Noppadol Paothong's Blog

When my art director at the Missouri Department of Conservation asked me several years ago if I ever have a chance to photograph black bears in Missouri, please do so.  I told myself, “what a one-in-a million chance that would be”

Black bears had been considered a rare or extirpated species in Missouri in the past.  However, due to the reintroduction in Arkansas years ago, sightings of black bears have become quite regular especially around the Ozark area.

About a month ago I was informed of a family of black bears in the southwest Missouri area.  According to the landowner, a sow weights between 300-350 pounds and her three yearlings have been wondering around in his property in the past year.  I was excited about the news, but I wasn’t that optimistic, considering that I’ve never seen one in Missouri and considering how shy black bears usually are.

I set up my photo blind in a place where the landowner spotted the bears often.  I’ve never photographed bears from a blind before (where there is nothing to block between the bear and me) – so it was quite frightening.

I could only imagine what would happen if the bear decided to “investigate” this plastic structure.

In short, for the following weeks I’ve spent much of my time photographing this bear family.

I have had few incidents that made me feel nervous.  For instance, one morning after feeding on a field of berry, the sow decided to come little too closer to my photo blind.

And of course, being a photographer, I was just focusing on capturing her images until I realized that her face was starting to fill my viewfinder.  You can imagine how frighting that moment must have been.

I grabbed my pepper spray and was getting ready to pick up my tripod to defend myself.  Fortunately, she decided to stop walking towards me and turned back to the woods with her cubs.

I’ve never dreamed of photographing a black bear in Missouri, let alone spending weeks with a family of bear.  The sow definitely weighted 350 pounds or more.  Having photographed big bears in the west and Canada, I know a 300-350 pounds bear is considered quite big and healthy.

So, yes, we have black bears in Missouri.

How many?  No one knows for sure, but black bear sightings are increasing every year.  Missouri Dept. of Conservation is planning to study black bears and hope to have a real estimate number soon.

From left: Cannon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS, Cannon EF 500mm f/4 IS, Cannon EF 600mm f/4 IS, and Canon EF 800mm f/5.6 IS

When Canon announced a new flagship super telephoto, EF 800mm f/5.6 image stabilizer lens, I thought, “who would buy such a lens?”  With a price tag set at over $10,000, it seemed to me that Canon was just shooting themselves on the foot!

Canon has many wonderful telephoto lenses such as EF 500mm f/4 and EF 600mm f/4.  Both are known to work well with a 1.4x teleconverter.  When attached a 1.4x teleconverter, a 600mm f/4 becomes a 840mm f/5.6.  So to me it seemed that Canon 800mm lens was unnecessary.

Well, not so, and here are some of the reasons.

Mid summer I had a chance to evaluate this new super telephoto lens.  My first impression was the weight!  I had expected the lens to weight as much as my 600mm f/4, but it wasn’t.  The lens weights about 10 pounds, which is between my 500mm f/4 and 600mm f/4.  With the lens hood attached, this lens is actually shorter than a 600mm f/4.  It also has more curves and is slimmer than any Canon lenses.

I also love the new focusing ring.  It is wider and easy to operate.  Image stabilizer is also improved by 4 stops compared to 2 stops on other super telephoto lenses.  This comes in handy many times especially when 1.4x or 2x teleconverter is used with this lens.

While both Canon 500mm and 600mm lens are very sharp and produce a good result, this new Canon EF 800mm lens is scarily sharp!  It is by far the sharpest telephoto lens I’ve ever used.

The lens arrived in time for me to test it with a Painted Bunting that I had been photographing in the past few months.  Even with 1.4x teleconverter attached, the images were a lot sharper than 600mm lens.  The lens also did very well with 2x, but the camera viewfinder became so dim that made it harder to focus.

Ozark Mountain

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.

My dogs, Jasper & Lulu

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.

Photographer in action

And the final result…

Purple Poppy Mallow

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 found this friendly (?) Roadrunner nearby Springfield, Missouri.

I set up a photo blind and spent hours inside the blind observing him and photographing.

It was amazing to watch him do a mating display and catch a prey right in front of me.

He got so used to my presence that he even poked his head inside of my blind to investigate me.

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.

After staying up 2 nights in a row, I was finally able to photograph a Monarch butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.