7/19/23 7/19/23

Quest for the Leatherback Sea Turtle - Papua Expedition Highlights Part 1

I recently completed a month-long expedition in West Papua, Indonesia documenting biodiversity highlights across various habitats from forest-lined coasts to mountain peaks. I’d like to share a few highlights of the expedition in the next several Wildlife Diaries.

Our first objective was to document Leatherback Sea Turtles at a place called Batu Rumah Beach, a 24 km stretch on the north coast of Papua’s Bird’s Head Peninsula where according to researchers, 75% of the entire Pacific Ocean population of Leatherbacks come to nest. Having never seen a Leatherback before - the largest of all sea turtles - I was especially excited about this opportunity. We worked closely with the research team from the University of Papua in Manokwari, who monitor the beach nightly from three patrol stations spaced out along this remote, roadless coast. It was challenging work, hiking at least 10 km each night in sand to try to catch sight of a turtle that we could film and photograph. In the end we succeeded, and I hope the images below capture a sense of the awe we felt at witnessing this remarkable creature carrying out its timeless ritual of reproduction.

This expedition was supported by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and with our local partners in Indonesia, our hope is to spread the word through the media we create about the global importance of Papua’s unique environment, one of the treasures of Indonesia’s biodiversity. The Leatherback turtles that nest here feed on jellyfish off the coast of North America, where conservationists are also working to protect the species. These sea turtles thus connect Papua with the United States, on the other side of the vast Pacific. Below is just a little sneak preview of what we captured. I’ll be sure to let you know when the finished media are released.

Leatherback Nesting by Moonlight

On our third night of hiking Batu Rumah Beach in search of Leatherbacks, we got lucky. It was a beautiful moonlit night, and we found this turtle starting to lay her eggs. We got our cameras ready at a distance while waiting until she had finished laying. Then, while she spent considerable time burying her nest and spreading sand all around to camouflage it, we moved in to shoot. I ran time-lapses for stills, and shot motion on my RED V-Raptor camera, while my assistants Faizal Aziz and Wahyu Susanto helped with lighting with our red lights, and shooting detail shots with the RED Komodo. It was a whirlwind of activity during those few minutes, and we barely had a chance to appreciate what we were witnessing before she started heading for the sea. But when she stopped and came back up to do some more sand flinging, we took a moment to really appreciate the amazing animal in front of us.

This image is a frame form my time-lapse series. For you photography nerds out there, these were my settings for this image: Canon EOS R6 Mark II camera, RF 15-35 mm lens, 1/4 Sec at f 2.8, ISO 5000, processed in Lightroom with denoise, and with the lower half of the image masked and desaturated to remove the supplemental red lights (see example below).

Shooting the Leatherbacks

This pair of images shows how I photographed and filmed the nesting turtles illuminated with red light, and then removed the red in post-production. Turtles can’t see the red part of the spectrum (which makes sense since red light barely penetrates into the ocean), so by using only red lights on the beach, we avoid confusing them or disturbing them. With the wonders of modern post-processing, removed the red cast, as you can see in the second image, thus revealing a basically black-and-white image of the turtle, as they looked to our eyes in the dim moonlight.

Behind-the-Scenes

1.) Our tents under a tarp on the beach. It was a beautiful location to camp, but not easy to sleep during the heat of the day despite being tired from hiking and filming on the beach all night. Still, it was well worth the effort to have a chance to document this important conservation story.

2.) This hand-held night shot of our team on the beach captures the feel of our night-hikes by the dim light of the moon.

3.) Early in the morning, the team makes their way back along the spectacular coast toward base camp after a night out shooting.

4.) After a long night of hiking the beach and filming turtles, one of our porters carrying a heavy tripod bag hikes the beach back toward base camp as the sun rises.

5.) Sunrise on Batu Rumah Beach. The name means "house rock beach", because the small island just off shore is shaped like a house when viewed from the sea.

Thanks for tuning in to my adventures. I’ll be sharing more from my recent Papua expedition in upcoming Wildlife Diaries so please stay tuned.

Warmest regards,
Tim Laman

5/23/23 5/23/23

Celebrating Biodiversity of the World’s Richest Reefs

Greetings and happy “World Biodiversity Day” on May 22.

For me, every day is a day to appreciate and celebrate the amazing diversity of life that we share this planet with, but it’s good to have these reminders about what’s important. As you know, I am especially drawn to the richest habitats on the planet - rain forests and coral reefs.

So this week I thought I’d share a few images from one of my favorite places, the Raja Ampat Islands of Indonesia, which are a spectacular example of both these ecosystems. This area not only has the world’s richest coral reefs below water, but the rainforest-covered islands are home to birds-of-paradise, and many other species. And not only that, this is one of the rare places where rainforest comes right down to meet the sea. These limestone islands produce little silt and the waters are bathed by rich currents, so corals can literally grow right beneath overhanging tree branches, like in the image below.

As I prep to head back to Indonesia once again this summer to work on a filming project with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in West Papua, I’ll leave you with a few favorite images celebrating the rich diversity of Raja Ampat. Enjoy and have a great summer.

Between the two islands named Waigeo and Gam, there is a tidal channel that surges with current whenever the tide changes. If you catch it at the right time as clear water races in, it is possible to capture an over-under view showing both the forest above, and the rich soft coral growth below. For this shot, I waited for a pair of archerfish to swim through the frame. This is the perfect habitat for them, where branches hang low to the water, and they can hunt insects in the trees with a jet of water, knocking them into the sea. Now wouldn’t that be a cool wide angle shot? I’ll have to work on that one.

The World's Richest Reefs

Clockwise from top left:

The profusion of life on some of Raja Ampat’s reefs is almost overwhelming, like this underwater pinnacle teaming with fish and sea fans. This region has the highest coral species diversity as well as fish species diversity recorded anywhere in the world.

If you look closely, there are always smaller creatures to discover, like this colorful nudibranch (Nembrotha kubaryana).

A crazy variety of colorful invertebrates inhabit the reef, including creatures like this zigzag clam, covered in coraline algae, and at least two different species of tunicates growing on it.

The corals of Raja Ampat have largely escaped bleaching to date. Beautiful table corals can be seen growing in the shallows in many sites.

The biomass of fish on some Raja Ampat reefs can be staggering. Here snappers and fusiliers criss-cross above a shallow seamount.

Thanks for your interest and support, and I hope that together we can make a difference for the wild places and biodiversity of our planet that is worth saving in its own right, but also critical for a healthy planet!

Responsible eco-tourism helps to protect these reefs, so if you are a diver, I highly recommend you add Raja Ampat to your bucket list.

Stay safe and have a great summer everyone.

Warmest regards,

Tim Laman

PS. If you’d like to join me diving in Raja Ampat this August, follow this LINK for details about our underwater photo workshop at the spectacular Papua Explorers resort! There is still some space.

4/4/23 4/4/23

Emperor Penguin Encounters

Dear Friends,
I’ve been back for a few weeks from an amazing journey to Antarctica, and finally getting around to sharing some more from the trip.
Emperor penguins were a surprise and a huge highlight for me! As we traveled south into the Ross Sea, we encountered them in ones and twos, and then in bigger groups. At up to 46 kg (nearly 100 lbs), the Emperor Penguin is one of the world’s heaviest birds, only exceeded in weight by Ostriches, Cassowaries, and Emus. Seeing the power with which these birds can launch their chunky bodies out of the water was remarkable. Check out the photos and videos below!
And if you’re an underwater photographer curious about the photo workshop I’m offering in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat islands in August, please tap the link down at the bottom and check out the details.

The Preening Emperor

Coulman Island vicinity, Ross Sea, AntarcticaAs our zodiac boat approached the iceberg where the Emperor was standing, it completely ignored us and just kept preening. I was glad the bird was bending over, preening its belly feathers, creating a more interesting composition. In the soft light, every detail was visible, from the birds jet black eye, to the snowflakes stuck to its breast feathers. I spend so much time photographing shy birds that I have to shoot from blinds, that it was a joy to be so close to a bird that didn’t mind our presence. I captured this image, but also savored the moment.

More Emperor Penguins

Clockwise from top left:

1. Sometimes, two or more birds came flying out of the water almost at the same time. Not all the landings were picture perfect. Check out the video below!

2. Near the Eastern end of the Ross Ice Shelf, at a place called Cape Colbeck, we came across this group of Emperors who were continuously going in and out of the water. Were they bathing? Playing? We are not really sure, but it was an amazing spectacle to watch. Check out the video below.

3. Shooting up from deep underwater, the Emperors launched themselves from the water with plenty of speed to land on the ice flow above.

4. If they have to travel any distance over ice or snow, Emperor’s often just drop down on their belly, and propel themselves along with their feet, performing an elegant belly slide.

5. We spotted this tightly packed group of Emperor Penguins from a long way off. When we approached more closely, we discovered the reason for their nervous gathering. A leopard seal prowled back and forth right in front of them.

https://youtu.be/KGATvh9JlCk

Thanks for tuning in to my adventures. Stay safe everyone, and where ever you are, be sure to get outside and enjoy nature!
Warmest regards,
Tim Laman

PS. Please don’t forget to check out the Underwater Photo Workshop that I am offering in August in Indonesia’s spectacular Raja Ampat Islands. You can read more about it at my post here.

2/15/23 2/15/23

Heading to Antarctica

Greetings from the Southern Ocean, where I am currently on board the National Geographic Endurance en route from New Zealand to Antarctica. Soon we will be too far south to connect to the ships satellite internet, so I thought I share a few images from the first part of the voyage while I still can.

We sailed from Dunedin, New Zealand, and had several exciting days visiting sub-antarctic islands on the way south. Below are a few favorite shots so far. Stay tuned, and I’ll share more from this long voyage along western Antarctica to the Antarctic Peninsula, and eventually ending in Argentina. I’m serving as the National Geographic photography expert on board, sharing my work, giving talks on wildlife photography for the guests, and of course shooting pictures myself at every opportunity.

Albatross Over the Surf Zone

The second group of islands we visited on our journey south were New Zealand’s Aukland Island group, about 450 kilometers south of New Zealand’s South Island. Here we had a chance to hike across the island of Enderby to a cliff-top overlook, where Southern Royal Albatross were occasionally cruising by as the went to and from their nesting grounds on the island. This bird came especially close and passed over the surf zone at the cliff base where the turbulent water took on this beautiful aquamarine hue. Southern Royals are among the largest flying birds along with their close relative the Wandering Albatross, with a wingspan that can reach 12 feet (or 3.5 meters). It was an amazing experience to see these spectacular birds passing so close by.

More from the Sub-antarctic Islands

At our very first stop heading south from New Zealand, we came upon a feeding frenzy of Bullar’s Albatross, feeding on fish in the shallows of the Snares Islands. Actually seeing albatross feeding on prey is very rare, so this was an exciting encounter.

At Macquarie Island (an Australian controlled territory nearly 1500 km from Tasmania) we were able to see the endemic Royal Penguins going to and from their nesting colonies on land. This group of Royal Penguins was heading into the surf when I captured this moment.

Although tricky in the lumpy seas we experienced, I managed to get one frame of a porpoising Royal Penguin during our zodiac cruise along the coastline of Macquarie Island.

When we came offshore of a large King Penguin colony on Macquarie Island, hundreds, if not thousands, of curious King Penguins came out and swam around our zodiac boats. Not having a proper underwater housing with me on this trip, I used my waterproof iPhone held underwater to capture this shot and the one below.

The water off Macquarie Islands was amazingly clear, and I captured this image of a curious King Penguin coming over to check out our boat. Although they appear rather clumsy on land, King Penguins are incredibly graceful underwater.

Thanks for tuning in to my adventures. Please feel free to share this newsletter with anyone who you think might enjoy it.

Stay safe everyone, and be sure to get your dose of nature therapy! I’ll look forward to sending you further updates from this trip when I have a chance.

Warmest regards,

Tim Laman

1/31/23 1/31/23

Underwater Photography Workshop in Raja Ampat

This is a special announcement for the underwater photography enthusiasts out there! As those of you who have followed my work for a while probably know, although I do a lot bird and primate photography, I am also passionate about exploring the underwater world with my cameras, especially to document the diversity of life on coral reefs.

My underwater stories for National Geographic have included “Fiji’s Rainbow Reefs”, and “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish - Why are Coral Reefs So Colorful” (yes NatGeo cleared the title with Dr. Seus), as well as other projects mixing topside and underwater coverage, like “Mangroves” and “Biodiversity Hotspots - Philippines”.

My favorite place to dive, ever since I spent considerable time there working on two stories for German GEO magazine in 2007, has been the Raja Ampat Islands of West Papua, Indonesia. This region has been documented to have the highest coral and fish species diversity on the planet, and reefs that are in excellent health. It also doesn’t hurt that these islands harbor birds-of-paradise (which can be seen on morning excursions from the dive resort).

I am thus excited to announce that later this year, from August 6-16, 2023, I will be leading an Underwater Photography workshop with my good friend and colleague Zafer Kizillkaya at the spectacular Papua Explorers dive resort.

You can read more about the workshop and learn how to sign up at PapuaExplorers.com. If you are interested, please sign up soon. Space is limited, and spots have begun to fill already.

Reef Rebirth Under the Jetty

Healthy corals flourish amidst the pilings of an old jetty in Yenbuba Village, in the Raja Ampat Islands, West Papua, Indonesia, and a moorish idol and bright blue damselfish highlight the scene. This shot, which I made between dives snorkeling in shallow water right in front of a village, exemplifies the rich and flourishing coral life in this region. Many villages in the area have chosen to protect their reefs and limit fishing in exchange for fees collected from diving operators. This means your visit will contribute to coral reef conservation, and also, that there are amazing dive sites full of healthy coral and fish populations in very accessible locations that you can enjoy photographing.

Meanwhile, below are a few images that my son Russell and I took in 2022 during a brief diving trip with Papua Explorers. I hope this gives you a little sense of the scope and diversity of marine life that you can see and photograph in Raja Ampat. Please also check out my co-leader Zafer’s Instagram feed to see his great work from Raja Ampat (@kizilkaya_zafer).

It really is one of the top diving destinations in the world, so if you are interested in improving your underwater photography, why not join us in Raja Ampat, a true paradise for underwater photography?

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at studio@timlaman.com as well.

A Few More Recent Shots From Raja Ampat

In Raja Ampat, it’s possible to shoot wide angle shots of vibrant coral reefs teaming with life, such as this shot of a green sea turtle swims over a diverse and healthy reef by Russell Laman.

Detail of a spotfin lionfish. With a great variety of approachable fish species, Raja Ampat is a great place to shoot creative fish portraits.

Fascinating and colorful subjects abound for the wide-angle enthusiast. Can you spot the scorpionfish in this shot by Russell Laman.

A tiny striped goby rests on a colorful sponge. For the macro photography enthusiast, there is no end of subjects to explore in Raja Ampat.

A pair of crab-eyed gobies hover at the entrance to their burrow. If you are fascinated by the behavior of fish and other marine creatures, Raja Ampat is a wonderful place to explore with a camera.

Pajama cardinalfish hover among the mangrove roots. The clear water around these limestone islands makes Raja Ampat a great place to experiment with over/under type images such this shot I made at the mangrove forest edge.

A Glimpse Behind The Camera

Here is my co-leader, extraordinary underwater photographer Zafer Kizilkaya working his magic with a school of cooperative sweetlips. Join us in Raja Ampat this year, and we’ll help you improve your photography while you also enjoy some spectacular diving. If you have a housed dslr and strobes like Zafer, great, but if you have a simpler camera system, that is also totally fine and we will help you get the most of it.

Thanks for tuning in to my adventures. If you know any Underwater Photography enthusiasts who may not get this newsletter, please feel free to pass it on…. I really appreciate it.

Stay safe everyone, and be sure to get your dose of nature therapy! I hope to see you later this year in Raja Ampat!

Warmest regards,

Tim Laman

12/31/22 12/31/22

A New Baby Orangutan and Happy New Year 2023!

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year, and all the best to everyone for 2023!

As we kick off the new year, I have some exciting news from my recent trip to Borneo. On Dec 11, as I was already packing up to depart the next morning from the research station in Gunung Palung National Park, I got word that one of the field assistants had found the female orangutan named Berani, and that she had a new baby! Luckily, I was able to rearrange my travel to spend two days photographing Berani and her new baby before traveling home.

**Berani and her new baby, photographed on Dec 12, 2022.**

The research team had been tracking Berani’s pregnancy since the summer. We first suspected she was pregnant in June 2022, but were unable to get definitive results. By August, when we tested her urine again, the pregnancy test came back with clear results – positive! When the team found her again on December 11th, Berani was with a tiny new infant, who we believe is only a few weeks old.

The team has known Berani since 2008, when she was first found with her mother, Bibi. She was likely 3-4 years old at the time. By 2013, Berani had become independent from her mother, and in 2015 Berani’s younger brother, Bayas, was born. Now, we will be able to follow development not only of Bayas, who is now 7 years old, but Bibi’s new granddaughter, giving us more opportunities to follow and understand juvenile development in wild orangutans, who have the longest birth intervals of any mammals on the planet.

Milestones like these remind us how incredible and rewarding long-term research projects are. It is thanks to continued support from Indonesian counterparts and sponsors, as well as an international base of supporters and donors, that we are able to continue this important research!

As we start the new year, I’d like to invite you to become a regular supporter of our orangutan research and conservation work in the Gunung Palung area if you are not already. The website www.SaveWildOrangutans.org is your portal to learn all about our work.

By joining us, you will receive our monthly newsletter, and know you are making a contribution to the long-term protection of orangutans and all the biodiversity in the amazing Gunung Palung landscape. If we can get enough people making small contributions, even $5 per month (the price of one fancy coffee), it will really make a difference for the programs that our project can carry out.

As an extra incentive to becoming a monthly contributor, if you join before Jan 10 contributing $10 or more, you will receive one of my 12 inch orangutan prints of your choice in April, 2023.

This link will take you right to the “JOIN US” page for Save Wild Orangutans. https://www.savewildorangutans.org/join-us/

Berani’s New Baby

Here are a few more shots of the newest addition to the healthy population of WILD orangutans in Gunung Palung:

A newborn baby orangutan has to be able to hold on to mom’s hair and skin from birth. Berani’s new baby seem to have a good grip with her hands, but we saw her flailing a lot with her little feet to get a good grip.

Berani was constantly touching her baby, to make sure she had a secure grip.

When she needed her hands for feeding or travel, Berani often held her baby against her belly with a foot, like you can see in this photo.

It was hard to get a glimpse of the baby’s face which always seemed to be buried in mom’s chest. But when Berani traveled upright along this branch, we finally caught a glimpse of the baby’s tiny face. We believe she is less than two weeks old when this photo was taken on Dec 11, 2022. It will be exciting to follow her growth and development over the coming years as our long term research continues.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support!

UPCOMING IN 2023!

My Underwater Photo Workshop co-leader Zafer Kizilkaya shoots a very approachable school of sweetlips on a Raja Ampat reef.

Are you an underwater photography enthusiast? Would you like to dive with me in the Raja Ampat Islands of Indonesia, one of the world’s most spectacular diving destinations and a paradise for underwater photography? I’m leading an underwater photo workshop at @Papua_Explorers resort from 6-16 August 2023 with underwater photographer @Kizilkaya_Zafer. Learn all about it at this Link: https://www.papuaexplorers.com/underwater-photography-workshop/

12/15/22 12/15/22

Are you a Bird-of-Paradise Fan?

I know that many of you, like me, are especially fascinated by the incredible family of birds known as the Birds-of-Paradise. I love photographing them, and sharing the stories of these unique birds.

My goal with my photography is to spread appreciation and awareness about species like Birds-of-Paradise, and the habitats they depend on, in their case, the rainforests of New Guinea. If you want to join me in this effort, one way you can do that is by displaying and sharing my images. Yes, this is a sales pitch, because selling my work is how I make a living so I can keep doing this. But when you purchase my work, whether it’s a calendar, print, or book, you are helping others see and appreciate birds as well, and you have become part of my team, spreading the message.

So thanks for reading, and as the holidays approach, and my print sale is running, think about joining me in spreading your love for birds to others. I appreciate your support, and I believe together we can make a positive impact.

Paradise Practice

A young male Paradise Riflebird practices his courtship display on a perch in the rainforest of southern Queensland, Australia. The adult male of this species is jet black, where as the young males have the same mottled plumage as the females. But it is easy to recognize a young male when after watching an adult male perform this raised-wing display, he flies up to the same perch used by the adult, and goes through the same motions. Bird-of-Paradise displays are partly instinctive, but also have a learned component, and young birds spend a lot of time perfecting their moves, and seem to take it very seriously, as you can see.

“Paradise Practice” is now available for purchase in my fine art store.

Bird-of-Paradise Square Print Collection

Many of my Bird-of-Paradise images crop nicely to squares, and I have been gradually adding new images to this square print collection. I love displaying these square prints in groupings on the wall, and you might as well. Here are our newest additions to the collection.

The Stare

A male Twelve-wired BoP flares out his green-rimmed breast shield and presents his striking form toward a female in the direction of the camera, trying to lure her to his display pole.

The Twist

A male Magnificent Riflebird twists his flexible neck and reveals the amazing iridescence of his neck feathers.

Superb Call

A male Superb Bird-of-Paradise reveals the brightly colored inside of his mouth as he calls from his display log, trying to lure a female. 8

Plus a Few Favorites (and Best Sellers)

Red Bird-of-Paradise Heart Display

A male Red Bird-of-Paradise performs an inverted display at the top of the rain forest canopy, his extraordinary tail wires forming a heart-shaped arc around his outstretched wings.

Blue Bird-of-Paradise in Fruiting Tree

A male Blue Bird-of-Paradise perches on the slender branch of a favorite fruit tree, Papua New Guinea.

See the full Square Bird-of-Paradise print collection here.

Another way to enjoy the Square BoP images is in one of my Calendars, which you can check out HERE. Last year's calendar, Collection No 1, can be for 2023!

Thanks for tuning in, and for considering joining me in helping to spread the love of Birds-of-Paradise, all birds, and the value of protecting our natural world.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!
Warmest regards,
Tim Laman

11/1/22 11/1/22

Back From Borneo

Well folks, I’m home for a little while after more than three months overseas. It was a long trip, but really great to get back to the rainforest of Indonesia’s Gunung Palung National Park after a couple year hiatus due to the pandemic. I am working on a couple different projects there this year, and one of them is a new feature for National Geographic magazine celebrating the rich diversity of life in one of the best remaining lowland rainforests in Indonesia.

I’ll be heading back for one more trip before the year is out, but wanted to give you a little sneak peak on what I’ve been up to. Be sure to stay tuned and re-up your NatGeo membership to get the full story coming out next year!

Rhinoceros Hornbill Close-up

The charismatic Rhinoceros Hornbills have been a personal favorite subject of mine since I first went to Borneo over 30 years ago. It was awesome to be high up in tree in Borneo again, and have some close encounters with this magnificent species. I made this portrait of a male (recognizable by his red eye), at a fruiting strangler fig as he moved around the tree crown seeking out the ripest figs.

Clockwise from top left:

Before a Rhinoceros Hornbills swallow a large fig, they toss it around in their beak and soften it up. Then with a toss of the head, it goes down the hatch.

Hornbills aren’t the only ones feasting on figs. This Gold-whiskered Barbet tossed this fig in the air many times before it wolfed it down.

It’s not all tree climbing and birds! I’ve also been documenting the full range of biodiversity in the park. Mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, you name it. Whatever we can turn up, I’ll shoot. This beautiful snake is a female Bornean Keeled Green Pit Viper (Tropidolaemus subannulatus)

A panoramic view from high in a Dipterocarp tree. This tree I climbed in September had a fantastic view out over the vibrant lowland forest of Gunung Palung National Park.

BEHIND-THE-SCENES: SHOOTING IN THE CANOPY

It was exciting to be exploring the rain forest canopy in Borneo again. After using my bow and arrow to rig a line over a tree branch, I pulled up my climbing rope and used a harness and ascenders to climb. Then depending on the situation, I often rig a small platform surrounded by camouflage material to come back to and shoot from for several mornings. Or if it was a short term effort, I would just hide myself with camouflage material and sit on a branch with my camera for a couple hours.

Self-portrait on the way up a big Dipterocarp. I’m about 30 meters off the ground at this point.

Blending in to the canopy with a camo poncho and lens cover from Tragopan Photography Blinds (https://photographyblinds.com).

Thanks for tuning in to my adventures. Wish me luck as I soon head back to Borneo to spend some more time seeking out images of the elusive rainforest wildlife!

Stay safe everyone, and be sure to get your dose of nature therapy!

Warmest regards,

Tim Laman

PS. My new book BIRD PLANET is out (available wherever books are sold), and we are adding new images form BIRD PLANET to my print gallery at TimLamanFineArt.com for our upcoming holiday print sale, so please stay tuned, and start thinking about your holiday gift ideas!

9/30/22 9/30/22

Back to Borneo Again

Greetings once again from Borneo, where I’m still in the field in Gunung Palung National Park, photographing everything from orangutans to pit vipers as I document the incredible biodiversity of this park for National Geographic.

My forthcoming book, Bird Planet, is in production and advanced copies have already reached my studio! Since I have had back-to-back assignments here in Indonesia, I haven’t been home to see it yet myself, but my wife and assistant, both very unbiased judges to be sure, say it looks awesome! It will be available Oct 4, but in the meantime, here is a little more background on the book.

Preening Mallard

Henry David Thoreau famously spent two years living in a simple cabin he built in the woods at Walden Pond and wrote about the importance of our connection to nature, becoming one of the pioneers of environmental thinking. I live just 5 miles from Walden Pond, and it is one of my favorite spots for escaping into nature for a while with a camera to challenge myself to create interesting images at a simple pond in New England, and to remind me that there is beauty in nature everywhere and that you don’t have to be in Borneo or Antarctica to appreciate it. Here a male mallard preens amid reflections of autumn colors on Walden Pond.

As you may have guessed, birds are one of my favorite subjects to photograph and I have wanted to publish my own book for years. Besides the satisfaction of sharing my work, I feel that appreciating the beauty of birds can inspire people to be better stewards of the wild places all over the world that birds need to thrive, and I wanted to share my images to spread that appreciation. Along came the Covid-19 pandemic which reduced my travel schedule greatly, and allowed me to block out the time to create the book. Working through my archive to select the images, and writing the accompanying text was a perfect Covid project.

For this book, I looked through my entire archive to select what I felt were my strongest bird images. Every place that I have photographed birds, whether on assignments for National Geographic magazine, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, or any other group as well as all my personal photography trips were all fair game. My goal was simply that this selection would represent my best bird photography.

To celebrate the publication of the book, we have created a special print gallery in my fine art store, featuring the most artistic images from the book that are now available as art works for your home. Visit the gallery at timlamanfineart.com/BirdPlanetCollection. The above 3 panoramic images are available for purchase: Cormorant, Cliff and Pine (Pano), The Spoonbill Tree and Marbled Godwit at Sunset. As my newsletter subscribers I'd like to offer you a head start on my Bird Planet Collection sale. Please use code BIRDS at checkout. We also still have a few of my signed editions of BIRD PLANET that comes bundled with a 12 inch signed print available for pre-order. Please visit the website HERE to see your options. Thanks again for following along on my journey and for your support. I’ll be looking forward to getting home to New England in time to enjoy some fall colors (and to get a look at my new book!)

All the best,
Tim

7/20/22 7/20/22

Back to Borneo!

Hello Friends,

Greetings from the rain forest of Borneo! I’m writing this on my iPhone while sitting under a fruiting fig tree where the orangutan mom and juvenile we have been following have been feeding for the past couple hours, unfortunately their position is high and obstructed. Thus I have some down time here to catch you up on my latest news.

This is my first trip back to Gunung Palung National Park since before the pandemic and it’s good to be back. Just this morning gibbons, macaques, and orangutans have all been feeding at this tree as well as at least a dozen species of birds, including the colorful barbets, several species of which are just now calling incessantly above.

I’m here with my wife Cheryl Knott who directs the Gunung Palung Orangutan Project and her team of students and assistants. My 18 year old daughter Jessica is working with Cheryl on her project, and my 22 year old son Russell is assisting me with filming orangutans for another major production. It’s great to be here with the whole family and all our Indonesian colleagues working to spread the word about the amazing biodiversity that is protected in this sanctuary.

Rhinoceros Hornbills In The Canopy

This image of rhinoceros hornbills high in the canopy of the lowland rainforest in Gunung Palung is one of my all time favorites that I made from a blind high in the canopy near a fruiting fig tree. I love capturing shots of the rain forest wildlife in the broader landscape and the mist hovering in the canopy on this early morning created the perfect atmosphere for the image.

I’ll be spending at least three months in the field here this year also working on a major National Geographic magazine feature about Gunung Palung’s amazingly intact flora and fauna that represents the full diversity of lowland rainforest species in Borneo.

So please stay tuned and I’ll keep sending periodic updates. It’s not easy to upload new photos from here as I have no internet connection and just enough signal to send this note out by WhatsApp to my assistant back in the US. So she will add some images from my GP archives to this newsletter and I’ll look forward to sharing new images when I can.

Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis) in the canopy of a fruiting strangler fig tree (Ficus dubia), surrounded by ripening figs.

Have a good summer everyone, and if you you want to learn more about our conservation work here and don’t already follow us, please check out www.savewildorangutans.com.

6/29/22 6/29/22

Photographing My Local Nesting Birds

Dear Friends,

I hope you have been having a nice spring and relishing the new life all around us here in the Northern Hemisphere. These past two springs, due to the pandemic, I have been traveling less than usual, and focusing my lenses on more local projects. One of those has been a filming project with Connecticut-based Coneflower Studios to document the lives of woodpeckers and their importance in the ecosystem. Did you know that woodpeckers create cavities that are used by over forty species of birds for nesting just in North America? While working on the film project, which is now going into post-production, I was also able to capture some still photos.

Stay tuned here, and I’ll let you know when the film is coming out. In the mean time, I’ve selected a few stills below to share. I had never spent much effort to observe or photograph the pileated woodpecker before this, but this impressive bird has now become one of my local favorites. Hope you enjoy the shots below!

The Ant Specialist

The pileated woodpecker, our largest woodpecker in North America (assuming the ivory-billed woodpecker is indeed extinct), is rather surprisingly, an ant specialist. Although the prey are small, they are abundant, and the pileated’s powerful size allows it to excavate deep into trees where its favorite carpenter ants make their large colonies. I’m lucky enough to have these birds occupying the woods right behind my house in Lexington, Massachusetts, and one day my daughter spotted this male working on a dead tree right from the house. I grabbed my camera and started photographing, gradually and very deliberately moving my tripod closer and closer. Within about 30 minutes, the bird was still busy excavating multiple holes in the same tree and feeding, and tolerated my presence close enough to get this shot with an 800 mm lens. I knew he was eating ants, but because the bird was using its long tongue to probe the tunnels, and bringing the ants directly into its mouth, I never saw him with an ant until this one moment, when he leaned back, and one ant that almost got away dangled from his beak!

The Cavity Nesters

Woodpeckers excavate cavities in dead trees for roosting and nesting, but they are not the only birds that use them. Abandoned woodpecker holes are used by many other species as well, so they play a particularly important role in the community of birds. All the images below were made not far from my home in Massachusetts.

When pileated woodpecker chicks reach a certain size, they stick their little heads out of their nest cavity and beg loudly when a parent approaches with food, making for a pretty entertaining scene.

I found a pair of bluebirds nesting in this small woodpecker hole in a dead white birch tree along the edge of a beaver pond. Here you see the male delivering a caterpillar to the chicks.

This pair of shots shows the changing of the guard as the two parents swap incubation duties at their nest. These tree swallows are nesting in a tree cavity that I hollowed out myself. I think birds take even more readily to nest boxes made out of hollow logs than the more typical ones made from boards.

Barred owls like these also often nest in tree cavities as well. This is not necessarily a woodpecker hole, but who knows, perhaps this rotted out hollow in the tree could have started from a large excavation by a Pileated Woodpecker many years ago!

Thanks for tuning in to my adventures, and stay tuned. Soon, I’m heading off to Borneo after a nearly three year break, and I’ll be sharing updates on my social channels!

Stay safe everyone, and be sure to get your dose of nature therapy!

Warmest regards,

Tim Laman

PS. We are partnering with the Aves Gallery to showcase some of my very large format, Limited Edition, Bird-of-Paradise prints at the Ketchum Art Festival, from July 8-10 in Sun Valley, Idaho. If you are curious about my Limited Edition Birds-of-Paradise prints, you can learn more HERE.

5/20/22 5/20/22

Special Recognition from the National Geographic Museum

Dear Friends,

Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I opened an email from National Geographic recently, and saw the banner below? An advertisement for the re-opening of their museum with an exhibit of “The Greatest Wildlife Photographs”, and my image “Birds-of-Paradise Sunrise” was the featured image! This image is one of my all time favorites from my long efforts pursuing the ultimate bird-of-paradise images, so it’s very satisfying to see it get some special recognition like this.

Featured image

Bird-of-Paradise Sunrise

BIRD PLANET Update

I’m excited to report that my new book BIRD PLANET is now off to the printers (it will be in stores October 4). I’m really happy with the way it has come together. It has been great to have a chance to review my entire archive to choose the most inspirational images from all over the world.

If you didn’t catch it already, I want to remind you that I am offering a signed copy of BIRD PLANET (personalized if you like) bundled with a 12-inch print for $100. I’ll only have 100 copies to sell in this way, and more than have are already sold, so you are welcome to per-order now if you would like to lock that in. Books will ship in October. Follow this link to see the offer for the Signed Edition of BIRD PLANET.

As a little sneak preview, here are a few shots from the book. In selecting the images, my aim was to capture the diversity and beauty of birds, and inspire people to care for their habitats, and thus habitat for all wildlife and a healthier planet for all of us.

Whooper Swans Awake, Lake Kussharo, Hokkaido, Japan

Cobalt-winged Parakeets at Clay Lick, Amazon Rainforest, Ecuador

These and other images from the book are also available now in my special BIRD PLANET COLLECTION gallery.

Thanks for tuning in as always!

Stay safe everyone, and be sure to get your dose of nature therapy. It’s a beautiful time of year!

Warmest regards,

Tim Laman

PS. For all you ORANGUTAN fans, I think you will enjoy a segment I shot of the early life of a baby orangutan for the new Netflix series “Wild Babies”, which is now streaming. And to learn more about orangutans and the conservation work I’m involved with, please visit www.SaveWildOrangutans.org.

4/22/22 4/22/22

Celebrating Hornbills this Earth Day 2022

As I have done every year, I’m offering all my open edition prints on sale for Earth Day this year, and donating 50% of profits to conservation.

In celebration of the upcoming publication of my new book, BIRD PLANET, I have selected the conservation group Rangkong Indonesia (Indonesia Hornbill Conservation Society) to support this year. Hornbills have been a special interest of mine since my first trip to Borneo in 1987, and they feature prominently in BIRD PLANET. In fact the first chapter starts with my experience of seeing a Rhinoceros Hornbill on my first day in the forest. And as the charismatic fruit eating birds of the forest, they are super important seed dispersers and also ambassadors for rainforest conservation.

Rangkong Indonesia is the type of group I like to support because they work directly with indigenous communities in Borneo to protect forest habitat of the most critically endangered Helmeted Hornbill, as well as several other species. You can learn more about their work at rangkong.org.

Here are a few Hornbill shots that made the cut from my 25 years of hornbill photography for my BIRD PLANET book. They are all available in my print store and are on sale (but so are all my other prints, if Hornbills aren’t your thing!).

A young rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) tosses up a fig from a strangler fig tree (Ficus dubia) before swallowing it. A young Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) tosses a fig from a strangler fig tree (Ficus dubia) before swallowing it. Lowland rain forest of Gunung Palung National Park, Borneo, Indonesia.

Rhinoceros hornbills (Buceros rhinoceros) perched high in canopy with lowland rainforest behind. Gunung Palung National Park, Borneo, Indonesia.

Helmeted Hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil) male arrives at nest tree with wings spread for landing. The female is inside the dark opening visible on the left side of frame in the broken off branch. Budo-Sungai Padi National Park, Narathiwat Province, Thailand.

Behind-The-Scenes

Almost all my hornbills shots are made from high in the rainforest canopy. It’s a lot of work to rig ropes and build platforms and blinds in the tree tops, but it’s worth the effort to be able to capture moments of hornbill life in the wild. Here is a behind the scenes moment that wasn’t too much fun though - getting caught in a heavy downpour while trying to build a canopy blind in Thailand. You can see the video on my Instagram @TimLaman.

Hanging a bird print on your wall can help spread appreciation and awareness, which is what I’m all about. So thanks for your interest, and for helping support the work I do and the conservation groups that I work with in the field. Together we can make a difference!

Stay safe everyone, and be sure to get your dose of nature therapy!

Warmest regards,

Tim Laman

PS. If you didn’t see the announcement about the special offer to pre-order a signed copy of BIRD PLANET, you can check it out right HERE. Thanks!

4/14/22 4/14/22

Announcing my new book: BIRD PLANET

I’m excited to announce that I have just completed checking the proofs, and can now share that my new book “BIRD PLANET” will be published by Abrams in October, 2022. As most of you know by now, bird photography has been a special passion of mine for a long time. I have now pulled together my best bird images from my extensive assignments and travels around the world over the last 25 years into one volume celebrating the beauty and wonder of birds, and their importance as ambassadors for conservation of wild places.

Below is a little teaser - an example of an image from the book that has never been published before, and the story behind it. Hope you enjoy it. And further down is a link to pre-order a special signed edition of the book that I’m offering to subscribers first, which is bundled with a 12-inch print.

An adult roseate spoonbill preens in front of a group of lighter pink juvenile birds at the Alafia Bank Bird Sanctuary in Tampa Bay, Florida, USA. Bird bills come in all shapes and sizes, but the spoonbill’s bill is certainly one of the most unusual, and is used for catching prey by touch as the bird sweeps it back and forth in the water. We didn’t want to approach the birds too closely with our boat at the sanctuary, so I stepped into the water with my big lens on my tripod and started slowly wading towards them. This worked well, and I got close enough for this shot without disturbing the birds, but I was in over my waist in saltwater by the end, and taking a bit of risk with my equipment.

Behind the Scenes from BIRD PLANET:

By making a slow approach on foot instead of by boat, I was able to get close enough to skittish roseate spoonbills to get the above shot without disturbing them. Sometimes it is worth taking some risk to equipment (cameras and salt water don’t mix) in order to get the shot. I am shooting with a Canon 1D Mark II and Canon 600 mm f4 lens, 2x converter, and Gitzo tripod here in 2007. Photo by Zafer Kizlikaya.

BIRD PLANET is off to the printers soon, and will be shipping on October 4, 2022. Here is a sneak peak of the cover and full dust jacket, which is my image of scarlet ibises flying past the moon in Venezuela’s Orinoco River Delta, wrapped around the cover.

The book will be a 12x12 inch large format book, with 224 pages, and is organized geographically by region with chapter intros giving an overview of my fieldwork in each area. Stay tuned for more details to come as the publication date approaches. But in the mean time, I want to let you subscribers to Wildlife Diaries be the first to know that I am offering a signed copy of BIRD PLANET (personalized if you like) bundled with a 12-inch print for $100. I’ll only have 100 copies to sell in this way, so you are welcome to per-order now if you would like to lock that in. Books will ship after Oct 4. Follow this link to see the offer for the Signed Edition of BIRD PLANET.

Thanks for tuning in!

Stay safe everyone, and be sure to get your dose of nature therapy!

Warmest regards,

Tim Laman

PS. Just to let you know, next week I’ll be launching my Earth Day Fundraiser Print Sale for Bird Conservation featuring my BIRD PLANET collection. So keep your eye out for that announcement and thanks in advance for your support!

2/27/22 2/27/22

Backyard Birds in the Snow

I just wanted to send a brief note to let you know that I’m offering all of my open edition prints for 20% off through Valentine’s Day. If you or a loved one would enjoy one of my prints, this would be a good time to pick one.

It’s that time of year when the snow flies, and I love seeing what I can capture of my backyard birds when I’m not away traveling. There is something about the birds in the snow that is simply beautiful, and I enjoy trying to capture unique moments. We’ve added a few new ones to the gallery - sneak peak below.

You can browse my full galleries at: www.timlamanfineart.com

Why do I keep going out and photographing the same birds? Because sometimes you just catch something unexpected, like this little Black-capped Chickadee, all fluffed up into a ball against the cold, hopping between perches. That’s the great thing about nature photography. There is no such thing as the perfect shot, so you are never done. Nature can always surprise you, and the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

“Chickadee in Mid-Hop” is now available for purchase in my fine art store, and will definitely put a smile on your face.

More Backyard Birds New to the Gallery

Here are a couple more shots new to the gallery:

A Blue Jay perches among the snow covered branches of a white pine.

A Red-bellied Woodpecker is unfazed by the falling snow.

Tim in his Back Yard

I’m lucky enough to have woods behind my house, and when I place my feeders at the edge of the yard, I can photograph birds landing on the natural perches where they stop en route to the feeders. A blind isn’t absolutely necessary, but I do find many birds come in much closer if I’m hiding, and it also keeps the snow off! Here are a few behind-the-scenes shots.

Thanks for tuning in. Stay safe everyone, and be sure to get your dose of nature therapy!

Warmest regards,

Tim Laman

2/8/22 2/8/22

How We Filmed the Great Argus Pheasant

The Great Argus pheasant is one of the most spectacular, but also most elusive birds in Borneo. I have been doing fieldwork in the rainforest of Gunung Palung for over thirty years, and have spent a sum total of over five years of my life in the forest there. Yet I have only seen a Great Argus with my own eyes once. Nonetheless, I had a dream of capturing images of this bird performing its courtship display.

Why did I think it was even possible to photograph such a rare and elusive bird? The reason is that male Argus choose a small clearing in the forest, and clear some of the leave to make a display arena. With enough searching in areas where we heard Argus calling, we were able to locate a number of these courts. We then monitored them with trail cameras to see which ones were active. Finally, using modern digital cameras in waterproof housings connected to infra-red triggers (which we call “camera traps”), we “staked out” these courts and hoped to capture footage of displaying males.

As it turned out, Argus male frequent their courts much less regularly than we expected, but never the less, as you can see in the images below, we were ultimately successful! Read on below to learn more about the efforts it took over two years to capture footage for the full behavioral sequence in the recent BBC series “The Mating Game”. As narrator David Attenborough says in his interview about the film on the BBC website (HERE), “I’m sure it’s the first time its been filmed in the wild”.

Argus Male Displays to a Female

This is the moment I most wanted to capture - a male Argus Pheasant displaying to a female! At first glance, this display may remind you of a peacock. But look closely. A peacock’s display is made up of its tail fan alone. The Argus on the other hand, is spreading its wing feathers, covered in amazing eye-spots, to create this mesmerizing presentation. The male’s head is hidden, tucked behind one of his wings, but he can still watch the female through a tiny gap in the fold of his wing. His long central tail feathers, cut off at the top of this shot, also are being shaken and are visible to the female above the fan.

At one point, a branch fell right onto the middle of the male’s court at one location. When he came back, before dragging away the branch, the male performed a series of practice displays facing toward the stick, as if it was an imaginary female in his mind. This gives us a good sense of what the female is seeing from her point of view!

At one point, a branch fell right onto the middle of the In this shot, the female is on the other side of the male so we get the backstage view of his display. You can see how he holds his head to one side and is peering through a small gap in the fold of his wing to keep an eye on her, and direct his display directly toward her.

Behind the Scenes

Filming the Argus with Camera Traps

I started this project in 2019 working with Silverback Films to try to film a sequence for the program “The Mating Game” for the BBC. I made three trips to Gunung Palung that year, locating courts, setting up the camera systems, and training my collaborators in use of the equipment. In a partnership with the National Park, ranger Darmawan (his full name) took on the task of checking the camera traps in the field every two weeks, changing batteries, and swapping out memory cards, also working with Gunung Palung Orangutan Project research director and photographer Wahyu Susanto, who helped manage the project in my absence, and send back results.

Although originally I had planned to return more regularly, I was unable to do so because of covid, so Darmawan and Wahyu kept the traps running for over two years. We consulted regularly on WhatsApp, making adjustments to camera positions, troubleshooting equipment, and keeping things going. As you can see in the behind-the-scenes video on the BBC’s website (HERE) where David Attenborough is talking about how difficult filming with camera traps are, these men are the stars who kept everything working and put enough time in in the field so that we eventually captured enough footage to tell the story of these incredible birds.

When I started this project, I assumed that the Argus males would behave something like Birds-of-Paradise, visiting their courts daily during a peak breeding season. We just had to find the courts and be filming during those peak periods. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Over the two years of the project, we found no regular seasonal patterns of visits, and visits to the courts went in spurts and were completely unpredictable. Males did show up more often on their own, and did some practice displays, but during the entire project, there were only six times where we filmed a male displaying to a female! Still, that was enough, since we captured them from different angles and with different camera positions that could be edited into the sequence!

The original plan was that once we had an idea of seasons and the most active courts, I would go out to spend a month or so sitting in a blind, to try to film the closeups that would help make a good sequence. Since I couldn’t go, Wahyu stepped up, and made four trips to Gunung Palung to try to film the Argus in person from a blind. He put in an incredible 40 days in blinds! Finally during his last trip, a male came and spent over two hours at the court, calling, clearing leaves, and giving Wahyu plenty of chances to get some much needed closeups. So hats off to Wahyu for pulling off that difficult assignment that really made the sequence come together.

The sign of an active court - some small feathers dropped by an Argus!

Gunung Palung National Park ranger and Argus camera trap monitor Darmawan attaches a mount to a tree on the edge of a court in preparation for deploying a camera. In the back, Wahyu checks the court for fresh sign.

Darmawan adjusts a camera trap box mounted higher on a tree for an overview shot of the court.

Tim, Darmawan, and Wahyu run though a checklist on the remote camera, double checking all settings. When you are going to leave a camera in the forest for two weeks or more, you need to make sure everything is set!.

The moment of truth: Arriving to check a camera after two weeks, and opening the back of the waterproof box to see if there are any results. Is the camera still working? Are there any hits? Are they Argus Pheasants, or just bearded pigs, mouse deer, and pig-tailed macaques? Camera trapping is very challenging, but when you capture something unique, it can be very exciting and rewarding as well.

Succeeding in filming or photographing aspects of animal behavior that have never been shared with a wide audience before is one of the things I get most excited about. This Argus project has been a great example of that. There are still so many cool stories that remain to be revealed from the natural world!

Thanks for tuning in to my adventures. This one got a bit long, but I hope you enjoyed it if you read this far! Do let me know if you like these in-depth back stories to my work. You can always drop an email to studio@timlaman.com.

Stay safe everyone, and be sure to get your dose of nature therapy!

Warmest regards,
Tim Laman

PS. We are offering a 20% discount on prints in honor of Valentine's Day. So if you were thinking about purchasing a Tim Laman original print for yourself or a loved one, now is a good time! www.TimLamanFineArt.com.

PPS. If you’d like to see the full episode of “The Mating Game”, you can find it streaming on the BBC in the UK, or on Discovery+ in the US. Here is a link to the trailer. You’ll see a brief glimpse of our Argus display in there in the middle! The Mating Game

1/6/22 1/6/22

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.

12/1/21 12/1/21

Ways You Can Help Orangutans this Giving Tuesday

Dear Friends,

It’s Giving Tuesday today, and I hope you are giving some thought to how you can help out the causes you care about. Here at Tim Laman Photography, we are supporting our long-term partner the “Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program” and their campaign “Save Wild Orangutans”.

Here are four ways you can be engaged:

Make a one-time donation HERE. https://www.savewildorangutans.org/donate/
Join the Team! Sign up to make a monthly donation HERE. https://www.savewildorangutans.org/join-the-team/. As a perk of being a regular donor, even for a small amount like $5 or $10/month, you will receive our “Orangutan Diaries” updates from the field.
Buy an Orangutan print today. It’s the last day of our Holiday Print Sale, and 50% of profits will be donated directly to Save Wild Orangutans. Visit my gallery HERE. https://www.timlamanfineart.com/orangutans
Join my Live Art Sale & Conservation Fundraiser tomorrow, Dec 1 at 6PM Eastern. I will be selling prints from my inventory here in the studio. Half of profits from orangutan prints will also be donated to Save Wild Orangutans, and there are many unique orangutan prints in this collection. Check my Instagram or FB tomorrow Dec 1 for details.

Mist in the Canopy, Gunung Palung

At SAVE WILD ORANGUTANS, the orangutans themselves are of course the key flagship species we focus attention on. But what wild orangutans need is healthy rainforest habitat like the lowland forest of Gunung Palung, pictured above. When we work to protect habitat for orangutans, we save the entire spectrum of biodiversity in the rich lowland forests of Borneo. So please think about that as you contemplate how you can help this Giving Tuesday. You can learn a lot more about all the ways the team in Indonesia is working toward this goal of forest habitat protection at the main website www.savegporangutans.org.

The Incredible Biodiversity of Gunung Palung

As one of the very best remaining lowland forests in all of Borneo, Gunung Palung harbors an incredible variety of creatures besides orangutans. Here are just a few examples:

Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) adult male. Perched in the canopy of the Borneo rain forest.

How Do We Save The Forest and All This Biodiversity?

Youth gather for World Orangutan Day in Ketapang, West Kalimantan

It’s all about getting the local communities around Gunung Palung to realize that protecting the forest is in their long term best interest. It starts with the kids, and goes right on up to village leaders and government officials. That’s why the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program, with its staff of nearly fifty Indonesians, works at all levels to spread this message.

So thanks for considering your support for Orangutans this Giving Tuesday. I hope that one of the ways I have suggested above will work for you to lend a hand!

Warmest regards,

Tim Laman

PS. Today is the last day of my Holiday Sale and Fundraiser at TimLamanFineArt.com. All prints are 30% off till midnight tonight Nov 30!

11/27/21 11/27/21

Orangutan Print Sale for Conservation

2021 has been another unusual year, but I’m still feeling thankful. This thanksgiving holiday, I want to help raise awareness and support for Orangutan Conservation in Borneo. 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 has been a big part of what I do. But it has now been two years since I was last in Borneo in documenting orangutans. 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.

That Special Connection

Ways You Can Help Support Orangutans

1) Become a supporting member of the Save Wild Orangutans initiative. Commit to a monthly donation of any amount from $5 on up to support the conservation efforts and receive our periodic blog updates. Check it out here:

https://www.savewildorangutans.org/join-the-team/

2) Buy an orangutan print to support the cause and give yourself a nice reminder of your support for orangutan conservation. Or give a print as a gift! I am donating 50% of profits from orangutan print sales to Save Wild Orangutans until Dec 1 (Giving Tuesday). All prints in my orangutan gallery are on sale, but here are a few examples:

12 inch square prints are on sale for $105, including “Live Streaming - Borneo 2020”, which was our most popular print during last years’ fundraiser. A fun print to hang in your bathroom, perhaps??

30 inch prints are now $350!

As the year winds down, there are good signs of hope for a better year ahead for all of us and let’s hope for orangutans as well. Thanks for your support, and please do whatever you can to help spread the word for orangutan conservation. As Margaret Mead famously said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”

I believe that. Let’s do this together.

Happy Thanksgiving to all,

Tim

PS. If you’d like to learn more about our orangutan conservation and research work, here are the key websites:

Save Wild Orangutans – the portal for our community of supporters

https://www.savewildorangutans.org

Gunung Palung Orangutan Project home page

https://savegporangutans.org

11/11/21 11/11/21

Birds-of-Paradise and Orangutan Fundraiser is Live

As we near the holiday season I’m reminded once again of how fortunate my family and I have been to weather this pandemic relatively unscathed. I hope you have been as fortunate, though I’m sure some of you suffered losses of loved ones, and my heartfelt sympathies go out to you. It’s been a tough couple years.

As we get through this, I am feeling like I want to devote some energy and resources to helping out the people and conservation activities that I care deeply about in Indonesia, where things have been especially tough. The best way I can come up with to do that, is to raise funds by selling my art, so I want to let you know that for all bird-of-paradise and orangutan print purchases during my Holliday Sale, which is now live, I will donate 50% of profits to the two charities that I have been supporting the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program, and Papua Konservasi dan Komunitas.

Please visit my online gallery through the link below, and consider a purchase for yourself or as a gift. You can read more about the two organizations in the links below as well.

Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise

Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-Paradise Performing is now available for purchase in my fine art store HERE.

Collecting Square Bird-of-Paradise Prints

Many of my Bird-of-Paradise images crop very nicely to a square format, and we have been offering a growing selection of square prints starting at 12x12 inches. These very affordable prints ($150 discounted to $105 each during the Holiday Sale), are striking when displayed in a grouping of 2, 3, or 4. They make a great conversation piece, brighten up any space, and proceeds help to support bird-of-paradise conservation. And if you already have one or two, you can add more and display them in various groupings which I have enjoyed doing around my house.

See the “Birds-of-Paradise Square Prints Collection” HERE, and help support Bird-of-Paradise conservation.

Thanks for tuning in and considering joining my fundraiser. If you’d like to learn more about the conservation groups I’m supporting and what they are doing, here are their individual websites.

Papua Konservasi

Save Wild Orangutans

I will follow up soon with another newsletter sharing more about the Gunung Palung Orangutan Project and their work that I am supporting.

Stay safe everyone, and be sure to get your dose of nature therapy!

Warmest regards,

Tim Laman

PS. We have added Greeting Cards to our store this holiday season especially featuring my birds in the snow images. You can customize the inside, and get discounts for boxes of 10 or 25. Check them out HERE.