Exploring a "Lost World" in Australia
See the blog post about this expedition here.
Also see the "In the Media" page for links to various news reports about this expedition and its discoveries.
"Lost World" Reveals New Species
In March, Tim went to the Cape Melville Range in Australia with Conrad Hoskin from James Cook University and discovered new species of amphibian and reptiles. This was part of an expedition traversing the Cape York Peninsula of Northeastern Australia. As you can see from the picture above, the mountain range is covered with huge boulders that make the area almost impassable. The only way in was by being dropped off by helicopter onto one of the boulders the size of a house, which didn't work the first time. You can read the full story by National Geographic News.
Tim Featured In Canon Ad
In the October issue of National Geographic Japan, Canon has taken out a multipage add featuring Tim. This picture was taken while photographing birds for his mangroves assignment. The ad is 4 pages and folds out from behind the front cover. To see some of the things Tim was photographing in Florida visit Tim Laman's Mangroves Gallery. (Photo by Zafer Kizilkaya)
About what he is doing here, Tim said "I waded into the water with my tripod to try get closer to the roseate spoonbills I was photographing. The sea was flat calm, and the bottom was pretty solid, so I kept slowly moving closer. Pretty soon I was in over my waist, but it really helped me get closer. I'm always willing to take some risk with my gear to get a unique angle...."
Cleaner Shrimp feature in Daily Mail
In August I photographed my son Russell diving off Bali, Indonesia, and getting his teeth cleaned by the cleaner shrimp that usually serve the needs of the local fish. The UK newspaper Daily Mail has now published the story. See it on DailyMail website:
Hornbills Of The World Available Now
You can now purchase the book Hornbills Of The World through our online store! This soft cover book by Pilai Poonswad, Alan Kemp and Morten Strange features photographs by Tim Laman and 61 other contributors. All 57 species are described with multiple photographs showing both the male and female birds. Each species has a description, distribution map, and information on the breeding ecology, habits and status of these unique birds.
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!
@America Presentation Online
If you were not able to attend Tim's presentation, Birds of Paradise: Crown Jewels of Indonesia's Biodiversity, you can watch it online. The @America website posted the entire talk. You can also see some pictures they took here.
New Book on Hornbills
Tim started shooting hornbills many years ago and did a story for National Geographic Magazine in July 1999. Hornbills Of The World is a photographic guide that gives descriptions of all the species and other general information like their unique breeding behavior. Tim's photographs are used for most of the Asian species of hornbills. Soon this book will be available to purchase on our website, Tim Laman's Wildlife Photo Archive. You can see Tim's spectacular hornbill photos here - Tim Laman Wildlife Photojournalist.
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!
1st Place in the World's Rarest Birds
Tim won first place in the World's Rarest Birds competition. His photo of the Marquesan Imperial-pigeon won 1st place in the Endangered category.
This image, along with other of Tim's images, have been published in the book The World's Rarest Birds by Erik Hirschfeld, Andy Swash, and Robert Still. You can see the story, along with the other winners, by the Huffington Post.
Nat Geo Creative agency launched
National Geographic has consolidated and rebranded their photography and talent agency as "National Geographic Creative", and I'm proud to be represented by them. They represent me for my stock photography and video, and also for commercial assignments. Check out their fully revamped website where you can see the portfolios of all their photographers, including a new page feature some of my work. NatGeoCreative Website
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.
Testing the new Canon EF 200-400 f4L with 2x extender
I have been waiting for two years for this lens to arrive. For the kind of wildlife photography and video that I do, I have anticipated that it may replace several lenses I regularly travel with and let me respond more quickly and compose more precisely in the field. So it was very exciting when yesterday I finally got the call from my local camera gear supplier, Hunts Photo and Video, that my lens was in. I immediately drove down and picked it up and went out this morning and started shooting some test shots.
I was confident the lens would be sharp and perform well as I had already read early reviews. However, since I am often temped to push the focal length by adding extenders, one thing I was very curious about was how it would work with not only the internal 1.4x converter enabled, but also when 1.4 or even the 2x converter is added externally. I went out to one of my local wildlife spots and found a cooperative Great Blue Heron. Here are some of my first shots with this new lens. Needless to say, I am extremely pleased with the results!
HERE IS THE REAL TEST: 200-400 WITH INTERNAL 1.4X ENABLED, PLUS THE EXTERNAL CANON 2X CONVERTER III = 1120 mm focal length.
See for yourself, but my feeling is that even with this 2x converter added, the quality is there. In fact, though I haven't done the side-by side test yet, I think this looks sharper than using my 600 mm f4 with 2x converter at 1200 mm. Of course I had to manual focus this as at f11, autofocus does not work. But for extreme situations when I really want the reach, this looks totally usable to me, and has actually exceeded my expectation for this lens, so I am extremely pleased with it.
Little Explorers in Borneo
The terrific nature magazine aimed at kids called "Ranger Rick" has recently published a story which is a collaboration between my two kids Russell and Jessica, and me. Story by the kids, photos by me. My wife also played a key part, of course. She is primatologist Cheryl Knott, Professor at Boston University, and she has been doing research on wild orangutans in Borneo for many years. In recent years our kids have been traveling with us to her research site in Borneo nearly every summer. Now Ranger Rick has published the story of my kids adventure traveling deep into the rain forest in Borneo with their Mom and Dad to study orangutans, and they have told it in their own words.
And Russell even made the back cover. We found this very large stick insect right near our camp, and Russell picked it up and was letting it crawl up his shirt. When it crawled right up on his face, he didn't seem to mind at all!
Return to Cape York Peninsula in the “Wet”
I am on my way home from a three-week trip to Australia’s Cape York Peninsula on assignment for National Geographic magazine. Believe it or not, there are still places in the world without easy internet access and this was one of them. Now that I am back in contact, I will share some new images from the trip here and via my Instagram feed over the next week or so.
This ongoing project for Nat Geo has the goal of documenting the landscapes and unique biodiversity of this remote part of Northeastern Queensland. Last year I made two expeditions here in the dry season, and I now returned to cover what it looks like in the wet season, which looks dramatically different in places.
Above is an example shot from a low flying helicopter: This is Piccaninny Plains Wildlife Sanctuary, where I photographed the parched dry landscape in September. Now the same area is dotted with potholes full of water while storm clouds with more water loom above.
You can look back at my Instagram feed to see earlier shots from Cape York in the dry season, and stay tuned for some more new photos over the coming days……
Galapagos Photo Expedition – Thoughts on Gear
On a photo expedition like this recently completed one in the Galapagos, you have to come up with the right combination of photographic equipment to carry and the best way to carry it. Unlike a National Geographic Magazine assignment, where I might be working with a lot more equipment, and able to hire porters and perhaps even have a dedicated photo assistant, when I am accompanying a Photo Expedition as one of the photography instructors, I am of course carrying my own equipment around every day just like the guests on the trip.
Most people opt for a pretty lightweight outfit for the on-the-go type shooting that we do on our walks ashore every day. A good setup would be to have two bodies, and have one mounted with a wide to medium zoom like a 24-105 mm, and the second body with a telephoto zoom like a 100-400 f5.6, or a 70-200 f2.8 plus teleconverters.
I did use that setup on some hikes, but I often chose to carry a bit more. I am used to lugging around a lot of gear and it doesn’t slow me down much, and I do like to have a bigger lens with more reach. While it is true that in the Galapagos, you can often get very close to the wildlife, it is also usually not permitted to leave the trail, so longer reach can sometimes really help when you are at lagoons with flamingos, or places like that.
I came up with a really comfortable setup for carrying around the gear described below. I don’t like a huge photo backpack that fits everything. It’s too heavy when you have it on, and if you set it down and step away, then you will invariably need something from it like a teleconverter or a battery. I like the combination of a belt system for keeping the essentials handy with a slimmer backpack for the big lens and body. I have found a set of bags from ThinkTank that fit my working style very well. So what I carried ashore in the Galapagos what you see in this image on some lava rock on Fernandina Island:
Belt-Pack system with:
Canon 5D-III, 16-35 mm f2.8, 24-105 mm f4 in large belt pouch (Camera fits in the pouch without lens on with the two lenses. I take it out and mount a lens on as soon as we are ashore, or even sometimes shoot from the zodiac if conditions permit.)
70-200 f 2.8 – in lens pouch
1.4x and 2x converters and spare batteries and cards, polarizing filter in another belt pouch that always sits right on my right hip for quick access.
Long lens backpack with:
Canon 1D-IV mounted with 400 mm f2.8
Water bottle and rain hood go in side pockets
Another pouch attached to the outside of this pack has my video viewfinder and mike.
With the use of the teleconverters in this outfit, I have coverage from 16 mm to 800 mm with just four lenses, which means I am ready for just about anything.
There was plenty of light to shoot hand-held most of the time, but on some hikes I also carried my tripod especially to do a little video shooting.
Note that all these ThinkTank pouches have built in rain hoods that are perfect for protection from the spray on zodiac rides and the occasional rain shower.
Galapagos Photo Expedition – Day 7
Time for a belated final-day report from the Galapagos trip. I have been back since March 3rd, but do to several lectures for the Birds of Paradise Project, and preparing to depart for an NatGeo assignment in Australia, I didn’t get a final post done (until now, on the plane to Australia!).
We spent this final day around the island of San Cristobal. We did a great hike in the morning and then headed for the rock formation know as Kicker Rock, or Leon Dormido just off the San Cristobal coast. There we snorkeled under what I would have to say were some pretty rad snorkeling conditions. Large chop and current sweeping us through the gap between the rocks. Exciting stuff, and many sea turtles and some Galapagos sharks were seen.
We capped off the trip with a circumnavigation of this spectacular rock island right at sunset.
One of the highlights of this trip for me was to be able to share it with my father, Gordon Laman. He helped inspire my love of photography by loaning me his cameras when I was a teenager, and took me on my first wilderness trip when I was 12 in Boundary Waters Canoe Area. That got me hooked on a life of exploring nature, so it was wonderful to be able to take Dad to the Galapagos for his first time. He loved it, and claimed that he did pick up a few photo tips from me as well. Thanks for joining me Dad!
