday to attend the society's annual photographic seminar. As usual, it should be an interesting look behind the scenes at nature and cultural photography. I'll be posting from there, so stay tuned..
--David Schonauer

Another Reason to Hate New York This Holiday

This time of year all of us who live in New York quietly bite our lips and try to push through the crowds of tourists who come to enjoy the holiday season with us. Here’s another reason the city sucks this week: The light here prevents us from seeing the night sky well, thus depriving us of a close encounter with the Mars. This week, the Earth’s orbit will bring it the closer to the red planet than it has for many years; the next best viewing won’t come again until 2016.
     All of you astro-photographers who celebrate the holidays in less populated areas may want to take advantage of this chance for some heavenly drive-by shooting, as it were. Mars will appear as a bright, yellowish-orange star just above the constellation Gemini.
      Scientists say that the orbital paths of Mars and Earth are bringing the planets a mere 55 million miles apart this week. In 2003 the planets came within 53 million miles apart—the closest they’d been since Neanderthals roamed our world.
--David Schonauer

Nature Watch: Venus, Beautiful and Bad

There are so many satellites taking pictures in space these days...somebody really needs to do a complete exhibition. Today's imagery comes from the Venus Express (finally, a satellite with a really compelling name), which was launched by the European Space Agency in 2005. Here is one of the satellite's photo's, showing the southern hemisphere of our "sister" planet. It's a beautiful looking place, but you don't want to go there--lightning storms, hurricane-force winds, giant cloud vortexes, and an average temperature of more than 800 degrees. And of course there's disturbing news: Scientists think Venus used to have watery oceans, but they probably boiled away due to runaway global warming. Enjoy the photo, at least.
--David Schonauer

Nature Watch: The Earth in High-Def

Yet another astonishing satellite picture has been released--but this one doesn't show distant galaxies. This heavenly body is, of course, our own planet, as captured in high-definition video footage by the Japanese Kaguya satellite. The satellite was launched in September and is orbiting to moon to study its origins and to search for possible future manned landing sites. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more of these images. This one is reminiscent of the famous "Earthrise" photograph made by astronauts aboard the Apollo 8 mission in 1968.
--David Schonauer

Exploding Comet You Can See--and Photograph

Amateur astro-photographers have a chance right now to see and photograph something very rare--an exploding comet. The comet 17P/Holmes is exploding, and its cloud of gas and dust, illuminated by the sun, is bigger than the planet Jupiter. Indeed, the comet is now visible to the naked eye in the northern sky in comet in the constellation Perseus. Without a telescope, it looks like a fuzzy star. The photos here are credited to Scott M. Lieberman/AP, and they were taken over the course of 48 hours, from October 27 (left) to October 29 (right). Scientists speculate that the comet is exploding because its honeycomb structure is exposing embedded ice to the sun. The ice is turning into a gas, causing the entire comet to burst. Go here for full story.  Maybe we should have a contest for the best photo of 17P/Holmes. Get out your telescopes.
--David Schonauer

You Will Not Believe What This is a Picture Of

This is an absolutely beautiful abstract photograph, which, along with other equally beautiful images you will find here. And what is it you're looking at? Neurons  from the auditory section of the brain stem of a mouse. So, is it art or science? Scientists introduced genes into mice that produced glowing proteins extracted from coral and jellyfish. As the mouse thinks the proteins spread out along neural pathways. Then the mouse pays the final full measure for art and is euthanized. It's brain is sliced into thin strips, which are photographed. If I owned a photo gallery in downtown Manhattan I'd be on the phone right now with the Harvard and MIT researchers who created these images, and I'd be asking for a limited edition of big prints. They'd sell like hotcakes.
--David Schonauer

Best Wildlife Photos of 2007 Announced

The  Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition has announced its 2007 winners, debuting the winning images at the Natural History Museum in London. The picture at top, which shows an elephant splattering itself with water in Botswana's Chobe National Park, was picked as the competition's "Best Overall" winner. It was made by British photographer Ben Osborne. For sheer drama, you can't beat the winner of the  "Animal Behavior" category--U.S. photographer Amos Nachoum's shot of a breaching great white shark in waters off South Africa. For more winners, go here.--David Schonauer

The Photo As Evidence: Wildfires from Space

I found these satellite images of California on Wired News. It's a different perspective on the wildfires than we see on television, showing how big this inferno is, and what firefighters are up against. Here you see a portion of California near San Diego and part of Baja California. The smoke trails are the white ones; the brown trails are actually sand being blown out to sea by the Santa Ana winds. The image was made on Monday by the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite.
--David Schonauer

Monday Space Report: 10 Years of Saturn Art

I won't make this space stuff an everyday thing, I promise. But today Wired news has a wonderful portfolio--I mean, just crazy good imagery--of Saturn. The story is about the 10th anniversary of the Cassini-Huygens mission. That little spacecraft has turned out to be one talented photographer. Now we can turn our eyes earthward and see what is happening locally in photography. Hey, tonight are the Lucie Awards in New York. Maybe I'll see some of you there.
--David Schonauer

Friday Space Report: Mars in High-Res

In the last week or so I've been seeing a lot of satellite photos from outer space labeled "high-res." Why this is only happening now, I don't know. But I ain't complaining. Here you see two high-res images of Mars, taken by NASA's HIRISE camera. The photo above looks like a high-altitude shot of Malibu, but it's actually a shot Mars's 96-mile wide Holden Crater. Below you see the blue dunes (blue dunes on the Red Planet--who knew?) in a region of northern Mars. This area is actually one of the places scientists are considering for a new Rover landing. --David Schonauer

Heavenly Art: The Hubble Blows My Mind, Again

It's never a bad idea to start the day by viewing an image that just makes your jaw drop. This image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released yesterday, shows the  NGC 3603 nebula--an area of the Milky Way that is home to some of the galaxy's biggest stars. (Does that make it the Hollywood of Heaven?) There's also lots of dust and gas (so maybe it's the New York of Heaven) that will eventually become stars.  At  any rate, this is some picture.--David Schonauer

The Photo As Evidence: Melting Ice and Missing Species

Apparently I was wrong to be concerned about the fate of polar bears. I posted about a report from scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, who said that melting Arctic ice could  wipe out two-thirds of the polar bear population in, like, 50 years. That post brought in snickers from several people who have reassured me that the big melt is all media hype. Phew...I'm relieved. And for all the people throwing ashtrays at Jim Balog for his work on the Extreme Ice Survey, well, again, I'm glad to know there is so much scientific evidence to show that global warming is a hoax.

Yes, I'm being sarcastic, which is an unattractive trait, so I apologize for that. But not for admiring the work that photographers like Balog and Gary Braasch are doing. I can show you science that says global warming is real, and you can call it propaganda. You can cite science that says global warming is a hoax, and I can say it's crap science. Balog and Braasch  provide visual evidence that glaciers are melting and that ocean levels are rising. You want to call it propaganda, go ahead. But don't ask me to disavow the photos because you heard on Fox that not all scientists believe in global warming. That reminds me of Groucho Marx's famous line: "Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?" With these images,  I'm going to go ahead and just believe my lying eyes. Oh, by the way, National Geographic has photos of "the most endangered species of 2007.
--David Schonauer

You'd Better Photograph Polar Bears Now...

Attention nature photographers: If you've been thinking about getting some snaps of polar bears, we suggest you make your travel plans and get on it. According to wildlife biologists with the U.S. Geological Survey, most polar bears will disappear by 2050. To be precise, about two-thirds of the polar bear population will be lost by then, due to the melting of Arctic sea ice. Just thought you'd like to know. By the way, the photograph here was made by nature photographer Thomas Mangelsen and can be found on his website. Tom has one of the truly great collections of polar bear photos.
--David Schonauer

Nature Watch: Extreme Global Warming, Tonight

This evening, the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams is scheduled to air a feature on a unique photographic project called the Extreme Ice Survey. Organized by nature and adventure photographer James Balog, the EIS project used time-lapse and conventional photography to record how terrifyingly fast the planet's glaciers are melting. As Balog notes, photography will provide the irrefutable visual evidence of the results of global warming. And it will do it in a way that will affect people emotionally.

Balog's images of the retreating glaciers have already begun appearing in magazines, including National Geographic and in American Photo's September/October issue, "Assignment: Earth." Balog has a track-record of meaningful fine-art and documentary work, but his Extreme Ice Survey may be the most important work he's done yet.
--David Schonauer

Nature Watch: Sharpest Photos of Space Ever?

Here you see one of the landmark sites in outer space--the distant Cat's Eye Nebula, as photographed by the Hubble Space telescope (top) and by a ground-based camera at the Palomar Observatory in California. Scientists who took the Palomar image say it is the "sharpest" photo ever taken of space. Not everyone agrees with them--certainly not the scientists who run the Hubble telescope. Go here to read about the argument.
   As regular followers of this blog know, I love all this imagery. So this battle between telescopes is fascinating to me. The Palomar people say they achieved clarity by using a technique called "lucky imaging." (That sounds suspiciously like the way I take pictures, though my luck isn't so good.) With lucky imaging, you take a whole bunch of pictures and use a computer to combine the sharpest parts of each into a final image. It's kind of equivalent to high dynamic range imaging, except that the scientists are trying to get sharpness, not a wide tonal range. Now, let me be clear about something: I find  the Hubble shot to be far more pleasing, whether it's sharper or not.
--David Schonauer

Nature Watch: Lunar Eclipse from Down Under

We're always on the lookout for high-impact nature images, but I never thought I'd see one that captured a lunar eclipse. Such a phenomenon, when the moon passes through the Earth's  shadow, is  defined by darkness, which is a problem, photographically speaking. But here we have something special. This shot, by Tim Wimbourne for Reuters, shows a lunar eclipse as seen in Sydney, Australia on August 28. The moon appears red because some sunlight normally reflected off of it is bent and scattered as it passes through the earth's atmosphere--a sort of natural diffuser, if you will. The best part of a lunar eclipse: You can stare at the moon as long as you want. Don't howl, however.
--David Schonauer

Global Warming and Goose Bumps

I've been busy with some personal business for a couple of weeks, and somehow I missed this picture. The artist Spencer Tunick is at it again, posing nude volunteer models in public settings. I'm pretty bored with the whole Tunick shtick, but this idea I like. To protest global warming, Tunick had 600 people strip on a glacier in the French alps. (The project was done in conjunction with Greenpeace. This photo of the event was made by Pascal Lauener for Reuters.) I hope Tunick handed out a lot of sun block beforehand; the ozone layer isn't what is used to be, either.
--David Schonauer