Art Wolfe was born in Seattle and is an internationally acclaimed photographer, taking photographs all over the world. He attained his Bachelor's degree in fine arts and art education at university. His photos are unique with their colour, composition and perspective... showing; he is a master of the subject, and the power of photography. He travels the globe shooting images of nature, culture and wildlife and his passion is to promote conservation and inspire people. He tries to artfully weave into his work the down sides of environmental issues, saying how he does not want to highlight the doom and gloom, but to bring attention to the beautiful things of the Earth and how we risk losing them. I like that positive throw on it.
He attributes his vocation to the fact that he grew up in the pacific Northwest amidst stunning landscapes of trees, mountains and water which led him to become an artist, then a photographer. His parents were also photographers so I am thinking it was in the blood.
Art became a member of the ASMP in 1990, a premier trade association for the world's most respected photographers. His award winning television series "Travels To The Edge", filmed in 2009, included visits to Patogonia, Madagascar, Alaska, Antartica and India. The locations were so diverse, every episode had a different pace and focus. Drawing from 35 years of international travel, he says whether he is working in television, writing a book, conducting seminars or holding field trip workshops, his overall focus remains the same "to engage, inspire and reveal a new vision of the world around us". He is passionate to help students in the field achieve their vision and one of his goals is to win support for conservation issues.
His television series was intended as a through the lens experience for people interested in travel, photography and nature. When asked his reasons for doing it, he said it was after 9/11, he simply wanted to inspire people to get out and see the world.
I found it difficult to choose just a few of his animal images, because there were lots I liked. Here are some:-
This looks very artful to me, a delicate moment and enchanting. Its a lovely image that appealed as soon as I saw it. I thought I would feature some of his animal images first. Again I am finding less colours looks more striking. I must learn from this for my own images. The sharpness of the birds hits me with this one, and is something else I need to improve on. I understand professional landscape photographers will always use a tripod, not sometimes like me, which makes a difference to the sharpness and clarity of the picture. Then I just need to learn all their other techniques. This is my year 1 and I note how the real professionals have worked for 10, 20-30 years mastering their art, so I have a long way to go. I don't fancy being on my stick by the time I get the good ones though, I would have more trouble with the tripod then. I like that he focussed on the birds here, leaving the water, sky and cloud less sharp and running into one. It must be shallow water, they look just perched on the top. The fragility of their legs, contrasting to the weight of their bodies brings about the delicateness, I feel, and they do look loving.
This image was a must for me to feature. Its just so cute. I want to fuss the bear and pick it up for a cuddle. What beautiful colours, so impressive of the bear itself, then you see the subtle pastel background, and I even love the tree branch. He must have felt europhic when he captured this one. I fancy the baby kuala is smiling too with those red lips. The clarity looks spot on to me, his eyes so clear, his fur stands out. I did hold one 9 years ago called Tonka (I must find those pictures) and still remember how good it felt. Nowadays you are not allowed to hold them aparently, due to health and safety. This picture is fantastic! I keep looking back at it, so it must be a favourite.
When Art Wolfe was taking photographs in Mexico, he sometimes used a Canon 5D in a Seacam housing (whatever that is) for a shoot, and when asked by ASMP what his most valuable piece of equipment was? he replied after his Canon EOS 1D mark III, his Gitzo 3540LS tripod.
From his skills and techniques, he said when photographing people he would spend about half of a day interacting before beginning to shoot. As for landscapes and wildlife, its about being in the right place at the right time, and he does his homework to ensure travel time is utilised to the full.
Another lovely clear image of a ' hare taking refuse in sparse ground cover'. I love that he caught it chewing on a large leaf. The colours and detail are stunning again and he looks to be looking directly at the camera, just like the kuala image. I wonder how he got the lighting so nicely?
With more colours comes more beauty. Being a cat lover I had to look at this, the most majestic of the big cats. I can't get over how good the colours are in all these images and I am so impressed by them. The animals are all striking, they stand out clearly against the pastel, beautiful backgrounds. I am thinking this must be to do with his fine art skills. I find such pictures compelling!
If I was to have a dog, the wolf type would appeal to me. The way this wolf blends into the background colour wise, for self protection, also makes a great picture. His catching of it between the 2 trunks of two tone greys of bark on the trees, match his two tone grey coat perfectly. Just a touch of tan here and there to highlight his face, sets the scene. Again looking directly at the camera, I get the feeling that these animals are posing and enjoying it. In reality they are probably keeping their eye on guard, which would also account for their fixed gaze.
What was Art Wolfe thinking as he photographed a wolf? What would I be thinking if I was photographing a Grundy? If there was such an animal....so I imagine he would be smiling, and guess he would like it too.
I love the blending of the colours, composition and the penguins here. I watched a documentary on penguins the other week and they seem such dear creatures I had to add this in my listings, and the fact that I think its a wonderful scene. There is warmth throughout, from the pink reflected water and background skies to that of the foreground penguins standing together. I like the way the whites of the penguin fronts stand out with the white of the snowy mountains and their reflections. Then on closer inspection you see the great mass of penguin colony beyond the water. The angle Wolfe took this image from uses the rule of thirds. It's brilliant!
taken by Art Wolfe
This was too grand not to feature. A dramatic photograph of animal colourings matching background colourings again and another use of the rule of thirds in his composition. I love the way the water matches the sky, showing colour casts, the way the elephant is a similar colour and I'm liking the water splashing up from his footwork and out from his trunk. For the sheer scale of capturing such a large animal with such detail I find inspiring. Here too Wolfe manages to mostly fill the frame with the elephant, , just as he has in the other animal images seen here. Brilliant!
My natural love of animals is where I connect with these Art Wolfe images. I have already blogged some of my animal images ( sheep, duck and cat), see previous. Here are some more:
Headless swan
shutter 0.5 aperture F10 iso 800
I like the contrast of the white headless swan to the look of blackness of water. Beneath the darkness, it appears that something has bitten its head off while ducking. Can you see an outline of the fiend with its eyes showing? Again this is just imagination, at least I feel sure the swan did raise its head eventually. This image is blurred towards its tail. My next shot was clearer:
I used the same camera settings (on aperture priority) for this second shot but it still came out clearer, proving I must have moved whilst taking the first one to cause more blur. I was not using a tripod at this stage either, so that could also account for it.
I took Headless Swan during college class, round the park grounds over the river Trent. My kit was a Canon Eos 5D mark II with an L series lens 24-105mm, with loaded battery and flashcard as before. My lens was zoomed out to its full, as I tried to capture the swan as close as I could to fill the frame (like Wolfe does in his images)
Moaning Mertle
shutter 1/2000 aperture f4.0 iso 800
This is a another example of where I am trying to fill the frame with Mertle, my cat, yawning... I had obviously taken too many of her. I have showed this image, though not in natural surroundings, she is a natural wonder and I am linking it in with my research of animal photography. It reminds me of the sort of image you might see on a comical card capturing her like this. She is pretty and very photogenic. I may be biased of course. I like the way the sunlight, coming from the back right, highlights her fur strands to the right and left of her head, tips of her ears and long whiskers. Her eyes sparkle and white shows in the base of that deep red tongue. I would have preferred a plainer background however. But to me she just stands out anyway.
I love the wolf and how it blends in with the trees.
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