January Update

Posted on 12. Jan, 2009 by Paul Burwell in Everything, Monthly Updates, Wildlife, Workshops, Tours and Courses

Hello all,

If it’s January and you’re in Edmonton, you definitely know that it’s winter. Cold and snowy weather and then every once in a while it’s snowy and cold.

We’ve got two spots left in the Winter Wildlife Photography Workshop that begins January 21st at the Triple “D” Game Farm. If you can fit this into your schedule, this is the year to do it. They have three feet of snow at the Triple “D” offices and haven’t had prime winter conditions like this for many years. Winter is an awesome time of year for wildlife photography at Triple “D” as the animals are at their most comfortable and have their beautiful winter coats.

We’ve still got a couple of spots open for my Spring Black Bear Photography Workshop in Manitoba. This workshop will let you safely get close enough to wild Black Bears to make some really compelling images. Additionally, we’ll spend mornings on safari into the park to see what other wildlife we can find.

Our June Triple “D” workshop is sold out with three people on the waiting list but I’ve still got a couple of spots open in my July and October workshops.

Speaking of our workshops, all attendees to the workshops are eligible to submit pictures for inclusion into a book that I put together and send out to the participants. The book serves as a keep-sake for the participants and lets them see the sort of images their fellow participants got out of the workshop. Here’s a preview of the book I produced for the July workshop.  It’s worth noting that all the photos in the book are the workshop participants, not mine.

All our workshops are offered through my company, The Wildlife Photography Academy. There’s a brand new, freshly designed web site and you should check it out when you get a chance.

If you, like a lot of North Americans, are suffering through a long cold winter, you’ll hopefully get some warmth from this month’s update that focuses on some spring wildlife of Alberta, and specifically Red Fox and their Kits.

With the help of the fine listeners to local Country radio station CFCW and CFCW’s sales representative extraordinaire Marty Stevens, I was able to find the location of a couple of fox dens this spring. This afforded me the opportunity to make some really interesting images of these cute, fuzzy critters.

The first place I successfully visited for Red Fox kits was Antler Lake just a few minutes east of Edmonton. The foxes have a den built into the side of what used to be the bank of the lake. The lake has since receded 20 or 30 metres and this leaves plenty of space and safety for the foxes to den up there.

The lighting conditions weren’t optimal, but I still managed an image or two I’m pleased with.

(Remember, you can view larger versions of these images by clicking on them.)

• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/250th of a second at F4.5, 500mm F4L IS, ISO 400
• Evaluative meeting
• Jobu-Design Black Widow Gimbal on a Gitzo 3540XLS tripod

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The next place I got a tip on proved considerably better for photography if not for the health of the foxes. I found out that an industrious fox had found a place to den right along the side of a major highway in a city just 20KM north east of Edmonton. A short 25 minute drive took me to the north facing den site along the busy highway. I was fortunate that there was room to pull my vehicle well off the road where I could be safely out of the way of traffic.

I was worried that the police might stop and harass me but in my many visits to the location, the only vehicles that stopped were other photographers and one fellow who felt it was extremely unfair to the foxes that I was there several mornings in a row documenting their lives. He felt strongly that no one had the right to photograph the fox’s lives and how would I like it if he photographed me? Needless to say, we agreed to disagree.

My first trip to this location was on a lovely spring evening just as the sun was setting. The den was fairly easy to spot as it was dug into the side of a hill along the highway with a couple of entrance/exits. There was no activity for quite a time when suddenly the vixen appeared, looked around, determined I wasn’t going to eat her kits (I was inside my vehicle, using it as a blind) stretched, looked around a bit and finally trotted off to find some food for the family. I got the following pictures just before she left for her hunt.

• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/320th of a second at F6.3, 500mm F4L IS, ISO 400
• Evaluative metering at -2/3 to hold the highlights in the bright evening sun,
• Saddle-shaped bean bag support

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• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/640th of a second at F6.3, 500mm F4L IS, ISO 400
• Evaluative metering at -2/3 to hold the highlights in the bright evening sun,
• Saddle-shaped bean bag support

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The vixen’s kits were considerably younger than the ones I’d spotted at Antler Lake and I was pleased to catch a couple of images of them playing and wrestling that first evening.

• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/320th of a second at F9, 500mm F4L IS,ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -2/3 to hold the white highlights
• Bean bag support

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• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/320th of a second at F6.3, 500mm F4L IS, ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -1/3 to hold the whites
• Bean bag support

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I was reasonably happy with the images I’d made, but the sun was very low by the time the foxes emerged for the evening, the sun was close to setting and was coming from about 3/4 of the way behind them most of the time which is not even close to ideal lighting conditions.

I decided to return the next morning as I figured the sun would be at a better angle and I guessed that the foxes would be active in the morning too.

Sure enough, a couple of hours after sunrise, the vixen appeared, checked me over carefully again and then trotted off to hunt for breakfast. Leaving her four young kits to play and romp until they tired themselves out enough to return to the den for a nap and wait for mom’s return. I returned for a number of mornings until I got the images I was looking at and before I got distracted by the next set of foxes.

Here’s mom checking me over in the morning before leaving for the hunt.

• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/1250th of a second at F7.1, 500mm F4L IS, 1.4x TC @700mm, ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -1/3 to hold the white highlights
• Bean bag support

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The fox kits were very cautious and would often scamper back to one of the den’s entrances if something scared them. A large noisy semi-trailer truck was sure to send them scampering for the safety of the den.

• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/1250th of a second at F6.3, 500mm F4L IS, ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -1/3 to hold the whites
• Bean bag support

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• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/1250th of a second at F6.3, 500mm F4L IS, ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -1/3 to hold the whites
• Bean bag support

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The fox kits were very active and enjoyed playing and wrestling with each other. Even though they obviously have sharp teeth, I never heard a yelp or complaint during their play-wrestling.

• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/2000th of a second at F6.3, 500mm F4L IS, ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -1/3 to hold the whites
• Bean bag support

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• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/2000th of a second at F6.3, 500mm F4L IS, ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -1/3 to hold the whites
• Bean bag support

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And like many youngsters, they were very curious about their surroundings and would play keep-away with whatever was lying around. I suspect the refuse in the following picture was left over from a previous meal.

• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/1250th of a second at F6.3, 500mm F4L IS, ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -1/3 to hold the whites
• Bean bag support

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• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/1250th of a second at F6.3, 500mm F4L IS, ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -1/3 to hold the whites
• Bean bag support

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And when they weren’t doing any of those things, they just hung around looking darn cute.

• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/1600th of a second at F6.3, 500mm F4L IS, ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -1/3 to hold the whites
• Bean bag support

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• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/1250th of a second at F6.3, 500mm F4L IS, ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -1/3 to hold the whites
• Bean bag support

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• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/1600th of a second at F7.1, 500mm F4L IS, 1.4x Teleconverter @700mm, ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -1/3 to hold the whites
• Bean bag support

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These next images will give you a sense of the fox’s two entrance/exits to their den as well as its precarious position alongside a highway. I never saw the foxes venture towards the highway and I hope they managed to grow up enough and move away from the den without getting hurt or killed in traffic.

• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/160th of a second at F11, 24-70 F2.8L @45mm, ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -1/3 to hold the whites
• Singh-Ray Lighter/Brighter Warming Polarizer
• Bean bag support

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• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/250th of a second at F11, 24-70 F2.8L @47mm, ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -1/3 to hold the whites
• Singh-Ray Lighter/Brighter Warming Polarizer
• Bean bag support

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I counted a total of four Red Fox Kits. But, they were so active it was difficult to get them all into one picture. Here’s my best attempt when 3 of the 4 struck a great pose with the fourth hanging out in the background.

• Canon 1Ds Mark II, 1/1600th of a second at F7.1, 500mm F4L IS, 1.4x Teleconverter @ 700mm, ISO 400
• Evaluative Metering at -1/3 to hold the whites
• Bean bag support

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That’s it for this update. My next update will continue documenting my foxy spring. I hope you enjoy the stories and photography as much as I enjoy making them.

Questions, comments and critiques are always welcome and encouraged.

Please contact me if you are interested in obtaining the rights to use one of my images or to purchase a fine art print.

If you enjoy this newsletter, please forward it to a friend or two.

Best regards,

Paul

The tools used to produce the photographs in this newsletter include cameras, flashes and lenses from Canon, flash bracket from Wimberley, tripod heads and lens plates from Really Right Stuff, gimbal tripod head from Jobu Design, camera bags from Tamrac, filters from Singh-Ray, software from Adobe, Nik Software and PictureCode, the FJ Cruiser from Toyota and the SX4 Crossover from Suzuki.

Tags: blurb, cute, fox, january, kits, pups, red, triple d game farm, update, vulpes vulpes, workshop, youngsters