I’ve spent the last 10 days or so photographing an Anna’s Hummingbird nest in a small natural area, walking distance from home! It’s been such a gift to have something this amazing to photograph during this crisis.
I’m happy and sad to report the nest is now empty. I witnessed both youngsters learning to fly and have every reason to believe both are doing well!
I’m curious what effects the basic shutdown of our society is having on the natural world.
Since I suddenly have so much time on my hands, (like a lot of human being), I’m going to start blogging again.
I have this reoccurring thought that once this virus storm blows over, the natural world may be in a much better place. It might be appreciated like never before. I’m hoping to start hearing stories about the smog disappearing over Los Angeles, like it did in China. The slowing down of human life, industry, etc will have a profound effect on everything.
I’m starting a new photo project: I’m taking my camera out every single day, and posting one or more pics of wild creatures I see. You can see my progress on Facebook and soon on my website and maybe in this blog. Nature and the wild beings that live in it have always given me perspective, joy and hope and I need those things now, more than ever.
These Wild Turkey’s were the first critters I came upon on Monday morning, the first day of this project!
Bobcats have been on my short “list” of most desirable animals to photograph since I started down this path. I’ve seen and photographed a few, but the images have all been lousy, really lousy. Well, ‘it’ finally happened! It’s hard to describe the feeling when I ‘get’ something special. Happy. Relieved. Tearful.
My business has done OK the last few years – I’m an artist, so that isn’t really saying much *LOL*…But it has stopped growing. I have big goals that aren’t being met, artistically, wildlife conservation wise and financial. Its time to shake shit up. I’m not waiting anymore.
For years, I’ve thought of doing a Kickstarter or GoFundMe campaign (crowd funding platforms). I love the concept – simply ask for the money to self publish a book, get new equipment, travel, etc. So every few months, I start browsing one of the above websites, sure that I’m going to move forward with my own campaign. Invariably, I end up reading about someone who needs the money much more than I do. A couple of times, I’ve ended up crying all over my keyboard and donating to a cause like this one: Jasmine’s Tumor
Enter Patreon . What makes this different, is I’m going to offer people who love my work a great return on small amounts of money. Patron’s will be more like subscribers. They will get new and different content than I’ve ever offered before. I can’t wait.
Stay tuned.
..but what happens next? I’ll put it on the website, Facebook, Instagram, maybe even twitter if I ever figure out how the hell that works.
I feel this is a very strong image. Super gusty winds are ruffling up the plumage on this eagles head and I love the clean white back round. I might sell a few prints at the Artisan’s market, and that’s great. But, there has got to be more.
I’m making a serious attempt to change the way my business, Elster Photography operates. While travelling up and down the west coast selling my photographs in a tent has it’s charms, it’s not what I want to do anymore – at least not every weekend. I’m going to work towards (manifest) a business that gives me more camera time and more family time. My true passion and talent lies in being in the field, camera in hand, with the wild things.
This blog will certainly have some of my wildlife images and stories, but it’s also going to be a place where I touch upon my business successes, failures, rants and more. I’ll probably talk about techniques and camera equipment from time to time, even though the technical stuff doesn’t interest me much.
