Yosemite and Putting Nature First

6FPS V1#2


Welcome to the new issue of 6FPS. As I write this, it's mid-May, it's been two months since the last newsletter, and if I was wondering where the time has gone last issue, imagine how I feel now. The reality is it's been an incredibly busy time, with work deadlines and the Spring Birdathon for Santa Clara Valley Audbon, where I chair the organizing committee.

On top of that, I got serious about finishing my online site re-design project, and now the main site and blog are swathed in a glorious new look and feel. it's no longer green! I talk about that in The Site Update is Complete!, but to give a sense of why it's been two months, I thought that re-design would take four weeks, so I expected it to take six. By the time In was done, it was a bit more than eleven, and no sign of Spinal Tap.

I also completely revamped my Smugmug site, which I've always wanted to be where I kept my portfolio quality images -- and yet it never felt like the images were presented as special, or with appropriate care. I think I've finally figured out how to do so, and I talk about the new design in Announcing my Smugmug Site Redesign. The TL;DR is that it's now organized around topic portfolios, or as David duChemin calls them, bodies of work, where I try to pull together images that show off a special place or thing in a special way.

I did one around Yosemite after my recent trip, and I've done a few others, including both Landscapes and Birds of Merced National Wildlife Refuge. I am going to try to build one on Sea Otters after this issue goes out to go with the collection I did on Elephant Seals (there's also a blog post about this collection you can read).

Overall, I am really happy with the result of these updatesand with having spent more time to do it well rather than cut corners I'd regret sooner rather than later. The end result is a much better platform for my images and allows me to do more with them. I also finally feel like my online image galleries are more than "here's 2000 images, you figure out which are the good ones", and that's been bothering me for a long time.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback about what works, and what doesn't. Please drop me an email or chat with me on twitter and let me know your reaction.

A Special Surprise for subscribers!

To make up a bit for the lateness of this issue, I've got a surprise for you.

I've been meaning to do this for myself for a while, and I finally went and created a new set of images to use as wallpaper backgrounds for my iMac. These are all in 16:9 aspect ratio sized to 2480x1440. These are only being offered to subscribers of 6FPS at this time. In a month or so, I'll release them to everyone, but I expect to build out new ones every couple of months (including, down the road, sizes for iPads and iPhones as well as Laptops), and they'll always be announced to list subscribers here first as an exclusive for a few weeks before anyone else can get them.

Find them here: Desktop Wallpapers. Enjoy!

On with the Show!

And with that, on with the show! And thank you for being part of this.

P.S.: Now that I've got the new designs in place for my online sites, I'll probably be doing a refresh of the newsletter design to fit in. Not sure when I'll get to it, but don't be surprised if this looks different in an issue or two.

This issue brought to you almost live, from a secret lair deep within a secret volcano in the bowels of Silicon Valley...

What's New?

Here is what I've written since the last issue:

  • The Brief: Yosemite Rediscovered

  • Yosemite Rediscovered: Cascade Creek

  • Cascade Creek: Take 2

  • Cascade Creek: Back to the Future

  • Yosemite Rediscovered: Fern Spring

  • Yosemite Rediscovered: Upper Yosemite Falls

  • Shoreline Lake Big Sit report: 54 Species!

  • SCVAS Photowalk, Palo Alto Baylands 3/23/2019

  • Palo Alto Baylands Big Sit report: 42 Species

  • Milestone!

  • What's in my Camera Bag (2019 Edition)

Photo: Yosemite National Park

Since the last issue, I took a short trip to Yosemite to spend a bit of time trying to do some landscape photography in non-epic locations. Here are two of my favorites, both slow shutter shots, the first is a black and white version of Cascade Creek, and the second is Fern Spring. I wrote up a few pieces about the trip and the images, and so you can find out more about these on the blog:

  • Cascade Creek

  • Fern Spring

The entire trip went under the code name Yosemite Rediscovered and I talked about my goals and intentions in a piece I wrote before I left. A big reason for this trip is that I've struggled a lot in my landscape work in recent years, turning out what I lovingly call crap. Part of that, I think, was expectation setting and coming to believe that it had to be truly epic, or don't bother. That, of course, pretty much guarantees failure, so I've been trying to rewire me thinking and do so by doing more work of the intimate style: longer telephoto images of details of scenes rather than super wide landscape vistas, and I've been liking the results. I've especially liked working more with the ND filters for slow shutter work, and I expect I'll do much more of that in the future.



Putting Nature First

One of the things I've talked about here and on my blog has been the need to be be careful about sensitive locations and the sharing of location data. It's also important that we treat these locations kindly ourselves.

Many of the places we love are being loved to death because there are simply too many people visiting them and not all of them think about the impact of their actions.

This is true not only of the general public, but of photographers. We all have stories of seeing photographers going into off-limits areas or doing stupid things in the name of "getting the shot". Hopefully those of you reading this aren't part of that group. If you are, it's more than time to consider changing your behavior.

I have long asked anyone who goes birding with me to follow the ABA Code of Birding Ethics, and if we're doing photography, the Audubon Guide to Ethical Bird Photography as well. It's my personal policy to try to follow them as carefully as I can, even if nobody is watching, because I'll know and I don't want to risk undue harm of those things I profess to love in the name of a life list tickbox or a special photo.

There's been growing chatter about the same kind of ethical statement for photographers, and recently, a group of photographers banded together and drafted one up. The result is the Nature First Alliance, and their Nature First Principles:

  1. Prioritize the well-being of nature over photography.

  2. Educate yourself about the places you photograph.

  3. Reflect on the possible impact of your actions.

  4. Use discretion if sharing locations.

  5. Know and follow rules and regulations.\

  6. Always follow Leave No Trace principles and strive to leave places better than you found them.

  7. Actively promote and educate others about these principles.

I have enthusiastically signed the pledge, and I encourage everyone to do so as well. We need to take better care of the natural places and things we care about, to make sure they will still exist to hand down to our next generations.

It's not just me asking you to do this. Some of the photographers I respect highly have either signed the pledge or were part of the creation of this alliance:

Please take the need to protect these special places seriously. The next time your tempted to climb over that safety fence to get a better angle -- don't. It puts you at risk, but it also puts the place you love at risk, too. That place is more important than any photograph, and we need to get serious about treating it like it is.

For Your Consideration

About 6FPS and Chuq

6FPS (Six Frames Per Second) is a newsletter of interesting things and commentary from Chuq Von Rospach (6fsp@chuqui.com).

Coming out about every two weeks, I will place in your inbox a few things I hope will inform and delight you. There is too much mediocre, forgettable stuff attacking your eyeballs every day you're online; this is my little way to help you cut through the noise to some interesting things you might otherwise not find.


See you in a couple of weeks


And with that, I'll see you in a couple of weeks with the next issue. I'd love feedback on this, what you like, what you want more of, what you want less of. And if you have something interesting you think I might want to talk about, please pass it along.

Until then, take care, and have fun.

Chuq

Copyright © 2019 Chuq Von Rospach, All rights reserved.