"Best Exploration Film" winner at the New York Wild Film Festival
Our short Bird of Paradise film called "Paradise Found", shot by Tim Laman, Ed Scholes and Eric Liner, and produced/edited by Tom Swartwout won the category "Best Exploration Film". It was a real honor and thrill to attend the festival this past weekend in New York City at the famed Explorer's Club.
Here is the TRAILER for the festival, which gives you a great overview of the films we saw last Saturday. You'll see glimpse of Tim rappelling and birds of paradise performing in the reel.
Go to the festival WEBSITE to see the trailers for the individual films and learn more about the winning films.
Canon Gallery S Exhibit in Tokyo
Ever since I was a teenager growing up in Japan and visited the Canon photo galleries in Tokyo, I had a dream to one day have my own work featured there. Now I am happy to say that a selection of my best Bird-of-Paradise photographs are on exhibit at the Canon Gallery S in Canon S Tower in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It is a short walk from Shinagawa station, so if you are in Tokyo, please check it out. It includes a video I shot in 4K using Canon's amazing EOS-1D C camera recently in Australia, displayed on a huge 84 inch monitor, and also samples of stills taken from 4K video frames.
Birds Of Paradise Book In Japanese
Birds Of Paradise: Revealing The World's Most Extraordinary Birds has been translated into Japanese and is available for purchase. One great addition to the book is that in the Japanese edition, it contains QR codes that take you directly to videos of the birds. You can find it in bookstores in Japan, or order it from the Nat Geo Japan website. If you are in the US or elsewhere and are interested in purchasing a copy please contact us by email at office@timlaman.com.
BBC Wildlife Portfolio
BBC Wildlife magazine published Tim's Birds of Paradise images in their December issue. The 13 page portfolio includes 12 of Tim's best Birds of Paradise photographs.
Birds of Paradise in Outdoor Photographer
This months issue of Outdoor Photographer features a story on Tim's Birds of Paradise project. Writer Amy Gulick tells of Tim's 8 year journey culminating with the publication of "Birds of Paradise: Revealing the World's Most Extraordinary Birds". It features some of Tim's best Birds of Paradise photographs. You can view the article online at Outdoor Photographer's website: Birds of Paradise. If you live in the U.S., you still have a couple more days to order the book to receive it before Christmas. Purchase the Birds of Paradise book at Tim Laman's store.
N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences Host Birds of Paradise
The Birds of Paradise exhibit that deputed at National Geographic headquarters last year is now on display at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. You can visit the exhibit through March 23rd, 2014. Sarah Lindenfield Hall posed a nice review at WRAL.com
Birds-of-Paradise Presentation in Jakarta
I gave a presentation on Ed Scholes and my Birds-of-Paradise Project in Jakarta last week. Read about it in the Jakarta Post!
Jakarta Presentation
This week Tim will be presenting his Birds of Paradise talk at @america. This cutting edge cultural center is in Jakarta, Indonesia. From 7 - 9 pm, Tim will be at Pacific Place and it is open to all. If you are in the area, check it out!
Watch Tim's LOOK3 Birds-of-Paradise talk on LIVESTREAM
If you didn't happen to be at the LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph last month and would like to watch Tim Laman's multimedia presentation on his Birds of Paradise Project, you can do so here on LIVESTREAM...
Bird-of-Paradise Intro video hits 3 million views!
Our Bird-of-Paradise Project Intro video hit another milestone on YouTube today, passing 3,000,000 views! This video featuring the work of Ed Scholes and myself to document all the Birds-of-Paradise was put together by our talented colleagues at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology multimedia department. Thanks for the great work guys in making this so appealing to so many people!http://youtu.be/YTR21os8gTA
Birds-of-Paradise in the TREES Exhibit at LOOK3
It was a real thrill to see my Birds-of-Paradise images showcased on huge banners in the TREES exhibit at the LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph this past week.
Forty of my images were printed double sided on twenty large banners that now hang all along the beautiful outdoor pedestrian mall of historic downtown Charlottesville. The exhibit will be up until mid-July, so check it out if you are in the neighborhood.
I could not be more pleased with how well the printing was done and the exhibit hung. Thanks to the organizers of this fabulous event!
Featured in New York Times Lens Blog
My work on the Birds of Paradise is featured today in an interview and gallery on the New York Times Lens Blog.
This is one of the leading photojournalism blogs in the world, so it is an honor to be featured. Check it out.
Filming the Magnificent Riflebird Display
This is one of my favorite Bird-of-Paradise video sequences because the behavior and wing sounds are so amazing, and we captured it from two angles. The Magnificent Riflebird usually performs his display on a large horizontal vine. In 2009, Ed Scholes and I, with help from our local guide Zeth Wonggor, located the display vine you see here deep in the forest of the Bird's Head Peninsula region of West Papua, Indonesia. The male was visiting the vine fairly often, and calling a lot from this area. But he only performed his full display when a female came to watch him, which was very rarely. We had two blinds at this site, in order to film from two different angles, and we spent a ridiculous number of hours - Ed estimated he spents 80 hours, and I also spent a lot but was alternating between this blind and others for King and Lesser Birds-of-Paradise in the same area so my total was a bit less. That is a lot of time to sit in a dark hut being attacked by mosquitos, but to us, it was worth it because we succeeded in capturing this amazing display. And being able to see it from two angles just makes it so much richer.
One of the really fascinating aspects of this display is the sound the bird makes with its wings. This loud swishing sound made every time he shakes his wings we presume is made by the feathers somehow rubbing together, but the exact mechanism of how the this works is one of the biological mysteries of birds-of-paradise that remains to be solved.
Filmed entirely with Canon 5D Mark II cameras and Canon lenses 600 mm f4 and 200 mm f2.0. The audio which highlights the birds amazing wing sounds was recorded with a shotgun mike placed outside the blind below the display vine.
Capturing the Red Bird-of-Paradise Display
MY HIGHEST BLIND EVER YIELDS A CLASSIC PHOTO
"I distinctly remember one morning, seeing an incredible starry sky as I inched up the rope in the blackness. It was a surreal feeling, like I was climbing a rope into outer space."
It was in 2004, during the first year of my birds-of-paradise project. I was working on an assignment for Nat Geo, and the objective was not to photograph all the birds-of-paradise (that came later), but to capture some of the most iconic, most extraordinary, most beautiful species. In my estimation, the Red Bird-of-Paradise made that short list.
That’s easy to say, but the Red Bird-of-Paradise was definitely not one of the easiest birds-of-paradise to photograph. It only inhabits a handful of islands off the western tip of New Guinea, in the Indonesian region called the Raja Ampat Islands. We worked with the late Kris Tindege as our guide, however, which simplified the logistics considerably. All my collaborator Ed Scholes and I had to do was to fly half way around the world to Jakarta, then east, hopping islands across Indonesia, to meet Kris in the outpost town of Sorong. From there we travelled by boat to the island of Batanta, hired porters in a village, and hiked up into the mountains and set up a camp. Then we just had to find the birds.
While I concentrated on photographing the more readily accessed Wilson’s Bird-of-Paradise for several days (it displays near the ground), Kris and Ed scouted for the ideal display tree of the Red Bird-of-Paradise. Finally one day they came back to camp saying they had found a tree where males had actively displayed that morning. There was just one catch. It appeared to be the tallest tree in this whole area. I went to take a look at it and we watched the evening action at the tree. There was plenty of activity, and the location seemed very promising. But the tree climb was going to be a problem. In trying to keep my gear weight within reason, I had only brought my lightweight bow, and two rope sections that only totaled 70 meters in length. It wasn’t going to be enough to reach up and over a branch and back to the ground. I also knew my bow would only be able to launch an arrow carrying a fishing line to about 25 meters up. I was going to have to climb this tree in stages.
I was back the next morning after the birds had left. After a few tries, I got my arrow over one of the large branches that looked like it wasn’t even half way up the tree. It was a start. Pulling my climbing rope up and over, I then climbed the rope using ascenders and a harness, and hauled myself up onto the big branch when I got there. By tossing a throw bag (basically a beanbag on a cord) over ever higher branches, I pulled my rope higher and kept climbing it until I was getting up to the level where the birds had been displaying. As I rose above the crowns of the surrounding trees, an amazing view opened out over the rain forest of Batanta. In fact, I could see not only the forested slopes of Batanta stretching below me, but all the way down to the coast and across the strait to the neighboring island of Salawati. This narrow body of water was actually a major barrier for birds-of-paradise. On this side lived Red and Wilson’s Birds-of-Paradise. On the other side, Lesser, King, and Twelve-wired Birds-of-Paradise were found. The big difference is that Salawati Island was once part of mainland New Guinea and so it has the same birds species as the nearby mainland. However, Batanta has been separated by deep water for millions of years from New Guinea. Since Birds-of-Paradise never cross water gaps, even if they are only one kilometer wide, ancestral birds that got to Batanta at some point when it did bump against New Guinea have evolved into Red and Wilson’s – two very unique birds-of-paradise. After taking in this view, I kept climbing.
When attempting to photograph birds displaying in the canopy, what I usually do is to climb a tree adjacent to the one the birds are using, not the same one. But this tree was so much bigger than surrounding trees that this wasn’t an option. Instead, what I was going to try was to see if I could get up high enough in the opposite side of the tree crown from where the birds displayed. Fortunately as I got near, I saw that the branches on the part of the tree I was climbing looked healthy and were actually reaching up to about the same level as the dead branches on the other side that the birds used. I was starting to get into the upper reaches of the crown however, where the main branches were no bigger than my thigh, and I made sure to keep safety lines attached to lower points on the trunk. I finally found a place where I could make a seat by tying several poles across between two branches, and hang my camouflage material to make a simple blind. The distance to the branches where the birds were displaying, however, was borderline. In other words, I was worried about the blind spooking the birds from being a bit too close. So I decided that for the first morning, instead of climbing up there, I would get some insurance shots by mounting a camera, focusing it on the main display perch, and triggering it from the ground with a remote control. This would also give the birds a day to get used to the blind without my being in it. Before I headed down I tied my climbing rope off high in the tree, and dropped the end to the ground. Since I knew the length of the rope, when I got to the ground and measured how many meters were left, I discovered that my blind was exactly 50 meters (165 feet) above the ground. It was the highest blind I had ever constructed.
The next morning, I did get a few shots on my remote camera, but they were not satisfactory. But the good thing was, the birds accepted the blind and came to their regular perches that first morning. So for the next several days, I got into an early routine. Rising well before dawn, I hiked to the site and climbed my rope in the dark, hauling my camera and lenses in a pack dangling below me. I distinctly remember one morning, breaking out into the more open upper canopy and seeing an incredible starry sky as I inched up the rope in the blackness with my headlamp off. It was a surreal feeling, like I was climbing a rope into outer space.
The real excitement came though, once I got set up in the blind and it started to get light. One male Red Bird-of-Paradise in particular came repeatedly, as did some other males and females on occasion. The moment came when one male became excited by a nearby female and went to the broken off branch that appeared to be his prime display spot. He flipped upside down and hopped downwards along the branch while twisting back and forth. For just a moment, his tail wires fell into that perfect position framing his wings in the perfect heart shape – and I got the shot. I knew I had seen something special from a viewpoint perhaps never recorded before.
An amazing thing about this bird is that when he perches upright, the two flattened, wire-like tail feathers just hang down with a few twists in them. Only when he goes into his inverted position during display do you see how they work, framing and accentuating his body perfectly. I was lucky enough to capture that moment. There is always a bit of a feeling of luck when the elements come together to make a good wildlife photograph. But you don’t get a chance to experience that serendipity unless you make the effort to be there, in the right position, and ready!
One Million Views on YouTube!
People around the world seem to be captivated by Birds-of-Paradise! The five minute video introduction to Ed Scholes and my Birds-of-Paradise Project posted on YouTube on 10 October 2012 has reached 1,000,000 views today, 23 Jan 2013.
This video was produced by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Multimedia department's Eric Liner and John Bowman using video material shot by me, Ed Scholes, and Eric Liner. Eric and sound recordist Ian Fein, who also contributed to the video, accompanied us on one of our expeditions to New Guinea in 2009 to gather material for this video.
Why has this video captured the interest of so many? The birds are spectacular, and their behaviors otherworldly, but I think a big part of it is the story of exploration. I think it surprises people that in this day, there are still places on the planet that harbor such spectacular creatures as the birds-of-paradise that remain relatively unexplored. Ed Scholes and I were able to be the first to document all 39 species of this famous family of birds in the wild. If we are just documenting such a extraordinary group of birds for the first time, just imagine all the other little-know life forms out there in the wilds of New Guinea and elsewhere that remain to be documented and studied!
It is our sincere hope that the Birds-of-Paradise project will inspire others to keep exploring our planet. There is much to discover, document, and protect.
Snap Me!
On one of our first Bird-of-Paradise Project trips back in 2004, we were driving a rural road in the Western Highlands of New Guinea. Passing a small village, we noticed a huge gathering of people. There appeared to be a traditional ceremony going on. We stopped and saw that indeed, there was a ‘singsing’, or traditional dance in progress, with dancers wearing huge headdresses of bird-of-paradise feathers, faces and bodies painted, muscles rippling and carrying battle-axes. This was exactly what I wanted to photograph, since I was very interested in documenting the use of bird-of-paradise plumes in New Guinea culture. This was not a performance for tourists, but a real village ceremony where bird-of-paradise plumes still played an important role. As I approached the fringes of the crowd, I pulled my camera out of my shoulder bag. Just then, I noticed a man striding toward me from the right. He was a dancer who had finished performing. His face and torso were painted in bold patterns, and his headdress made him look even more imposing. As he moved toward me, he was shouting something I couldn’t understand, and at the same time he was pulling his stone axe out of his belt. I became a little concerned. I tried to signal my friendly intentions with a forced smile and started shoving my camera back into the bag thinking that perhaps the sight of my camera was what had offended him. Then I finally understood what he was saying. “Snap me! Snap me!” he was yelling. He wanted to pose for a picture (with his axe)! I obliged and received a friendly reception after that. We visited the village again the next day for the continuation of the ceremony, when I took the photo above of a group of dancers sporting a huge number of bird-of-paradise plumes.
The Story Behind a Dream Shot
This is one of my true "dream shots". I had imagined a shot like this with a bird-of-paradise in the foreground and a view out over the rain forest for years, but never found a place where I might be able to make it. Finally in the Aru Islands in 2010, I saw my opportunity. But the problem was getting the camera in the right place. I solved the problem by developing what I called the "leaf-cam", a camera well hidden in leaves, and controlled remotely.
Here is a short video that tells the story of how I set this up, and finally got the shot.
Recent Media Coverage of the Birds-of-Paradise Project
Over the past three months, a lot has been going on with my Birds-of-Paradise Project. Here is a collection of some of the main websites that have picked up the Birds-of-Paradise Story:
WIRED magazine: “Rare Glimpses of Amazing Birds-of-Paradise Courtship Rituals”
DISCOVER magazine: “Capturing the Courtship Rituals of Bizarre Birds-of-Paradise”
THE WASHINGTON POST: “Top 10 Museums of 2012”
THE BOSTON GLOBE: “A bird’s-eye view of nature’s flashiest showmen”
PETAPIXEL: “Gotta Catch ‘em all: Photog Spends Eight Years Capturing the 39 Birds of Paradise”
NPR - SCIENCE FRIDAY: “Birds Gone Wild”
HARVARD GAZETTE: “Glimpses of Paradise”
New Articles in National Geographic
Check out the two latest issues of National Geographic magazine for Tim's articles:
December 2012 features the Birds of Paradise story. See the story at National Geographic.
January 2013 is a Special Issue of National Geographic kicking off the 125th Anniversary of the Society and celebrating Exploration. Tim was part of a team of five photographers sent on assignment to Yasuni National Park in Ecuador to document the most species-rich place on the planet.
This issue of Nat Geo has a series of five covers on the front of the magazine. Tim's image above is featured as the "second" cover. See the story at National Geographic.
World Premier at the Banff Mountain Film Festival
Last weekend the Banff Mountain Film Festival premiered "Winged Seduction - The Birds Of Paradise". This National Geographic television film is a part of the Birds of Paradise project that goes along with the Birds of Paradise book, National Geographic Exhibit and article. Birds of Paradise Revealing The World's Most Extraordinary Birds is now available for purchase. You can purchase a signed copy of the Birds of Paradise book from Tim Laman's online store.