Book Recollection: The Wolf – Ghost Hunter

Well, last night ended up being one for the “Nearly Bit It” record book – which already has an eerie number of pages in it.  Remember that highly engineered bird feeder I made last year.. the one made out of PVC… ugh, here’s a refresher (link here).   Turns out there is a demon side to this contraption that didn’t occur to me until… well, LAST NIGHT when I almost lost an eye and somehow avoided a broken nose.   I’ll leave off the ghastly details, but I didn’t take into account how slippery the rain had made the crank system and didn’t bring the feeders (I was trying to fill) all the way down.  When I let go, the crank continued freely unwinding.  The interesting part of this was attached to the crank was a 1.5′ coated wire with a large metal latch hook on the end.  This mace like object was whipped directly into the bridge of my nose.  Now there are hits to the head and then there are WHITE LIGHT events.  This was of the latter and my third major one in my lifetime (martial arts, snowboarding and now -embarrassingly- a bird feeder).  Quite frankly I can’t believe it didn’t hit directly into my eye socket.  Half a centimeter and I’m celebrating Talk Like a Pirate day every day.

Speaking of eyes, how about those haunting eyes on the covers of today’s main topic?  Those are windows into a truly majestic animal.  I think this may be a record for me, three book recollections in the same month.  This recollection is about The Wolf: Ghost Hunter by Daniel Leboeuf with photography by Thomas Kitchin and Victoria Hurst.  To my surprise, this book was originally a French publication from 1995 that had an English translation published in 1996.  It is probably unfortunate that I had read Wolves (link here) earlier in the month.  As a result, the impression of this offering suffered some.  For starters, the front cover shot on this book is fantastic and the rest of Thomas and Victoria’s work was very good, but it was eclipsed by the photography of Monty Sloan in the other book.  I make that statement only in the comparative light seeing how all of them far exceed anything I have been able to produce on the wolf front.  The text seems to suffer some too and this is likely due to the translation process.  It just seemed to lack any depth and unlike Shaun’s work it really didn’t have a lot of new insights.  It did have some interesting European dates for wolf extinction and a tidbit on Jewish views on the wolf (so harsh, so very harsh).  If you are looking pick up a fairly quick read on wolves and enjoy some outstanding wildlife photography I’d have to recommend Shaun Ellis Wolves book over this one.  There were a few takeaways/confirmations from the book so feel free to hit the jump to see those.

Continue reading Book Recollection: The Wolf – Ghost Hunter

The Cute and the Pissed

My apologies, this post was suppose to go out yesterday – you know, the whole Valentine’s Day and the “Cute” theme.  Unfortunately, some unplanned issues came up that required me to spend extra time on the phone discussing  flight schedules from Florida.  For the record, I can’t believe the price of air travel these days.  So basically you get to be treated as public enemy #1  and have the pleasure of paying a premium for it. (To keep my spirits up during air travel I mentally replay Tracy Morgan’s SNL skit on profiling.)  Figured it would be prudent to get this post out while there was some free time.

This set of pictures  is from our Yellowstone vacation (assuming you were not surprised about that) but they were not actually taken at the park.  Instead, they were shot at a stop off on our way there and another one on our way back.  Need to make the most of the photo opportunities when you are heading out West.  Since the VDay theme doesn’t really apply anymore, let’s start with the “Pissed”.  Spearfish south Dakota is a favorite stopping point for us when we are heading to Yellowstone.  Beyond the cool name, this small little town has some gorgeous waterfalls in relatively easy walking distance from parking lots.  Linda’s nature photography specialty are the “silks” and she once again produced some very nice shots – guessing she will be putting these head to head with my wildlife shots during the competition season.  While she is off playing with the shutter speeds, I generally entertain myself by stalking the local wildlife.

Well, to be honest the word stalking is better served by “annoying the living crap out them” in this case.  Imagine the insane racket reserved for raccoons protecting it’s young packaged up in a large golden brown hamster with a long fuzzy tale.  Rather than simply state displeasure and carry on with the comfy life of a forest rat, this squirrel would come running at me (in full rant of course) and take up a defiant posture in the nearest tree.  10 seconds later it would scamper off into the trees only to repeat the cycle as I continued walking along a trail.  Thanks to confidence from earning 2nd degree black belts in multiple martial arts discipline I stood my ground against this upset furball.

Hit the jump to view the rest of the pictures… and commentary

Continue reading The Cute and the Pissed

Book Recollection: Lost in My Own Backyard

It’s all about the reading output this month!  Still kicking myself for a pretty poor performance on last year’s reading stack.  Normally I would be optimistic about going into the new year, but this holiday (and birthday) season brought some great additions to the stack. So, this year I’m being a little more conservative and hoping to get through at least one book a month and then crank through three or four during vacations.  That is actually a great lead into this book recollection post.  The recent trip out to Yellowstone has rekindled my fondness for all things Yellowstone.  I must give Amazon some credit here because they recommended Tim Cahill’s Lost in My Own Backyard based on all the related purchases I had over Christmas.  At some point it went on my Wish List and sure enough Linda came through for my birthday.

When the wrapping paper was removed I was first a little shocked (for reasons which will be explained below) but quickly turned to anticipation to getting some time to start in on it.  It definitely had the feel of Bill Bryson’s Walk in the Woods which I thoroughly enjoyed, but unlike the Appalachian Trail I am actually pretty familiar with our (and later learned the world’s) first National Park.  One excellent feature Tim provides is a map of Yellowstone printed on the hardbound front and back cover of the book.  Whenever he referenced an unfamiliar place it was a simple task to flip to the closest cover and look it up.  The concept of the book is various experiences and thoughts Tim has encountered during his numerous hikes in the park.  Tom Murphy was his companion on some of these adventures.   I am familiar with him being a well known Yellowstone Park photographer … double bonus!  Tim’s book is divided up into small chapters/topics perfect for reading before hitting the sack (as mentioned in a previous post, it is much easier when you do not have to carry plots and topics across multiple days – getting older means the mind is wandering more and more).  Based on his highly entertaining (and quite humorous) descriptions of sights and experiences on his back country jaunts I’m getting the bug to take some longer hikes the next time we get out there.   Of course, now I am much more likely to stop off and pick up a can of bear spray!  It would also be prudent if I could find a nurse to go with us (as Tim was lucky enough to do) in case something bad happens.  One thing for certain, I will not be publishing a book which describes how to get to or has the audacity to give names to the natural features that I discover- there is some serious angst directed toward the authors of a Yellowstone waterfalls book (which Linda owns and really likes).   I also now want to capture the moonbows (night rainbows) Tim experienced (and learned about from Tom Murphy) on one of his hikes.

In summary, I thought this was a great read and would recommend it to anyone that likes to spend time in the woods.  It is written in a very comfortable style and should bring a few smiles (if not all out laughs) during the course of the read.  Unfortunately, there was one downside I need to share.  Remember when I mentioned there was some initial shock at first sight.  The reason for that is … hit the jump to find out why along with my takeaways (what a tease)

Continue reading Book Recollection: Lost in My Own Backyard

Introducing the Geek Cave

I think I’ve finally reached a man cave pinnacle and figured I would share my dark side of geekdom.  In the early stages of planning our current home there was serious consideration and design time spent on our bonus room with the full intent to transform it into a theater room.  As a result, a lot of the power, audio wiring, cat6 and component mounts were all put in place as the walls were being constructed.  Once the house was completed, the next steps just involved hooking everything up the way I wanted it.  There has been a few iterations of the configuration as technology was upgraded and new offerings came out for gaming, but this is the current XBox360 layout.  Somewhat embarrassing, it should really be classified more as a Geek Cave (cut me some slack on the image, it took me all of about 2 minutes to crank it out in PaintShop Pro.

If you are having difficulty figuring it out (and I highly doubt that), my game of choice is Rock Band along with the new Rocksmith offering my friends gave me for Christmas.  Since the day I went over to Pakage’s to check out Guitar Hero I’ve been addicted to that type of music themed game and although originally focused on the guitar peripherals, I’ve since become enamored with the drums (for the record I’m running in the top 2% on the Xbox leaderboards for Pro Drums).  A downside to that migration is the atrophying of the plastic guitar skills – Pakage is pretty much our foundation on the guitar and Billy now anchors the vocals which are not depicted since he brings over his professional mic and modified receiver for that functionality.

Assuming a colorform-esq picture isn’t going to satisfy your graphic needs, hit the jump and I’ll take you through all the elements (complete with photos!)

Continue reading Introducing the Geek Cave

Book Recollection: Wolves

Time to get back at this blog thingy. I’ve been spending most of my open nights on Operation Aunnauld and I must say, it is coming along quite nicely. Check back around June and I will hopefully be about done with that endeavor. For now, back to task at hand and that task is getting those keys pressed. Today’s offering is a Book Recollection. For starters, I have a read a book or two on wolves… ummm okay, maybe more than one… well, actually I have read a LOT of books on wolves. I am pretty much to the point where I’m working on the reinforcement principle since there usually is not a lot of new material but I figure a nice base of wolf knowledge will eventually make it into long term memory. Besides, I enjoy looking at the perty pictures. Then along comes this book by Shaun Ellis called Wolves: Capturing the Natural Spirit of these Incredible Animals. Apologetically, I have to admit that I can’t remember where this came from but definitely a gift from someone (guessing my brother, Linda or maybe one of my nephews/nieces – in all cases thank you thank you). This book was originally published back in 2006, however this particular edition came out in 2011. Now every once in awhile I’ll read a new nugget of information that may be an interesting nuance to a common fact or a possibly even an advancement of a previous theory. Shaun on the other hand managed to provide a wealth of new knowledge. So much so, that I even began to wonder if he might be taking some liberties. His bio indicates a significant amount of time observing wild wolves and even tried to join a pack (the book really did not elaborate on how successful that was). He also partnered with the Nez Perce tribe to learn from them and gain their perspective of their revered spirit. Probably the biggest takeaway from the book is the concept of the Beta wolves in the social hierarchy. This is a first awareness of this level and quite intriguing. They are actually the largest wolves in the pack (even larger than the Alphas) and are the enforcers. They are even allowed choice cuts of the kill to keep their strength. Seems like this would pose a significant risk to the Alphas since that means they would be less intimidated. It may be the special treatment they receive that keeps them in line, but some further investigation is required. Shaun also made the connection to how you can tell the Alphas and why. I have always known that their muzzle coloring seem to be bolder than the rest of the pack but nothing really explained how that results since it would seem it is a birth trait and not something that happens because they take control of the pack – there is not a concept of per-ordained Alphas so that reasoning for the color difference doesn’t come into play. Turns out the Alphas actually have a much darker and continuous defined line on the center of their backs from their neck to the tip of their tail (Betas also have a dark like but is not continuous). Shaun makes an astute observation that this is a byproduct of the choice cuts they get from the kill… and since Betas also get some of the choice cuts they also have bolder lines. I can actually buy that and I find myself looking for that line in every wolf picture I come across these days. The discussion on Alphas instructing their pack on what to hunt through reference body parts and holding training runs to point out the dangers and set the approach was also fascinating. If you want a pretty fast but informative read, I recommend getting your hands on this book as soon as possible.

Additionally, if you like looking at wildlife pictures and especially wolves do not hesitate to pick this up – trust me, just buy it and you will not be disappointed. The photographer for this book is actually Monty Sloan who spend a lot of time photographing at Wolf Park near Battle Ground, Indiana. I doubt all of these images came from there based on the diversity of landscapes and number of different wolves photographed. My hats are off to Monty, one bang up job behind the shutter. Having had the opportunity to get my own shots out in Yellowstone (and clearly lacking in execution) quickly demonstrated just how hard it is to get decent shots of these majestic creatures. I was not familiar with Sloan’s work before reading this book, but without hesitation, he is now up there with Joel Sartore (link here), Scott Linstead (link here) and Moose Peterson in my favorite wildlife photographers category. His work is so good that I am actually tracking down one of the pictures in this book to purchase (pg 72 if you are curious).

Unfortunately, there is one downside to this particular book and probably no fault of the authors. Blame probably belongs to the publisher who chose to be a crap binding on the book. At first I was liking the softer (semi-stiff) binding since it gave it a field reference journal feel. That is until the binding rip off the back after a mere ten pages in. This is very disappointing since it is one of the few books I’d likely just grab off the coffee table to peruse during TV commercials. With the fragile state of the binding I am too scared to do that.

Hit the link to see a picture of the torn binding and view my takeaways.

Continue reading Book Recollection: Wolves

Book Recollection: What The Dog Saw

It’s time for another book review.  This one has been a long time coming and one I almost didn’t get through.  To this day, the only book I have started but not finished is Tommyknockers by Stephen King which managed to bore the crap out of me by about 50 pages in.  As another worthless tidbit, the only book I ever Cliffed in my academic career was Moby Dick because I had little interest in wasting my time reading about revenge on a sperm whale.  Summary, it takes a lot for me to actually give up on a book but halfway through this particular effort and I was beginning to regret picking it up at night.  This actually reads a little harsher that it really is meant to be, but it is somewhat amplified by the fact I have read many of Malcolm Gladwell’s book and for the most part, they have been good reads.  The last one fell below expectations (see Outliers), so I was hoping for a rebound of such with this latest offering.   What the Dog Saw is really a collection of articles written for the New Yorker over the last 10 years or so.  Collections like this are generally ideal for my nighttime reading since I can consume the topic and not have to carry thoughts or plots over to the next time I get a chance to pick it up.  There is one key point to that concept.. the topic needs to provide some return on time investment be it something that expands my knowledge, provides an interesting perspective on a known topic or at least keeps me entertained – take for example the similarly crafted book from AJ Jacobs (see Experiment).  Unfortunately, many of these articles fell outside this scope.  On the positive side, the discussion on investing significant money to improve the life of the homeless to reduce their drain on society was interesting as well as the discussion on interviewing concepts (a topic that has always interested me), the wolf cries that led up to tragic events and for some strange reason the story on ketchup dominance held my interest until the end.  These highlights were overshadowed, however, by the discussion of Cesar Milan and the completely worthless entry on plagiarism.  I’ve given Malcolm a good deal of my valuable time invested in reading his books.  I think I’ve come to a point where I’ll concentrate on other authors for awhile.

It’s good to get the first book of the year out of the way, but it was a sobering experience to head out to Walgreens on my birthday to purchase some reading glasses.  I am just thankful I went with LASIK to eliminate the need to invest in bifocals (shudder).   Here’s to a new year of reading!

Hit the jump to read my takeaways

Continue reading Book Recollection: What The Dog Saw

Rats, I’m Down a Post

I got a surprise this morning when I checked the blog. I thought I was actually ahead of the game but it turns out my post output is lagging a bit. For some reason I thought I was already at 5 which put me right where I wanted to be – knowing the topic for the final post was already determined. Not a huge problem, just means I had to dive back into the Yellowstone trip pictures, do a little post processing, upload to our Smugmug site and I’m all set. Well, except for the hard part of actually writing something.

Having uttered the word “rats” when I tallied the posts this morning, I thought it would be fitting to go with the proverbial “rat” of the prairie lands. Fortunate not to live in an area infested with these rodents, I can still relate to the feeling having to constantly battle moles. There are two major differences when it comes to Prairie Dogs, one negative and one positive. On the negative side their destructive capabilities far exceed our local moles. Now, on the positive side, they can be so darn cute! Contrast that with moles which have to be the most hideous creature ever to crawl this earth.

Case in point, look at this scared little creature.  Out there all alone in the wild wondering where it’s next meal will come from.  Living in a state of constant worry if some human is going to pick them off with a high powered rifle just for fun or some taloned demon was going to descend from the sky and whisk away their brothers or sisters.

It is obvious they are clever creatures (as, of course, all dogs are!).  Just look at this example of how they’ve adapted to their dangerous surroundings.

The distant and vacant gaze paired with the stiff joint walk – what predator in their right mind would even come close to touching a ZOMBIE!?! Umm, that would be NONE.  (It might want to roll in the remains of a wolf kill to take that disguise to the next level (although recommend, waiting until the wolves move on).  I should probably mention that these shots were actually taken at Custer State Park.  We took a drive through there on our way back from the Yellowstone National Park trip.

Hit the jump to read more about these playful creatures.

Continue reading Rats, I’m Down a Post

A Walking Frigidaire or ???

Against my best wishes, January continues to fly by.  It is already the middle of the month and I am behind on a number of tasks I set out for myself for 2012.  Part of that is due to finally initiating Project Aunnauld – this one is going to take awhile so don’t look for posts on that for a few months (at least).  In my spare cycles I’m still trying to make it through the Yellowstone shots so guess what?  Yep, another post.  Unlike some of the previous ones, this set is what I consider sub-par.  There are times when it is fulfilling to just be able to slap the mirror and say you captured the moment whether it is tack sharp or not… which is usually photography speak for “I blew it”.  This set is more of the former based on being closer to a miracle than a failure.  If you have spent time on this blog at all you should be aware we invested in a rather large glass we affectionately call The Beast thanks to it’s beefy structure.  It is hard to actually demonstrate the reach this zoom glass has without first experiencing it through the viewfinder.  This set might just help out in this area… let’s begin shall we?

So here is a shot of the mountainside at 80mm which is the low end of the zoom on our workhorse glass.

Are you seeing anything of interest in that shot.. maybe some large animal(s) out for a stroll?  Hint #1 – remember on the previous post where I mentioned that we spent the week scanning for butts in the horizon (link here)? well, that pretty much came into play here.

Still not seeing anything of interest?  Hint #2, I chose not to go with the Rule of Thirds to make it a little easier on you.

If you give up, hit the jump for a huge clue.

Continue reading A Walking Frigidaire or ???

(Not So) Bighorn Sheep

I’ve been hoofin it lately to get the pictures of Yellowstone’s big boys post processed and uploaded to the Smugmug galleries (link here).  This particular set posed a bit of a problem due to the noise that came from the high ISO they were shot at.  If I remember correctly, all but the last shot here was taken the first day we were in Yellowstone and has the distinction of being the second animal we encountered out there (and reason why it was selected as the second post of the large mammal series).  Giselle and David were with us that morning and they actually alerted us to the spot where we found this specimen.

They had a similar encounter on a previous outing out there.  As predicted, we found this particular one taking a stroll along the rocky slopes.  I was eager to try out the Beast but to be honest was still trying to get comfortable with it.  As a result I overcompensated with the ISO on a few of the shots to address a dreary (and cold) morning.  This left some extra post processing to get rid of the additional noise and draw out some extra clarity/sharpness.  Most importantly, it gave me a chance to get some practice shots off  before we entered the heart of Yellowstone.  These first two are definitely my favorites of the set since you can quickly distinguish the animal from the  background.

Hit the Jump to view the rest of the shots

Continue reading (Not So) Bighorn Sheep

It’s Not a Bird … Nor a Bear

As you are aware, there was a big push to get through the “Birds of Yellowstone” before the end of the year.  The reason for that is I wanted to get to the larger mammals inhabiting that incredible national park.  Rest assured, my camera wasn’t just pointed at our feathered friends (well, at least not ALLL the time).  Nope, we were constantly on the lookout for those animals we do not get to see much back here in Illinois.  Let’s start with those fleet of foot Pronghorns.  This is somewhat in tribute to being the first animal to greet us as we passed through the Yellowstone Arch.  Immediately off to the right, grazing in the fields, was a couple of Pronghorns pretty much oblivious to our presence.

The above shot is actually on of my favorites from the Yellowstone collection.  It was taken in full on Beast mode (400mm) letting us reach out and virtually touch them.  This is one of those poses that I affectionately call “The Predator’s View”.  For those people locked in the concrete world or worse, PETA members, the eye position gives away the disposition of the animal.  Forward eyes generally signify the predator (find a mirror) where the prey have eyes positioned on the sides to increase their field of vision.  It may be pointing towards a companion, but it definitely knows where we were.  Note, I was also pleased to get some glint in those big black eyes.

A close second in the favorites category is the shot below.  Once again you get a feel for it’s field of vision yet it was content enough to continue breakfast while we were busy snapping shots.  This lack of interest is probably due to being acclimated to the two legged creatures, although the fact that it can out run my ass without breaking a sweat probably gives it more confidence than your average turtle.   For the record, they can run at 30mph for 15 miles with a burst of up to 70mph.  According to Wikipedia, this makes it the fastest land mammal in the Western Hemisphere.

At first I thought the antler nubs above the eyes in the previous picture indicated it was a young male.  Not being an expert when it comes to non-feathered animals I did a little research.  Turns out that females actually have horns as well (up to 3″) where males tend to have larger ones (up to 6″ and then another 9″ during summer fall which it sheds in the winter).  The other distinguishing feature of males is a small black mane.  Based on that I will have to go with this being a male.

Hit the Jump to see the rest of the Pronghorn pictures

Continue reading It’s Not a Bird … Nor a Bear