Category Archives: Nature Photography

Nature’s fierce beauty emerges forcefully from the 2023 British Wildlife Photography Awards. Our Picture Editor Lucy Ford has the pick of the best shots, from a somnolent fox to a hungry buzzard, with words by Carla Passino.

Mid- air in a leaden Gloucestershire sky, a buzzard ambushes a barn owl, one talon viciously grabbing the smaller bird, the other making for its prey, a tiny vole.

In an urban wildflower patch, a vixen wakes up from her slumber covered in a fuzz of dandelion seed-heads.

In the Shetlands, a skua — wings spread, beak wide open — looks every inch the pirate on its cliff.

And in a London park, three ducklings snooze peacefully as the metropolis whirls busily around them.

British Nature, in all its charming, red-toothed glory, bursts from the pages of the British Wildlife Photography Awards 11, a book collating the best entries to the 2023 British Wildlife Photography Awards competition.

It is the first time the contest has taken place since covid and the judges had a hard time choosing the winners from more than 13,000 images, which they evaluated not only for skill, creativity and craft, but also, as director Will Nicholls explains, for upholding ‘strict values when it comes to the wellbeing of the subjects’.

The shots are a triumph of wide-eyed sharks, leaping bunnies, fuzzy owlets and seahorses so stern they’d put a headmistress to shame.

They run the gamut from the majestic — a lone stag silhouetted against snow-capped Highlands, a red kite, flying fierce and undeterred in heavy snow flurry — to the wondrous (an underwater picture of plankton reminiscent of the night sky) and the curious, such as an amphibian threesome in which two male toads try to hitch a lift on the same female or the great bustard that wanders, much like a bewitched tourist, around Stonehenge.

Some photographs issue a stark warning about the fragility of our habitats.

In a shot of great crested grebes courting, the first bird brings a present of pondweed, but the second proffers a piece of plastic, highlighting, as judge David Plummer puts it, ‘our own species’ flagrant disregard for the environment’.

Other pictures show wildlife reconquering urban areas — not least the overall winner, a portrait, by Charlie Page, of a proud fox that saunters with more than a soupçon of arrogance past the pylons of London’s Lee Valley Park.

The images capture moments of intimate beauty, too, sometimes tinged by comic relief: Otterly Relaxed, a dog otter relaxing on shore, hind feet up, nose in the air, is a reminder that Nature brings solace to us all.

‘British Wildlife Photography Awards 11’ is published by Graffeg (www.graffeg.com) at £30. See more about the awards at www.bwpawards.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

His biography sounds familiar. His actual name was Ernest Darling, though he was known more widely as Nature Man. He lived in Portland, where his father was a prominent physician. In the 1890s he went to California to attend Stanford, but dropped out due to ill health — he was scrawny and struggling. Traditional medicine — including his father’s ministrations — failed to work.

So, at 90 pounds of skin and bones, we went off to the Oregon woods. He shed his shoes and clothes — most of them anyway. He advocated eating only uncooked fruits and vegetables, nuts and berries. He shifted to warmer climes like California and wandered around near-naked there too. He became one of those Bay Area weirdos of which there have been so many. He met the famous author Jack London, who first saw him on the streets of San Francisco and later scampering in the hills outside Oakland.

“He was all sunburn,” London later wrote; “… he was a tawny man … all glowing and radiant with the sun. Another prophet, thought I, come up to town with a message that will save the world.”

And it’s true. Darling wanted a world in which people could be wild and natural, naked and healthy. In the late 19th century, gadding about barely clothed was enough to turn more than heads: It could get you arrested. So Darling decided to find more welcoming environs. In 1904 he tried Hawaii, but they were ready for him. The Hawaiian Star reprinted a San Francisco newspaper report about Darling, warning of his nakedness and strange lifestyle. In it, the 30-something young man tried to explain himself:

“I am not a religious crank, nor out to attract cheap attention to myself. I am an earnest student of good health and right conditions of living. I wish to discard clothing as rapidly as society becomes pure enough to stand it.”

After six months he learned that Hawaii wasn’t interested in what he was selling, which included near-nude pictures of himself. The sheriff charged him with obscenity and being a vagrant. So, facing jail time, he took a steamer for Tahiti.

He made himself at home in the French colony, where he lived on bananas, honey, oranges and pineapples and had a grass hut and a small farm to tend. A travel writer who visited the islands described his conversation as “socialistic; his ideas of men living like monkeys was interesting, if queer.”

It was here that Darling became more famous because his old acquaintance from California, Jack London, came sailing into Pape’ete in his boat the Snark, a stop on his tour of the South Pacific with his wife in a custom-built boat.

Darling greeted London in an outrigger flying the red flag of socialism — and London sympathized. Darling shared his theories about levitation (it was possible) and how he would not need to sleep at age 100 and would be able to live on air alone.

London moved on, and Darling eventually did too. Nature Man left Tahiti and traveled in Asia and the South Pacific. Despite his health regimen, there was one affliction he couldn’t outrun: In late 1918, the influenza pandemic swept Fiji. Fresh air, fruit and sunshine were no vaccine for the Spanish flu.

Nature put an end to Nature Man.

My favorite picture of my mother and me is a black-and-white snapshot taken by my father on his 35mm Argus rangefinder camera. It shows me at about the same age that my new granddaughter is now, still at the cute-and-pudgy stage.

In it, I’m clinging to a black rubber inner tube that my mom is holding steady. She’s in her sleek, one-piece bathing suit and wearing those 1950s-style sunglasses with the pointy rims. She’s smiling. I’m squinting into the sun as I seem to be in every photo my dad ever took of me. Still, that’s me in my natural habitat. Thanks, Mom.

Being in or on the water is as essential to my well-being as it is for Millie, my rescue retriever. Every afternoon, we head down to our community’s marina where there’s a little beach on Duval Creek near the mouth of the South River. I pop open the back hatch of the car and she leaps out and does her happy dance, bounding back and forth across the sand, then prancing atop the rocks on the jetty.

I whip out my genuine Louisville Slugger baseball bat and whack a tennis ball way out into the water. Millie plunges in and swims out to fetch it. As she gets back to shore, she drops the ball in the sand, shakes from head to tail, and casts a spray upon all humans who happen to be near. Then she picks the ball back up, deftly mouthing the clean part so as not to ingest too much sand, and performs another little jig before giving the ball back to me for another bang.

This goes on and on with no diminution of enthusiasm on the part of either of us.

I’m grateful to be living in a water privileged community. Not everybody has that benefit. One of my heroes, Mike Lofton, has been spearheading efforts to expand access to the waterfront on behalf of Anne Arundel County citizens for the past 40 years. He notes that only about 2 percent of the Chesapeake Bay’s 11,000-mile shoreline is accessible to the public.

I knew that Lofton would be part of the grand reopening of Beverly-Triton Nature Park last week, so Millie and I made an appearance to pay our respects. I was as pleased with what has been improved just as much as I was with what has been left alone. The mile or so of road leading down to the end of the Mayo Peninsula recently has been repaved, leaving room for a broad bike lane. The entrance to the park now has a gatehouse and the new parking lot has spaces for about 90 vehicles.

We parked and joined the crowd gathering around the new picnic pavilion dedicated to Rick Anthony, the former director of Anne Arundel County’s Department of Recreation and Parks. Anthony has moved on to another post in California but returned with his family to accept the honor along with a special citation from County Executive Steuart Pittman for his leadership in planning the park renovation.

Beverly Triton Nature Park was once part of two adjacent beach resorts restricted to whites only. One gate had a sign on it explicitly listing the races and nationalities that were not welcome. The owners closed the sites in 1968 when a court ruled that the resorts could no longer be segregated. In the 1980s, a plan to build more than 2,000 luxury units went bust after the developer couldn’t get the county to provide sewer service.

In 1985, under the leadership of then County Executive O. James Lighthizer and Council President Virginia Clagett, the county procured $3.2 million in Program Open Space funding to buy the property. This is a program managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, designed to provide funds to acquire outdoor recreation and open space areas for public use.

At the time, Lighthizer focused the county’s resources on developing Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis and he let Beverly Triton go fallow. It was open to the public a few years ago as a passive-use park with few amenities. Then, Rick Anthony worked with the surrounding community organizations to create a plan to upgrade the site to the status of a regional park on par with Quite Waters and Downs Park in Pasadena.

Construction began last year and the project is near completion with an investment of less than $5 million.

After the ceremony, Millie and I joined Pittman on a walk down to the beach. We passed the bathhouse that’s still under construction. It’s slated for completion in June. When we got to the beach, we met a young mother and her two little kids, who were playing in the sand. The mom told the county executive that the park has the kids’ seal of approval.

A whole fleet of kayakers who had come to attend the event were heading out between the jetties. One of the nicest amenities of the park is the canoe and kayak launch. You can drive your car down to the beach, offload your boat, then return your vehicle to the parking lot.

It was slick calm that day, as the watermen say. The sun glittered off of the flat surface of the bay. You can see across the mouth of the West River and, beyond that, the low tree line of the Eastern Shore. An osprey made a crash dive, but came up without a fish in its talons. When the wind blows, this is the ideal spot for kiteboarders.

Millie and I left the county executive and strolled down the mile or so of beach. Another osprey perched in a tree, giving Millie the evil eye. We had the beach all to ourselves, but when we scooted up the bank to walk on one of the trails, we happened to bump into Lofton and his wife, Sherrie. We strolled together for a short while. Beverly Triton Nature Park comprises 340 acres of oak and holly forest surrounding four large tidal ponds. There are five miles of trails, and, outside of new trail markers, they haven’t changed with the renovation.

This is a good thing, and so is having a park that provides county citizens with access to the water.

Lofton likes to quote the late outdoor writer Bill Burton, who noted that people protect and care for the things that they love, and you can’t fall in love with the Chesapeake Bay if you can’t see it, touch it, swim in it, fish in it or launch a boat on it.

“Access for all is essential if the Chesapeake is to be restored,” Lofton told the crowd at the opening ceremony.

1202 Triton Beach Road

Edgewater, MD 21037

Open daily from 7 a.m. to dusk.

There is no admission for now, but eventually there will be a $6/vehicle charge.

• During the summer months Beverly Triton Nature Park can reach capacity on weekends between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Plan smart and arrive early or later in the day. If the park is at capacity no more people will be allowed inside even if part of your party has already arrived. Plan to arrive together.
• Portable toilets are available on site for use until the permanent bathhouse opens in June.
• Drinking water is not available on site.
• Dogs are welcome on a leash.

Taking quality pictures used to be the domain of serious shutterbugs, but now many smartphones have cameras that are on par with the DSLR cameras used by the pros. The main difference is a lack of swappable lenses. Well, good news: There’s a great little gadget that lets you attach a telescope (!) to your phone to take photos of things from much, much farther away without losing any detail. Even better news: it’s currently $130 off. Say “cheese” and read on….

If you (or someone you know) is fond of bird- (or people-) watching, the Pankoo Monocular Telescope is a fantastic accessory. You can capture great pictures of all kinds of creatures without frightening them or tipping them off, not to mention without distorting the image with your phone’s zoom function. It will zoom in up to 12 times while maintaining a 6.5-inch field of view. Translation? You can snap pictures of animals and objects as far as 1,200 yards away.

The telescope comes with a high-quality phone holder and a tripod with adjustable angles and three length options. It’s easy to attach and detach your phone, and the tripod provides extra stability to ensure there is no blurring. How’s this for a fun hack? Pair it with a smartwatch to tap the picture button remotely for even better photos.

With Mother’s Day this weekend, this can make a great gift — but you’ll have to act fast if you want it to arrive on time!

“As an option to my binoculars and telescope, my Pankoo monocular telescope is convenient for its compact size and portability for travel, walks or other excursions when I want to view nature nature, sports, the skies, and other objects or events. It’s extremely handy and provides exceptional magnification that is crystal clear!” said one five-star reviewer.

“I bought this monocular telescope as a gift for my husband. He really likes it. It works great! It’s easy to adjust for the best focus and it gives you a good view. It appears to be well made and work as described,” said another. “I would recommend this telescope to bird watchers or anyone who just wants to see far away items.”

The reviews quoted above reflect the most recent versions at the time of publication.

If you have Amazon Prime, you’ll get free shipping, of course. Not yet a member? No problem. You can sign up for your free 30-day trial here. (And by the way, those without Prime still get free shipping on orders of $25 or more.)

Looking for more great Amazon tech deals? Check these out:

Headphones and earbuds

TVs

Tablets and tech

Originally published May 12, 2023 at 5:57 AM

© Rebekah Miramontes
Baylands Nature Preserve, Palo Alto, Calif.

PALO ALTO, CA — Rebekah Miramontes captured the serenity of the Baylands Nature Preserve in Palo Alto last Saturday, as clouds played with the sunlight.

Thank you for sharing your photo, Rebekah!

If you have an awesome photo of nature, breath-taking scenery, kids caught being kids, a pet doing something funny, or something unusual you happen to catch with your camera, we’d love to feature it on Patch.

We’re looking for high-resolution images that reflect the beauty and fun that is Northern California, and that show off your unique talents.

Email it to [email protected].

Also See:

The article Reflected Sunlight: Photo Of The Week appeared first on Palo Alto Patch.

© Teresa Schaefer

SAN DIEGO, CA — Patch reader Teresa Schaefer captured this photo of seals and sea lions. The picture was taken in November 2021 at the Cove in La Jolla.

Thanks for sharing!

If you have an awesome picture of nature, breathtaking scenery, kids caught being kids, a pet doing something funny or something unusual you happen to catch with your camera, we’d love to feature it on Patch.

We’re looking for high-resolution, horizontal images that reflect the beauty that is San Diego County, and that show off your unique talents.

Send your photos to [email protected]. Be sure to include photo credit information, when and where the shot was taken, and any other details about what was going on.

The article Lounging In La Jolla: Photo Of The Day appeared first on San Diego Patch.

TAMPA, FL — The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts has announced the winners of the 2023 International Photography Competition.

The competition, now in its 12th year, received 2,349 entries by 542 photographers from 52 countries, showcasing the diversity and creativity of contemporary photography.

The judges, a panel of internationally renowned photographers and art professionals, including, Jessica Jarl, Elena Paraskeva, Kurt Moser, Steven Benson, Martha Asencio-Rhine, Heejung Kim, Sara Canon, Hiromi Nakamura, Kristen Roles and Collier Brown, selected winners in eight categories: Abstract, Conceptual, Documentation/Photojournalism, Nature/Science/Animals, People/Portraits, Places/Landscape, Plane/Air Travel and Still Life.

The winners of the 2023 International Photography Competition are:

Best In Competition:

• Angelika Kollin, United States, Everyday Saint Lucy

Abstract Category:

• First Place: Julie Kenny, Australia, Crossing Paths
• Second Place: Alexej Sachov, Maldives, Oceans Blood – 1
• Third Place: Hilda Champion, United States, Nights in Manhattan

Conceptual Category:

• First Place: Katherine Dickson, United States, Destino
• Second Place: Julia Wimmerlin, Ukraine, Birth, from the Fresco series
• Third Place: Liz Long, United States, Human Nature

Documentation/Photojournalism Category:

• First Place: Alain Schroeder, Belgium, Dead_Goat_Polo
• Second Place: Mauro De Bettio, Italy, Venice of Africa
• Third Place: Rafael Fabres, Spain, Cafune66

Nature/Science/Animals Category:

• First Place: Helga Madajova, Slovakia, Connection
• Second Place: Julia Wimmerlin, Switzerland, Connection
• Third Place: Fenqiang Frank Liu, United States, Paradise

People/Portraits Category:

• First Place: Angelika Kollin, United States, Everyday Saint Lucy
• Second Place: Rebecca Moseman, United States, The Car Boys
• Third Place: Julia Wimmerlin, Switzerland, Layers and Meanings

Places/Landscape Category:

• First Place: Jason Au, China, Social Distancing
• Second Place: Hilda Champion, United States, Colorful Crab Cages
• Third Place: Stuart Chape, Australia, Tree of Life

Plane/Air Travel Category:

• First Place: Marcus Cederberg, Sweden, Moon from a Plane, 2022
• Second Place: Dwain A. Vaughns – II, United States, The Stall
• Third Place: Sucharith Somayajula, United States, Sunset Landing

Still Life Category:

• First Place: Verónica Garay, Chile, What Was My Grandmother’s Kitchen
• Second Place: André Boto, Portugal, Red Slices
• Third Place: Beth Galton, United States, Back Alley Abortion

© Provided by Patch

FMoPA

Angelika Kollin of the United States won Best in Competition and first place in portraits for “Everyday Saint Lucy.”

The winners will be featured in a special exhibition at the Tampa International Airport from June 19 to Aug. 15.

In addition to the exhibition, the winners will also receive prizes from the competition’s sponsors and have their work featured on the museum’s website and social media platforms.

“The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts is delighted to be able to provide a platform for sharing compelling visual works from around the world,” said Executive Curator Robin O’Dell. “How fitting that this year’s competition will be exhibited at the Tampa International Airport where travelers from around the globe will be able to enjoy them as well”

The 2023 International Photography Competition was sponsored by Blick Art Materials and TIA.

The article Global Photography Winners Announced By FL Photographic Arts Museum appeared first on Tampa Patch.

© Mary Salim
San Francisco skyline from San Mateo, Calif.

SAN MATEO, CA — Mary Salim took this glorious photo of the San Francisco skyline earlier this month, in between rain showers.

Thank you for sharing the photo!

If you have an awesome photo of nature, breath-taking scenery, kids caught being kids, a pet doing something funny, or something unusual you happen to catch with your camera, we’d love to feature it on Patch.

We’re looking for high-resolution images that reflect the beauty and fun that is Northern California, and that show off your unique talents.

Email it to [email protected].

Also See:

The article On A Clear Day: Photo Of The Week appeared first on San Mateo Patch.

CARLSBAD, CA — Patch reader and Carlsbad resident Barbara Tanksley captured this photo May 2 at Batiquitos Lagoon between southern Carlsbad and Encinitas.

Thanks for sharing!

If you have an awesome picture of nature, breathtaking scenery, kids caught being kids, a pet doing something funny or something unusual you happen to catch with your camera, we’d love to feature it on Patch.

We’re looking for high-resolution, horizontal images that reflect the beauty that is San Diego County, and that show off your unique talents.

Send your photos to [email protected]. Be sure to include photo credit information, when and where the shot was taken, and any other details about what was going on.