Happy New Year 2022!

Dear Friends,

For a little inspiration as 2022 begins, I’m sharing an image of a pair of Red-crowned Cranes performing a duet in a snowstorm.  In Japan, where I made this image, cranes are a symbol of happiness, good luck, and long life.  Despite the blizzard, this pair is thinking ahead to the spring nesting season, and calling together to reinforce their pair bond.  Looking beyond the storm to a brighter, hopeful future that we can reach through working together - these cranes seemed a fitting metaphor for getting through the tough times we are in right now and being positive about the future.

Red-crowned Crane pair in a snowstorm, Hokkaido, Japan Endangered Species (IUCN Red List: EN).A pair of Red-crowned Cranes perform a courtship duet during a snowstorm in Hokkaido, Japan.

I am exited about 2022 and all the things I have in the works.  Besides making plans to get back to shooting in some of my favorite places like Borneo, I am also hard at work on my new book of bird photography from all over the world titled “BIRD PLANET” that will be published later this year.  The images here are some of the selects being considered for my Japan chapter.  I had a great time reviewing my entire archive of bird photography in 2021, collecting my published favorites, but also finding unpublished gems that came to light during this deep dive into the archive.  If you happen to be a fan of birds and bird photography, I think you’ll enjoy the images and stories behind them that I plan to share throughout the year ahead in this newsletter and on my social channels.

Morning mist and frost on the trees surround the roosting Red-crowned Cranes waking at sunrise.  Setsuri River, Hokkaido, Japan.

Roosting Red-crown Cranes begin to stir as the sun hits them on a very cold morning on the Setsuri River, Hokkaido, Japan (A detail of the above scene with a 1200 mm lens). 

Thanks so much for all your support and for being a part of my photographic journey in 2021.  Your interest and support make it all worthwhile, and I believe that together, we can spread awareness and make a difference for conservation of birds and all of nature.  Here’s to all the possibilities that lie ahead in the New Year.  Lets make it a great one! 

Warmest regards,

Tim

A self-portrait of my younger self from 2001 in Hokkaido, when I shot the images above (on film of course).  I’m happy to say that twenty years later, I’m still just as passionate about my wildlife photography, and just as enthusiastic about getting in the field to create new images to share with you this year!

P.S.  I always welcome your thoughts and feedback.  Feel free to drop us a note any time at studio@timlaman.com.

Maine's Fall Splendor

I hope you are all doing well, and if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, have been able to get out and enjoy the fall season.  Since I’m not traveling internationally quite yet, I took the chance to spend time up in Maine earlier this month, where the fall foliage this year was quite extraordinary, and I thought I’d take this chance to share a few of my new images.  

You can also scroll down and check out my latest idea on how to share my images and spread our shared love of birds.  I’ve created a line of 5x7 inch greeting cards featuring my backyard birds-in-the-snow and other images.  Have a look and maybe you’ll find one that will make a perfect holiday card.

My timing was perfect on my trip to Acadia National Park this October, and the fall colors were at their peak.  After passing Upper Hadlock Pond and seeing the potential for a beautiful image of the hillside with the amazingly variety of color in the trees, I kept checking back to try to get the right conditions.  I actually waited till after sunset on this day, when the afterglow reflecting from clouds in the West lit the scene evenly.  The wind also died at sunset, as often happens, and I got the perfect reflection that I was hoping for.  For you photography enthusiasts who like to hear these details, I made the broad panoramic image below taking a series of seven vertical images, each about 50% overlapping, and used Lightroom to stitch them together.  Since nothing was moving in the scene, this worked beautifully, and the result is very high resolution file that I could easily print ten feet across if I wanted.  The square portion above it just a section from the center of the larger image.  I love the amazing variety of hues of yellow, orange, pink, and red that came out in the trees under this soft light.  And of course, a perfect reflection just ads a lot to an image.  

Loons In The Fall

Some of you may recall that last summer, I spent considerable time in Maine filming loons for our short film “Loons of Mount Desert Island”.  (You can see it here if you missed it).  In October, the loons had not left yet for the winter, so I went to check on them and photograph them amidst the fall color reflections.

This adult is molting to its winter plumage, and you can see the bold black and white summer markings beginning to be replaced by the more muted winter feathers.

Juvenile loons, like the one you see here in the middle (easily recognized by its pale bill) will soon make the bold move of leaving their natal lake and their parents, and flying off to the ocean to spend the winter.

It was spectacular to see the loons swimming among the colorful fall reflections in the lake.  Adult loons may remain on the lakes for several more weeks, but need to leave before the lake freezes over for the winter.  They will spend the winter in the ocean before returning again in the spring, often to their same territory, to pair up and breed again.

NEW IN OUR STORE - HOLIDAY CARDS

For those of you who have shown so much appreciation for my pandemic project photographing my backyard birds, especially in the snow, thank you!  You have inspire me to create a line of cards that are now available in my store.  They are beautifully printed 5x7 inch cards that I hope will solve your greeting card needs for the holidays, and let you share these backyard beauties with others.  You can see the full selection and place orders here.

Thanks for tuning in to my adventures.  Fall isn’t over yet, so I hope these images might inspire you to head outside!  It’s a beautiful time of year.

Warmest regards,

Tim Laman

PS.  I will be launching my annual HOLIDAY PRINT SALE  in the next week or so at  TimLamanFineArt.com.  So if you’re starting to think about your holiday shopping, please stay tuned!

Save Wild Orangutans and get a Free Print

As many of you know, my longest term personal photography project is documenting the orangutans of Gunung Palung, in support of the science and conservation work of my wife Cheryl Knott’s project and her NGO, the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program (a US 501c3).

So it is my pleasure to offer some free prints to supporters this month.  We are attempting to build some “crowd sourced” funding for the organization, so that we can grow our education and conservation programs in the communities around the park, with the aim of long term forest and buffer zone preservation for orangutans and all the other biodiversity.

I hope you will consider becoming a monthly contributor.  Any small donation is welcome, but if you are able to commit to $10/month or more, you will receive your choice of one of three of my prints shown below in December, in time for Christmas.  So you could keep it for yourself or give it away as a gift!  Please go to this LINK to learn more and sign up. 

You’ll also become a member of our “Save Wild Orangutan” team as a monthly donor, and receive our exclusive updates from the field and blog posts for our members which I think you will enjoy.

Thanks for your consideration of this opportunity!

The Wild Ride

“The Wild Ride” is one of the my favorite orangutan images I have made in Gunung Palung for several reasons.  It tells the story of a mother orangutan traveling through the primary rainforest, which you can tell because of the massive size of the tree trunk in the left side fo the frame.  It shows how she is using large vines, or lianas, as the bridges through this complex canopy of trees, and finally, it shows how a very young infant has to be able to hold on tight to mom’s skin and fur all by herself because mom needs all her hands and feet for locomotion.  It is hard to explain how much effort was needed to capture an image like this.  It involves following the orangutans through the forest all day with the research team carrying camera gear, and looking for gaps through the foliage.  The best views are from hills I’ve scrambled up in steep terrain to be able to get shots that give you the feeling of being in the canopy with the orangutans (like in this shot) and not just looking up from the ground.  All the sweat is worth it though, when a great moment like this presents itself, and I’m able to capture it to share with all of you.

August Winner and End-of-Summer Sale

Hope all of you in the Northern hemisphere have been having a good summer.  It’s been a different one for me, without the usual fieldwork in Indonesia, but I’ve been keep busy with more local projects as we all adapt to the times we find ourselves in.  Among other things here in the studio, we have been working to expand our offerings in my fine art print collection, so whether you might be interested in purchasing a print or not, I hope you will enjoy browsing the added variety in the galleries of some of my favorite images.  

Congratulations to Valarie S. for winning the Goldie's Bird-of-Paradise square print.  For everyone else who was hoping to win the bird-of-paradise print but didn’t, your timing is good!  I am offering all open-edition prints at 25% off through the weekend in my End-of-Summer Sale. 

Verdin Among the Aloe

What makes a photograph rise beyond pure documentation and become something that can be called art, or at least an artistic image?  It can be a variety of things, and the way they combine together, but the quality of light often has a lot to do with it, along with the composition, how the background works to support the main subject, and other less tangible elements.  For me, this image of a Verdin perched among backlit aloe stems definitely achieves this.  More than anything in this image, it is the atmosphere created by the soft out-of-focus highlights on the aloe stems in the background that really give it a unique feel.  It’s one of my favorites from my time shooting at Sunnylands in the Coachella Valley, California.

Verdin Among the Aloe  is now available for purchase in my Fine Art Store.