Meet the Photographer: Stephen L. Tabone
Unhappy Bluebird by Stephen L. Tabone
This is an ongoing series where we introduce you to some of the photographers who contribute images and stories to AmericanWildBird.com. Stephen L Tabone was the first photographer to contribute images to AmericanWildBird.com. I have had the pleasure of going on several photo outings with Steve and have witnessed his dedication and skills in making images that show the beauty of nature.
Name: Stephen L. Tabone
E-mail: steve@stabone.com
Websites: www.stabone.com and blog: stevetaboneblog.com
Home City: Montclair, VA
Started Birding: 2003
Got serious about bird photography: 2005
Favorite Birding Site: Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, Gainesville, FL
Cameras: Nikon D700, D300, D80
Favorite Lens for Birds: Nikon 600mm VRII (rent it when needed), Nikon 80-400mm VR
Most Important Photography Accessory for Bird Photos: Gitzo Tripod
Best Advice to Beginning Bird Photographers: Find a good local site, and learn and practice at that location. Focus on one of the bird’s eye.
Services and /or Products Offered: Prints
You can see more of Stephen’s images at: http://americanwildbird.com/photographer.php?photographer=Steve and http://americanwildbird.com/stabone.html. Stephen has also contributed a great story about an exciting experience shooting Sandhill Cranes at: http://americanwildbird.com/sandhill_cranes_florida.html .
Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge
My wife and I purchased a truck camper in April and our first two trips were to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and the adjacent Assateague National Seashore. For those of you unfamiliar with Chincoteague, it is on the Delmarva Peninsula at the Maryland Virginia border. Audubon has named it as one of the top 10 birding sites in the country.
We were there the last weekend of April and again the first weekend of June. There were far more birds there in April including hundreds of Glossy Ibis feeding in the fresh water marshes. By June those marshes were almost dry and few birds could be found there. Unfortunately millions (billions?) of mosquitoes had taken their place. However, if you could deal with the insects you could see an eagle’s nest with two eaglets. We found the nest, but there was no activity while we were there. There is a video camera at the nest and the eagles can be observed at the visitor center.
Tom’s Cove is located at the ocean beach which is managed by the National Park Service as part of the Assateague National Seashore. During both visits there was plenty of bird action at the cove. Great Egrets, Tricolored Herons, Green Herons, Blue Herons, Willets, and many more species were present each time that we were there. This is easy birding too. The ocean breeze keeps the bugs away and the birds are just a few steps from where you park.
The video below is a collection of images that I used recently for a PechaKucha presentation. It will be a part of a story on Chincoteague for the AmericanWildBird.com website later this week. Do you have a favorite place for birding that you would like to tell us about?
A Deeper Frame
David Duchemin is a self described world & humanitarian photographer, best-selling author, and international workshop leader. His blog, Pixelatedimage, is widely read and he has had a great deal of influence on many professional and serious photographers. He wrote his twelfth and latest eBook, A Deeper Frame, while recovering from a fall of almost 30 feet while taking a photograph on top of a wall in Italy. It is his shortest book, but in some ways one of his best.
The subject of the book is creating depth in your images. As he says, this is not the kind of depth like “Whoa man, that’s deep,” but spatial depth – creating the feeling of third-dimensionality. We have all seen and hopefully created photographs, that although in two dimension, are able to draw the viewer into the image to explore the space that has been captured. David concisely discusses how this is done by the use of leading lines, optics, focus, color and with light. Using these tools and other concepts, he shows us how to engage the viewers so that they feel the emotion and look into the image, not just at the image.
To learn more about A Deeper Frame Click Here. Craft & Vision, the publisher, is offering this eBook for $4 until July 2, by using the code DEEP4. After that, the price is a very reasonable $5. There is also another special offered during the same time frame that gets you 20% off when you buy 5 of their eBooks. Use the code DEEP20 for that offer.
What Others Are Saying: June, Week 3
Every week we collect the blog posts and announcements that we think are worth passing on to you. Most will be concerning the business and craft of photography. We’re not spoilers, so you will have to click on the links to see the articles.
Photofocus has an a free e-book “for the entire photo community” titled “Vision” by Scott Bourne. It is a quick read made up of ten short essays with photos. Scott is a professional photographer with a great deal of experience in many areas of photography, especially nature Photography. (While on the site take a few minutes to watch his slide show video on eagles in Alaska.) His insights and observations are worth your time. Go go to the site for the free download.
Duckrabbit is a British multimedia organization that specializes in using photography to tell a story. Although often highly opinionated and off the wall at times, the Duckrabbitt blog frequently raises interesting issues and ideas. The current post ask the question: “Photography book v Tablet app?” Is there a new model for distributing fine art photography? CLICK HERE to see if this might be something you can use.
John Paul Caponigro gives his advice on What It Takes To Be A Great Workshop Leader. John as always has strong opinions on art and the business of art that is backed by a solid history of success. This is worthwhile reading for anyone contemplating offering workshops.
Also this week, one of our sponsors, Ian Plant, is introducing a video tutorial series titled Creative Digital Processing. Ian is a fantastic nature photographer who also has an outstanding understanding of the new photography business model. In this series of eight videos, he goes step-by-step through his digital workflow. Right now he is giving the first two videos away FREE and the remaining six are only $2.99! Check them out - I know you will learn some valuable tips.
Steve Tabone recently returned from a family vacation to Italy with thousands of beautiful images. Not bird photography, but a feast for the eyes; visit his blog and website as soon as you have a chance.
Finally, The Prince William Conservation Alliance has posted a video of a hummingbird feeding her young posted on their photo stream. It is pretty neat. CLICK HERE to view it.
That’s it for this week. If you find some interesting blog posts or announcements let me know and I will pass them on.
Meet the Photographer: Dennis Davenport
This is an ongoing series where we introduce you to some of the photographers who contribute images and stories to AmericanWildBird.com. Our very first photographer for you to meet is Dennis Davenport.
Contact Information: E-mail: grillguy50@comcast.net
Websites: http://dennisdavenportphotography.com/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/27986436@N07/
Home City: Portland, OR
Started Birding: Late 2006
Got serious about bird photography: Late 2006
Favorite Birding Sites: Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge in Ridgefield, WA and Tualatin River NWR in Sherwood, OR.
Cameras: Canon 7D and Canon 40D
Favorite Lens for Birds: Canon 400mm f5.6L lens and the Canon 100-400mm also very good
Most Important Photography Accessory for Bird Photos: Bean bag if shooting from vehicle; external flash for low light; a good photo editing program for post processing; and a tripod or monopod if walking
Best Advice to Beginning Bird Photographers: Reading books is nice but you won’t improve unless you get out and shoot. Get to know your camera and have the ability to change settings quickly. In post processing, don’t over-sharpen, and learn how to remove noise from your
images. When posting images to the web, resist the urge to post average-quality shots. Post only your best. Quality over quantity.
Dennis offers prints and also is a stock photographer.
You can see more of Dennis’ images at: http://americanwildbird.com/photographer.php?photographer=guitarman4
The Start of AmericanWildBird.Com
A new day.
In a way the road to the creation of AmericanWildBird.com started during my freshman year in college. I got my first camera, a Mamiya rangefinder, and began shooting old buildings, my friends goofing off, big rocks, and lots of pictures of cars. Although some of those photos have survived the more than four decades that have passed, they are better remembered than actually viewed.
A few years after college I took some classes from a National Geographic photo editor as well as a few workshops on wedding photography. By then I had bought an Olympus OM2 (which I still have) and a Mamiya M645 and started a part time photography business. I wanted to specialize in children’s natural portraits, but ended up doing a lot of weddings and other family events. It didn’t take long before I burned myself out. I had managed to take a hobby that I was passionate about and turn it into a mediocre business. I decided to end that business after eight years.
I still had the urge to run my own business, so after ten years at an aerospace corporation, I gave up my position to start a small construction company. I had pretty much put the cameras away and closed my darkroom during the corporate job years. However, I needed photos of completed projects and product photos for my new business, so I wiped the dust off the Olympus and started shooting again. In 1995, I started a website for my company and the need for photography really took off. It was at that time that I bought my first Nikon camera, an N70. A few years later I switched to digital and have owned a series of Nikon digitals since then.
As my business grew ,I started to have more time to shoot things that interested me in addition to the product photography. I had some success with landscape photography which is still a passion of mine. However a vacation to Sanibel Island where I discovered Ding Darling NWR really kicked my passion for bird photography up a few notches. I had thought that bird walks were the biggest misnomer of all time. Walk? Yeah, about ten feet and stare at the trees and then walk another ten feet and repeat. Not too exciting to me at the time.
But the trip to Ding Darling changed all of that. There were so many beautiful birds and many of them were in easy reach of my 300 mm lens. My wife and I went there every day of the week that we spent at Sanibel . All of a sudden the bird walks made sense and I started looking forward to them.
I still have a lot to learn. Part of my learning process is looking at what other people are doing (both good and bad and I have found a lot of both.) It seemed to me that there was no one place on the Internet that focused on really good bird photography other than individual photographer’s sites. That is why I created AmericanWildBird.com. It is intended to be a site that promotes quality bird photography and great bird photographers. It is not a site to learn about the habits, descriptions, or sounds of birds – there are many great sites out there that do a wonderful job at that. We concentrate on bird photography. You’ll see some photography tips, business information, birding location videos and stories, but mostly you will see great photos and the photographers who made them possible.
I hope that you will agree that this blog and the website add to your appreciation of wild birds and wild bird photography. If you are a wild bird photographer, please register at the site (http://americanwildbird.com/register.php) and submit some of your best shots. We are anxious to see them!
