Tim Laman

Photography & Exploration | Wildlife Photojournalist

Wildlife Diaries

The Wildlife Diaries newsletter is the best way to keep up to date with Tim Laman’s latest work and travels, and to learn about photography and natural history as well. Read through his recent posts here or sign up to receive the posts via email using the form on the right.

Wildlife Diaries

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Dear Friends,

I’d like to wish you all belated greetings for the New Year.  It’s been a rather rocky start here in the USA to say the least, but I’m optimistic that better times are ahead, and that by some time later this year, we will be able to resume international travel, gathering in groups, and many other things that we have had to put on hold in 2020.

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https://www.timlaman.com/wildlife-diaries/2021/01/3056/

Once In A Blue Moon

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Dear Friends,

I’m sure you have all heard the expression “Once in a Blue Moon”, but did you know that a blue moon refers to the second full moon that falls in one calendar month?  This is pretty rare, occurring only about once every 2.5 years, but we had one recently on Oct 30, and I happened to be in the right place to photograph it.  Not that a blue moon looks any different than any other full moon, but still, the novelty of it added an element of interest.  This second full moon of October coincided with our first snowfall here in Massachusetts, and while it was snowing in the evening and the moon was not visible on Oct 30, I went before sunrise the next morning to one of my local haunts, Walden Pond, planning to photograph the sunrise after the fresh snow.  When I got there, still well before sunrise, I saw the full moon setting over the pond and raced to get set up and get a few shots before it disappeared.  The pond had not yet frozen, so the water, being warmer than the air, was creating a beautiful mist over the lake.  Combined with the fresh snow and moon, it was a very atmospheric scene, and I felt very lucky to be there to witness it that morning and capture the image below.  You make your own luck, as they say, and that certainly applies in nature photography!

Blue Moon over Walden
The full moon setting over Walden Pond on the morning after our first snowfall of the season.  Concord, Massachusetts, Oct 31, 2020.
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Supporting Wild Orangutans of Gunung Palung

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This year has been a wild ride, but I’m still feeling thankful.  This thanksgiving holiday, I’ve decided that instead of focusing on Black Friday sales, I want to use the reach I have with my newsletter and social media to help raise awareness and support for Orangutan Conservation in Borneo.  So I hope you will take a moment to read on.

As those of you who have followed my work for a while know, documenting the lives of wild orangutans in partnership with my wife, researcher Cheryl Knott, has been a major part of my life’s work over that past 25 years.  Using the media I create to spread the word in National Geographic articles and films with NatGeo and the BBC has been a big part of what I do.  This is the first year that I have been unable to go to Borneo to continue this work.  Yet, we are fortunate that the non-profit group Cheryl founded, now run in Indonesia by an Indonesian team of over thirty people, have been able to persist throughout the pandemic in their conservation, education, and community support activities that all help to protect orangutans in Gunung Palung, one of the world’s most important remaining wild orangutan sanctuaries.

So I’m very thankful to them and for all their efforts, and I’m dedicating this newsletter and print-sale fundraiser to the Gunung Palung Orangutan Project!
Please scan below for ways you can help this important cause.

The Wild Ride
This image seems an appropriate metaphor for the wild ride we have all had this year.  I named this image “The Wild Ride” (way before the pandemic) because I find it quite amazing the way a baby orangutan, like this one-month old, needs to hold on all by herself while her mother travels high in the trees.  I especially like this image because it represents the primary rainforest of Borneo with giant trees, lianas, and truly wild orangutans living in their ideal habitat.  This is what we work to protect, so that intact populations of orangutans with all their cultural knowledge intact can persist for generations into the distant future.  

This photograph is available as a print along with other favorite orangutan images on sale now for my Giving Tuesday fundraiser (100% of profits will go to the Gunung Palung Orangutan Project, if you didn’t catch that already).
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Backyard Bird Inspiration

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Finding inspiration in nature, and sharing it with others, is part of everything I do.  This crazy Covid year has given me a chance to find some of that inspiration closer to home, and I wanted to share a little with you this week.  Like many of you I’m sure, I have had bird feeders in my back yard for years.  But I haven’t focused much effort on photographing the birds that frequent my yard.  When it snowed back in April though, and then again in late October in a freak early snowstorm here in Massachusetts, the peaceful, beautiful backdrop for these common birds really got me going on photographing them.  So please enjoy the images below. 
 
When you take time to pay attention and learn more about your backyard birds, you’ll find they’re pretty amazing, like I a few things I learned reading more about chickadees that I share below.

Backyard Beauties
Blue Jay on a Snowy Day.  Blue Jay feathers have structural color that reflect blue light, and almost seem to glow in certain even lighting like this.
Cardinal on Snow Covered Branches.  Although I’ve traveled the world seeking out exotic birds, I’m still stunned by the color of the cardinals!
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A Moment of Nature’s Beauty: The “Bird-of-Paradise Sunrise”

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Dear Friends,

To celebrate the launching of my Limited Editions prints, I’d like to share a behind the scenes video about how I made what is perhaps my most famous image, the Bird-of-Paradise Sunrise. 

This video from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, featuring my colleague Ed Scholes and me, tells the story behind this shot.

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Wildlife Diaries 15

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My large format LIMITED EDITION prints are now available for subscribers only.  Please email studio@timlaman.comto receive a private website link and have a look.  No obligation of course!

Dear Friends,
 
If you have never been to the rainforest of Southeast Asia, and heard the loud wing-beats of Rhinoceros Hornbills flying over the canopy, I highly recommend a journey after we get through this pandemic.  In the mean time, I thought I’d share my image and story with you below.

Rhinoceros Hornbill
On my very first day in the rain forest of Borneo, back in 1987, the first spectacular rain forest bird that I got a glimpse of was a Rhinoceros Hornbill.  I was on the ground, the bird was high in the canopy, and I could barely see it with my binoculars.  I remember thinking how some day I wanted to find a way to photograph this amazing bird up at its level.  Well, years past, I learned how to climb giant rain forest trees with ropes, and spent scores of days in the canopy.  My first article in National Geographic was about the rain forest canopy in Borneo, and featured a Rhinoceros Hornbill as the opening shot.  So I’ve had a special relationship with this bird for decades.  It is still one of my favorite birds to photograph, a true icon of the lowland forests Borneo and Southeast Asia.  I captured this moment in Thailand in 2018, from yet another blind hidden in the canopy of an adjacent tree overlooking a fig tree absolutely loaded with fruit.  This moment came when the hornbill stuck its head up through some branches, and was looking around for the ripest fig to pluck.
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