Dan Riskin's Blog, page 7

Bornean Orangutan

Bornean Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)

Danum Valley (Borneo), Malaysia (iNaturalist entry)

1/500 sec., f 5.3, ISO 2500

Once you get into wildlife reserves, like the one at Danum Valley, orangutans aren’t actually very hard to find in Borneo. They’re big and fairly loud as they move through the branches. Getting a clear shot of one, on the other hand, is a considerable challenge. I have about 90 photos of orangutans, but most are patches of hair behind leaves. This shot is my favourite, though. I got it on a hike we took where we, and the orangutan, crossed a stream toward the rising sun. That opened up the foliage a bit, and allowed me to get this clear, decently lit shot. The look on this ape’s face is exactly the same as the look we all had on our faces, while we were looking up at her.

It’s worth mentioning that orangutans in Borneo are in trouble, despite how much everyone loves them. About half of them have been killed in the last 16 years, and many of those deaths were well inside the reserves set aside for them. Perhaps more worryingly, though, is that the populations that remain are all pinched off from one another, making it difficult for the animals to avoid inbreeding.

Five hundred years ago, people estimate more than a million orangutans lived in Borneo. Now, only 100,000 or so remain.

Red Leaf Monkey

Red Leaf Monkey (Presbytis rubicunda)

Danum Valley (Borneo), Malaysia (iNaturalist entry)

1/500 sec., f 5.6, ISO 2500

I spent two weeks in Borneo, and this is the first of the photos from that trip.

I caught a glimpse of these while on a massive hike. They were hidden by trees, and despite lots of waiting for them to emerge from the foliage, all I could get were partial shots. Then the next day, a whole troop came and posed in front of the lodge where we stayed. That’s how I got this shot.

Osprey

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

Anna Maria Island, Florida

1/640 sec., f 8.0, ISO 400

This bird was a million miles away, and I was on a rocking boat without a tripod. I saw it come down from the sky and fired away as it took a fish and then came away with it. If I’d been closer I might have caught a decent pic, but instead of a great photo, I ended up with a nice one.

I’ll take it.

I think that’s a catfish.

Common Raccoon

Common Raccoon (Procyon lotor)

Toronto, Canada

1/1000 sec., f 6.3, ISO 1800

I don’t know if the “trash panda” moniker holds outside the GTA, but it’s a good one. I know they’re dirty. I know they destroy property. I know they can spread diseases like rabies and raccoon roundworm (Baylisascaris), but they’re just so damned charismatic.

This young one was chilling up a tree outside my house, posing like it was in a Sears portrait studio. Had to snap a shot or two.

Supermoon with International Space Station

Scarborough, Canada

1/1000 sec, f 6.3, ISO 400

This is the shot of a lifetime – taken from the Bluffs neighbourhood of Toronto at 10:12:17 PM on Dec 4, 2017. It was a “supermoon,” meaning the moon was a little closer to Earth than usual, and thus appeared slightly larger. As luck would have it, the ISS was going to line up perfectly that night, and I didn’t even have to stay up very late to see the transit happen.

I used a website called ISS Transit Finder to get the time and location for the transit. I headed out, put my camera on a tripod, set the shutter speed to something I hoped would freeze the image, and then held down the shutter button one second before the transit was supposed to happen. The ISS was invisible on approach (it was long after sunset), so I had to hope the website had the time exactly right.

It did.

My camera takes 10 shots per second in burst mode. Here they are, in sequence at actual speed. The transit lasted 0.87 seconds, so there are eight ISS shadows.

The ISS wasn’t directly overhead that night. Since the moon was in the Southeastern sky, the ISS had to be, too. Turns out it was over Whitney Point NY, 315 km (170 miles) away, at the moment the photo was taken. Whitney Point is a town I remember well because most drives out of Ithaca (where I lived for the four years of my PhD) pass through there. If I recall correctly, Whitney Point has a schoolyard with a tank in it.

As for the shape of of the shadow? Yes, it looks like a Tie-fighter, and yes, it looks like a Canadian flag, but what’s remarkable is that it really looks like the ISS. Compare my cropped photo with the 3D model available here.

 

I highly recommend you have a look at ISS Transit Finder to see if a transit is going to occur near you. As a warning, though, the website also lists transits of the sun, and you shouldn’t be trying to photograph or even look at those, unless you have the proper protection. Play it safe, and stick with lunar transits.

Timber Wolf

Timber Wolf (Canis lupus)

Toronto Zoo, Canada

1/250 sec., f 7.1, ISO 500

This was my first real experiment doing drastic things with the background in Lightroom. You can see the original here. I was surprised how well the program automatically dealt with the borders of the wolf (i.e. the jagged fur). It’s not perfect where the belly meets the rock, but I think the dark background really makes this photo pop.

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

Anna Maria Island FL, USA

1/1000 sec, f 6.3, ISO 500

I’d been lurking around the Leffis Key Reserve at sunrise, looking for wildlife, when I walked out onto a dock jetting Eastward into the water. From there, I looked back and saw this perfectly lit heron in ankle-deep water. Right on cue, it appeared to trip, then came up with this fish, skewered on its upper mandible. I fired away, but it soon turned away from me and the sun, and manipulated the fish into its mouth with its back to me. Once I got home, I found that I had gotten a few good shots before it turned, though. This is my favourite among them.

My rookie mistake in this photo was to be too zoomed in. I ended up cropping out the back of the bird’s head, which would have been nice to have included in the shot. I can’t complain, though. The fish and the bird are in focus, after all.

Northern Cardinal

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

Toronto, Canada (iNaturalist entry)

1/200 sec, f 5.6, ISO 2500

It’s an easy bird to take for granted where I live in Toronto. They’re everywhere. But since they don’t occur in Edmonton, where I grew up, cardinals still feel exotic to me. It was a dim, overcast morning in February when I took this shot down by the lake, and the original photo came out quite dark. But when I brought up the exposure in Lightroom, the bird lit up and the background blew out a bit, making a neat overall effect. Although I’m still annoyed with the stick blocking part of the body, I like the way the bird stands out from its colourless environment. Fine birds, those cardinals.

rebooting…

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