Ever since I have seen panorama images taken by Thomas D. Mangelsen (http://www.mangelsen.com) and recently his new book, “The Natural World,” I’ve always wanted to create such images. Spectacular landscape and unusual long and narrow angle of panoramas are quite attractive and challenging at the same time.
In the past, most panoramas were done with a very limited and expensive camera equipment; namely the Fuji 6×17 – a large panorama camera that uses 6 x 17 film. This wasn’t practical since I had to purchase a different camera system than what I already owned.
Ozark Scenic Riverways
For years there has been much development in photo editing software, which allows merging images together into a panorama. Especially now, a combination of large megapixel camera and easy-to-use editing software, such as Lightroom and Photoshop, have made it possible to create panorama images that are rival or even surpass what a 6×17 film format camera takes.
So these days, I’ve been spending a lot of time scouting good places for panorama, looking for good angles, and testing out my equipment and editing software.
This spring/summer has been one of the busiest time in my career. Between my hectic traveling schedule and photo shooting, I rarely had my own fun time (well, don’t get me wrong – I do enjoy what I do). And before I know it, my summer is almost gone.
Beside my regular nature subjects, my favorite subject to photograph is my two Golden Retrievers, Jasper and LuLu. But because of my busy schedule, it’s been some time since I took them on a road trip. They are water dogs, and there is no a better place than Current River in the heart of the Ozark.
Photographing my dogs and having fun doing that helped me realize one of my own beliefs about photography – when a photographer really cares about the subject, it shows, and That is what makes a great image. In this case, it was my dogs that I love and deeply care about.
Many times people search for the biggest and greatest things to photograph. However, we often fail to recognize that the great thing might be right in front of us.
I was informed by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist that there has been a large number of snakes found nearby a bluff at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in Puxico, Missouri.
Early morning we found and almost stepped on as many as 20 Cottonmouth on the bluff.
We made a calculated risk and approached them as close as possible, without being bitten by these deadly poisonous snakes. I’d like to thank John Hartleb for informing me and assisting me in this photo shoot.
I heard from my friend that a large number of Snow Geese were flocking in Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge in Mound City, Missouri.
I got up 3AM and headed to the Refuge. When I arrived, there were very few of Snow Geese.
However, later in the afternoon, a large number of Snow Geese flew back to the Refuge because of the snow storm in the northern states. According to a manager at the Refuge, there were as many as 1 million Snow Geese (I have no idea how he counts them.) The geese filled the entire pond, and the frozen ice started to sink because of their weight.
I spent 10 days photographing Bald Eagles along the Mississippi river.
When the temperature dropped to minus degree, Eagles became very active. My guess is that when the weather is that cold, fish are mush less active and make it easy to prey on.
In one morning, I saw as many as 600 Bald Eagles flying and catching fish in the river.
