Here it is. After two weeks of attempting to lean Dreamweaver better by watching 16 hours of training DVDs and doing battle with div tags and CSS I’ve finally published my new web site. It’s not the slickest site in the world, but I my first priority was to make it functional for the viewer and for me. I wanted a web site that was easy to update when I want to add new work. For better or worse here it is, check it out… www.camerongillie.com
I recently spent five days in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, one of my favorite places to shoot. It’s about as “middle of nowhere” as you can get. Unlike many other national parks if you stop on the road to shoot something for an hour maybe only a couple of other cars will come by, or none at all. So it is truly a temple to mother nature!
This area is also where Theodore Roosevelt gained much of his appreciation for the environment when he was a rancher along the Little Missouri River early in his life. Roosevelt is the man responsible for much of the preserved land we have in America today. There hasn’t been a president since him that had such a deep appreciation for the conservation of nature. So Theodore Roosevelt National Park is a special place in our nation’s history as well. It was fun to envision Roosevelt riding his horse along the Little Missouri River in the 1880′s on one of his many rides between Medora and his ranch farther down river. He would have no doubt ridden right by the Cottonwood Campground where I was camping on the banks of the same river. It probably looked pretty much the same to him then as it does to me today. That is the true magic of national parks, it’s like time machine looking back at America before we ever arrived here.
This year as I roamed around I focused a lot on the wild horses that are residents in the park. They are direct descendants of the horses used by the Plains Indians and the early cowboys of the west. Of course I came across some other things as well. Here are some of the better photos…
These two horses put on a nice display for me one afternoon while I was hiking. (I wish they would have done it in better light and not around noon, but I’ll take it) I was photographing two stallions grazing and then a mare came galloping full speed over a hill. She and one of the stallions spent a few minutes running around excitedly greeting each other. It made me a bit nervous standing out in the open with them running and jumping around. Wild horses don’t have the temperament of domesticated horses and can be dangerous. But they didn’t seem at all interested in me.
This is of course what grazing animals do most of the time, but this time at least there was some nice light.
I just can’t resist a few photos of the textures out in the badlands. The layers of soft stone formed from sand and volcanic ash are what give the badlands it’s signature eroded hills.
These are the two stallions that I was photographing before the mare came over the hill. (from the first photo in this post) When wild horses see you they usually head the other direction, or if you are lucky pay no attention, but these guys were very curious what I was doing and came in for a closer look.
This is one of my favorite photos from the trip. I wanted to get a prairie dog “barking” but got lucky with these guys doing a bark in unison for me. (which is more of a squeal than a bark if you ask me) There seems to be no rhyme or reason to when they decide to bark and it happens very fast so it’s harder than you would think to photograph. I spent a lot of time staring though the lens at prairie dogs to capture this.
This black stallion and mare spent a lot of time side by side one morning as I photographed a herd of about a dozen wild horses grazing. It was touching to see their affection for each other.
This isn’t the greatest photograph in the world, but I found this petrified tree fascinating. It’s still upright in the ground right where it was covered by volcanic ash millions of years ago. Now erosion has again brought this tree back into the sunlight. The badlands area was once a subtropical swamp when this cypress tree sprouted. (I’m not an expert in fossilized trees, but I’m assuming it is a cypress judging from it’s size and the fact that many of the petrified trees in the area are cypress trees) There are no signs or even footprints leading out to this tree about 100 yards off the park road. (There are no footprints of man, but plenty of bison hoof prints) It’s one of the reasons I love this park, it’s very untouched. Below is a photo of me next to the tree to show how big it is.
This bison was about 200 yards away from me while I was photographing the petrified tree and I couldn’t resist going over and seeing if he would cooperate for a photo. He seemed very content grazing on the grass and didn’t mind me coming in for a closeup. I maybe got closer to him than recommended, but he seemed more interested in fattening up for the coming winter than someone photographing him.
This wild horse was grazing on the lush grass in a stand of cottonwoods near the Little Missouri River and walked nicely into a shaft of late day light for me.
Another one of the endless texture photos to be had in the badlands.
This wild horse was part of large band of horses that usually stayed far off in the distance in the southeast corner of the park. The last morning they let me get a little closer for a nice sunrise shot.
I can’t pass up a close detail shot of a bison. This guy was right along the road one morning and gave me another chance to capture the dignity and power of these massive animals, this time from the safety of my pickup. I know it sounds kind of lame to photograph wildlife from your vehicle, but I have found that the pickup works nicely as a blind. The wildlife are used to the occasional vehicle and will pay much less attention to you in a car than if you were hiking. Besides, being 20 feet from a large bison is not a good idea on foot.
Come join me this winter in the Western Everglades for two days of photographing one of my favorite places on earth. February 28th and 29th we will be traveling to many of the same places that I photographed some of my best images. The group size is limited to 3 people so it will be very one on one personal attention. This trip is suited for anyone from a beginner to serious amateur and does not require any outdoors skills or experience at all, just a love of nature.
The first day starts out at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, one of the best places in the country to photograph wildlife. The 2 1/4 mile boardwalk winds through the largest untouched old growth cypress strand in the country where birds and other wildlife pay almost no attention to you as you wander the boardwalk.
Then it’s on to Everglades City to spend the evening at the Rod and Gun Club. The hotel built in 1922 is hands down the hotel with the most character and history in Southwest Florida. (Five U.S. Presidents as well as Mic Jagger, John Wayne and Ernest Hemingway are just some of the dignitaries who have visited the Rod and Gun Club) We’ll have dinner at the hotel’s dinning room and then spend some time looking at and discussing the photos from the day.
The second day we will head out to the 10,000 Islands National Wildlife Refuge to shoot at sunrise. The 1 mile trail extends into the Coastal Marshland of the 10,000 islands and offers an incredible opportunity to photograph wild birds on a peaceful uncrowded and easily accessible trail. From there we travel to the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk for another walk into a Cypress Strand. The end of the mile long boardwalk usually is home to a large resident alligator and there is also a pair of bald eagles which nest each year near the boardwalk.
The next stop is Ochopee for lunch at Jonie’s Blue Crab Cafe and of course you can’t drive through Ochopee without stopping for a quick photo in front of the smallest post office in America. Then we will stop into see Clyde Butcher’s Big Cypress Gallery and be humbled by his amazing large format black and white photography of the Everglades. The small pond next to the parking lot of the gallery is also one of the best places along the Tamiami Trail for some photography.
Then we’re off the Fakahatchee Stand (nicknamed the ‘Amazon of North America’) for our final adventure where we finally get our feet wet. (in February the water level is usually no more than knee deep) We’ll explore one of the overgrown logging roads from the 1940′s and walk a short distance into the heart of the central slough, a slow moving flow of water through the cypress foreste of the Fakahatchee strand. This is a wonderful opportunity for some amazing tropical landscape photos. Then back to the Rod and Gun Club where we’ll have dinner and take a look at the day’s photos again and have a few beers in the Rod and Gun Club’s lounge to celebrate the end to our Everglades Adventure.
Send me an email if you are interested in joining us!
I had the pleasure to visit the H.H. Bennett Studio in Wisconsin Dells recently. H.H. Bennett was one of the pioneering landscape photographers from the 19th century who helped elevate photography into a true art form. His camera equipment and darkroom were mostly handmade and he captured amazing images of the Wisconsin Dells. This plaque in part of the wonderful museum exhibit of his work, darkroom and studio that is still on main street in Wisconsin Dells where it has been for over a century.
The excerpt shown in the above photograph is from a letter he wrote in 1902 that really hit home for me and I’m sure will with any other professional photographer these days. History truly repeats itself.
It’s ironic that a professional photographer almost 110 years ago was lamenting the pressures from the newest technology of the day -The Kodak Brownie camera. Today of course it’s the digital camera. A phrase often exchanged in emails today between professional photographers is, “Everybody’s a photographer” and that same thought was being written in letters by the professionals of the early 20th century.
In a way it’s reassuring to me to read Bennett’s letter, photography as an art form survived the Kodak Brownie, so there is hope. The Bownie was a temporary setback for H.H. Bennett but his work is still being celebrated today over 100 years after his passing. I believe there will always be people out there who recognize the difference between an amateur’s photographs and professional’s body of work who has dedicated their lifetime to perfecting their craft.
Nobody would walk up to Eric Clapton and say, “Wow, what kind of guitar is that?” but the question “What kind of camera do you shoot with?” is asked of a photographer every day. It does get frustrating. There is something about the world of photography that leads people to believe it’s just an expensive camera that magically produces wonderful photographs. Maybe the photo magazines and the camera companies want you to believe that so you will run out and spend more money on camera gear? But I could go out and buy the same guitar that Eric Clapton owns and the noise I would make with it would not be music.
I had a conversation with an insightful gentleman who came into my booth at a recent art show that really raised my spirits after a long day of slow sales. He recited a great quote in reference to this obsession people have with cameras. “Two painters can converse for hours about art and never mention what kind of brushes they use.” He is certainly someone who understands that photography is not about the camera. He obviously is one of the people who sees the difference between an amateur’s photographs and a professional’s. So there is hope!
To learn more about the H.H. Bennett Studio be sure to visit their web site or the Wikipedia page on Bennett
A good friend of ours started a blog on “reinvention” and used me as one of her first subjects. She did a great job of capturing the trials and tribulations involved in my first few years attempting to become a nature photographer. It’s been fun but hasn’t been all peaches and cream either. I’ll let Rebecca’s words tell the rest of the story, Here’s her blog post… (the above photo is taken by Rebecca Schlei)
I’ve spent some time between shows camping at Collier Seminole State Park and found some great shots nearby in the Fakahatchee. It’s going to be hard to edit these down to just one or two to prints for art shows. Here are some from the first look through. I always try to avoid looking at the photos while I’m in the field, but I was pretty excited to see these. So there I was up late with my laptop editing on a picnic table in my campsite. I probably had the other campers wondering about this weird guy camping by himself looking at his laptop.
These snowy egrets are hunting by flying low over the water dragging their feet in the water to scare up some bait fish in front of them and scooping them out of the water in flight. They just kept putting on the show for me giving me lots of chances for photos. All in nice light. Thank you snowy egrets!
Some more from the 10,000 Islands Marsh Trail along the Tamiami Trail I shot this morning. This tri-colored heron put on a nice show for me while hunting for fish in the morning light.
This great blue heron picked a nice spot to pose for me in the Sweetwater Strand on Loop Road.
I swung in to see Rock Bakken while I was home in Hallock, MN this Christmas and got see this painting of an ibis inspired by one of my photos from Corkscrew Swamp Sactuary in Florida. I guess you could call Rock Hallock’s most well known artist, I’ve always loved his wildlife drawings and paintings so it was really cool to have him paint something from one of my photos! Nazan and I call our spare bedroom the “Rock Room” because it’s decorated with prints of Rock’s drawings. Now I we just need a painting!
I’ve been spending some time this fall exploring closer to home, something we often neglect to do. There are dozens of conservation parks in Madison that offer a walk in the woods right in the middle of Wisconsin’s second largest city. I walk through the 96-acre Owen Conservation Park almost every day on my way to have coffee and read the paper. A great morning ritual. It’s about a 1/4 mile from our house and we often see wild turkeys in the neighborhood and at night sometimes we hear coyotes howling. And we live about 5 miles from the state capital!
Here are a few photos that are contenders for me to print up for art shows…
I’ve been experimented with doing fall colors in black and white and actually like the black and whites better than the color photos. The yellow leaves on the maple leaves in the U.W. Arboretum made for some interesting shots. This stand of Maples is about a 1/4 mile from the West Beltline highway, a very peaceful place despite it’s close proximity to 6 lanes of traffic.
A very interesting looking plant growing in a meadow in the Arboretum.
One from Owen Conservancy, a short walk from our house.
This is from the same stand of Maples as the first photo, I love how the bright yellows come across in black and white. It almost looks like an infrared shot. They must have done a controlled burn here recently considering all these maple saplings growing at about the exact same height.
It was a bit chilly, even for North Dakota this last week, but I enjoyed 5 days of shooting in Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Western North Dakota. I arrived and set up my tent in a small snowstorm, but the weather slowly improved.
It’s one of my favorite national parks because nobody has every heard of it, therefore it’s never the least bit crowded. In fact, walk just a bit off the road and you are almost guaranteed complete solitude. T.R. National Park has very similar topography and wildlife to the more well known Badlands National Park in South Dakota so it’s a photographer’s paradise. Lots of textures and stark light.
I came back to this spot several times trying to get perfect light and clouds, I loved this formation, it looked like a movie set for an alien world in a Star Trek episode.
I can’t say I really got anything wonderful the morning after it snowed, It was my first morning out shooting and the snow only lasted a short time before the day warmed up a bit.
This is a petrified tree stump laying on it’s side along the Petrified Forest Trail on the West side of the park. I really loved this area, it was fascinating to imagine what this place looked like millions of years ago among these fossilized tree stumps. My only company was 3 buffalo that kept a close eye on me as I wondered around the hundreds of fossilized tree stumps littering the now arid Badlands.
The petrified forest is well worth the short hike from a gate on the west side of the park. Getting to the trailhead you drive outside of the park through cattle pastures dotted with oil wells. After spending days driving in the park alongside bison and the other wildlife, the drive outside the park is a reminder of what Theodore Roosevelt National Park would look like if the park was not set aside. It’s sad to think that the entire middle of our country had bison roaming just 150 years ago and such a small portion of our natural history was preserved. But thankfully to people like President Theodore Roosevelt, some of it was.
Bison can be very unpredictable and ornery and although I’ve never seen one doing anything aggressive, I don’t want to put that to the test. Maybe I’m being too honest here, but I have to admit I shot this from the window of my pickup. I know it sounds lame to sit in your car and take wildlife photos but I actually did it more and more as the week went on. The bison are used to cars passing by, slowing down and stopping, but as soon as you get out of the car they get more skittish about you being there. So by staying in the car it creates less stress on the animals, actually allows for good photos and keeps me from becoming tomorrow’s tragic headline. This bison was grazing near the road and I just sat and waited, and sure enough he came 20 feet from the car.
I did a lot of photos like this one, trying to find the perfect textures and formation to photograph an abstract detail like this of the eroding landscape. The funniest thing was every time a person passed by in a car they would stop and stare, wondering what I was photographing. I think they suspected I must see a bison or antelope they don’t. After a minute looking puzzled they would drive on.
I’m a major sucker for anything with 4 legs and fur, so of course I kept the long lens sitting next to me on the pickup seat at all times as I drove through the park. (Call me lazy, but I don’t carry the 300 when I’m hiking) I’m not sure any of these photos will wind up printed for art shows, but I thought I’d share them.
There are wild horses that inhabit the park, Most of the time I only saw them from a long distance.
I have to confess one of my favorite critters in the Badlands are prairie dogs.
