NEWS RELEASE
SAULT AREA ARTS COUNCIL
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The Sault Area Arts Council (SAAC) invites photographers to register for the second annual Chippewa County in Photographs event, which kicks off on May 31, 2024. The deadline to register is May 25, 2024.

Chippewa County in Photographs gives 48 photographers 48 hours to document 48 sections of Chippewa County. Beginning at 9 p.m. on Friday, June 7, and ending at 9 p.m. on Sunday, June 9, 48 photographers will explore specific sections of Chippewa County with their chosen camera medium – film, digital camera, iPhone, or any other alternative process. The resulting images will be on display at the Alberta House gallery for the month of August. Best in Show will receive a $300 award; first runner-up will receive a $200 award; and second runner-up will receive a $100 award.

Participants do not have to be residents of Chippewa County, but they must be in Chippewa County from June 7 through June 9 in order to participate in the event.

“Our 48/48/48 show is so thrilling because we are able to see the perspective of so many people within our community and how they connect with the landscape around us,” said Robin Sorquist, SAAC Gallery Director. “It is a joy to meet people of all different ages and interests as the area is documented year after year. This will also give us a fantastic perspective of how the landscape of the EUP changes over time as this show continues.”

Interested photographers can register for the event or learn more about it by visiting https://www.saultartcenter.com/august2024. A non-refundable $25 entry fee is required to register.

Chippewa County in Photographs event timeline:

• May 25 – Registration deadline
• May 31 – Kick-off reception; map selection
• June 7-9 – Photographs taken
• June 14 – Winners selected
• August 1-31 – Gallery show
• August 2 – Awards reception

The mission of the Sault Area Arts Council is to encourage all people to lead more artful lives through opportunities to learn about, create, and market the visual arts. Its purpose is to sponsor and encourage cultural and educational activities in Sault Ste. Marie and surrounding areas, sponsor cooperative planning, research, fund raising and educational programs, and undertake such other services deemed necessary to encourage participation in and appreciation of the arts by all citizens in the area.

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Editor’s note: This is a guest column from Gavin King Regan, a 15-year-old local wildlife photographer.

Have a camera that’s been rotting in your closet because you just can’t figure out how to get a sharp photo? Just got one, but all your photos look too dark or too bright? Do you just want to get off automatic mode? Here is what you need to know to take the perfect picture and the best places locally to get a shot! 

First, you need to understand the basics, which are actually much simpler than you might think. What do I mean by the basics? Generally, the most fundamental parts of a usable image are shutter speed, aperture and ISO. All other factors are secondary. These are collectively known as the exposure triangle, because if one is adjusted, another must be changed in order to have the right amount of light in your photo.

Shutter Speed – Shutter speed is how fast the light blocking curtains in your camera move which, in turn, determines how long your sensor is exposed to the light bouncing off whatever subject or scene is in front of your camera. This is known as the ‘exposure.’ The longer your sensor is exposed to the light, the brighter your image is going to be. The downside is that if you or your subject is moving, a long exposure can introduce blur to your image. A good rule of thumb is to try to keep your shutter speed at least the focal length of your lens. For example, if your lens is zoomed in to 300mm, 1/300 of a second should be sufficient to prevent blur caused by camera shake, but you may need to increase the shutter speed depending on how fast your subject is moving. Now, if you want to use a shorter exposure than your focal length, it may be prudent to use a tripod or to rest your camera on a solid surface to compensate for the longer exposure.

Aperture – This is the circular collection of small blades inside your camera that open and close to determine the amount of light that reaches the sensor. It is controlled by the number with the ‘f’ next to it on your camera’s display. The higher the f number (or f-stop), the smaller the aperture gets and the less light will reach your sensor. But you will have a greater depth of field (the amount of the picture in focus in front of and behind what you focus on). The smaller the f-stop, the wider the aperture gets and the more light will reach your sensor, but you will have a smaller depth of field. This may seem confusing at first, but it’s pretty easy once you can remember what increases and what decreases.

ISO – ISO determines how sensitive your camera’s sensor is to light. Increasing ISO will make your pictures brighter but it will also cause them to be noisy (grainy) and lessen the sharpness of your image. Think of it as artificially making your image brighter. The higher the ISO, the more noise, so try to keep it as low as possible without compromising the shot. What do I mean by that? I’m saying don’t sacrifice the needed shutter speed to freeze your subject just because you’re trying to shoot at a low ISO level. This photo of a spider on an apple sapling was taken at ISO 1600, the highest my camera will go, and it looks fine. Just be sure that you expose your shot properly as noise is most apparent in the darker areas of your photo.

There are other intricacies to the wide world of photography that I am unable to explain in one article. To the beginner wildlife photographer, I would say get a camera, get outside and get close. The amount of wildlife inside your house (bugs, mice, etc) pales in comparison to the great outdoors. But where to go? With the many natural parks, ponds and places in the greater Lansing area it can be difficult to narrow down any one location to find a suitable subject to photograph. To that end, I have put together a list of a few good places to turn your lens and some of the birds you might get to shoot there:

Hawk Island Park is a very popular recreational area, which also offers an array of wildlife photography opportunities. The small lake at the park is a habitat for several species of waterfowl, including Canada geese. In fact, this time of year is one of the best for seeing waterfowl in Michigan.

The Lansing River Trail, specifically the part of this trail that goes right through Scott’s Woods Park before running into Hawk Island, is a good place to get some great shots! This shot of a house sparrow backlit by the sun was taken on one of my favorite points on the trail where it opens up by the creek. You can also see several species of shorebird and get quite close to the song sparrows as they sing their beautiful bubbling song in the bushes on the bank. I also spotted some signs that beavers live here just recently, for the first time in all the years I’ve walked the trail.

Fenner Nature Center has 134 acres of land and over four miles of trails featuring various habitats. The park and trails are open everyday from 8 a.m. to dusk. The nature center has several observation decks and a bird viewing blind but visitors are asked to stay on the trail, which can be a serious drawback for a wildlife photographer.

 The upside to a nature center like this is that visitors are more likely to meet birders or other photographers who may be able to point them to an interesting subject. This does, however, bring up a very important point in photography: it’s not the subject that makes a good photo, nor is it the camera. A shot of a bird high up in the canopy in a tangle of branches against a plain blue sky with the light of the midday sun is still a bad shot whether it’s a duck at fifty megapixels or a dunlin at five. This shot of a common gray squirrel was taken using a 250mm camera setup with just six megapixels but thanks to good composition and technique, it’s a great shot. If you don’t live by anything especially intriguing, you can still take extraordinary pictures of ordinary subjects.

Lake Lansing is another promising destination. Over 150 species of bird can be seen here (depending on what time of year it is), including blackbirds, warblers, herons and waterfowl such as wood ducks and Canada geese. The water itself is a pretty good opportunity to get some photos, but the area also features an expansive park on the north side of the lake that could offer some top-notch photo opportunities.

While I did focus on avian life in this list, also note that in all of these places you can also find various other animal species including whitetail deer, skunks, foxes, garter snakes, frogs and turtles. Finally, remember that the best camera is the one that’s in your hands right now, whether that’s your phone (which nowadays are actually rather impressive) or an $18,000 camera and lens setup (yes, that is a thing). This is the best shot I have ever gotten of a garter snake. It was taken with a Nikon Coolpix B500 which can control neither shutter speed, nor aperture. 

I’m not saying go out and try to get good shots with a bad camera (if your camera cannot control shutter speed or aperture, I would suggest getting one that can), but I am saying that if you’re not getting good shots, it’s most likely you, not your camera. 

Want more tips and tricks to improve your photography? Follow me on Instagram (@Gavinkingphotography) where I post weekly photos and pro tips on how to get your own! Or you can go to kingwildlifephotography.com to sign up for my email list where I share deals, discounts, and ways to become a better photographer. And now that you know how to get the shot and where to go, it’s time to get your camera, get out and take your first great photo!

This article first appeared in Issue 19 of our digital magazine CURIOUS. 

Fans of the David Attenborough BBC series Dynasties may remember a particularly harrowing scene in which a group of penguins got stuck in a ditch during a storm and couldn’t get out. It was a memorable episode, not only because of the desperate plight of the birds that would die if left to face the elements but also because the film crew made the difficult decision to break the “never intervene” rule that’s considered by some to be the golden principle of wildlife filmmaking.

The idea is that, no matter how upsetting it gets, an animal in danger shouldn’t be saved by humans. However, as “wild” environments have become increasingly influenced by human activity, the outlook on if and when it’s ethical to intervene has been debated.

Is it following nature’s course to let a turtle drown in fishing nets? What about letting fertile nests die during floods made worse by anthropogenically driven climate change? If we as a species are creating new and unnatural threats, is it our responsibility to undo them when presented with an opportunity to save an animal’s life?

We spoke to the directors and producers of the BBC’s Planet Earth III, Matt Brandon, Mike Gunton, and Nick Easton, to see how they approached the tricky subject during filming. Episode one of the series presents the troubling case of Raine Island: a place that’s the largest known rookery on Earth for green turtles but is slowly sinking beneath rising sea levels.

First Nations people have been protecting turtles here for thousands of years, and the Planet Earth III film crew got involved in helping some stranded turtles that would have otherwise perished on the rocks make it safely back into the ocean.

What has been the rule about filmmakers intervening with wild animals?

Matt Brandon (MB): I think the rules are changing, but one of the golden rules of wildlife filmmaking is that when you’re witnessing a natural event, you really try not to get involved. It can be really difficult sometimes when you’re watching those things, but that is the rule.

Why are the rules changing?

MB: What we’re seeing now is that many of the things that our crews are witnessing around the world are no longer natural. We actually do cover that in one of our “The Making Of” sequences, where[…] Columbus crabs are floating in something like 12 million tonnes of plastic and discarded nets that are thrown into the ocean every year.

How does that trash affect the crabs?

MB: For the Columbus crabs, it’s no bad thing, they are actually adapting quite well. But for turtles, it can be absolutely tragic. Over the period where they were filming, [the crew] found numerous turtles trapped in nets and there was no way those turtles could survive, so they did step in and cut them free.

Were they successful?

MB: I think they were able to save all bar one of them, so that’s probably the right choice and a justifiable thing to do.

Do the crews operate alone or are there people on hand to help with these decisions?

Mike Gunton (MG): We work with scientists and field workers so it’s not just a crew themselves, it’s often monitored or driven by working with scientific teams who make that decision as well.

We saw teams helping out with stranded sea turtles on Raine Island. What was the story there?

Nick Easton: I think to explain that Raine Island situation, there’s also cultural sensitivities [at play].

The Wuthathi people’s association with Raine Island [as the traditional custodians and owners] goes back 2,000 years at least. So, it’s not our place to intervene, it’s their place in which we are guests, so we took their lead there and our crews helped.

What can people expect from Planet Earth III?

MG: What Planet Earth III does; I mean it still has all the DNA of Planet Earth[…] the cinematic, extraordinary, visually rich, jaw-dropping visuals, amazing animal dramas, magic carpet ride to the four corners of the planet. But it has this other context, which is that we’re now in a new natural history, of a new time in our lives, where the planet is changing and there’s this huge force which Darwin would call a selection pressure. And that selection pressure is humanity.

Planet Earth III is available now on BBC iPlayer.

CURIOUS magazine is a digital magazine from IFLScience featuring interviews, experts, deep dives, fun facts, news, book excerpts, and much more. Issue 22 is out now.

Andriana Green captures the unique patterns and colors of the human iris
before transforming the results into beautiful works of art.

Stunning macro images show the ‘windows of the soul’ looking like other-worldly planets, as a yin and yang and also connected as wheels on a bike.

The colorful new photography trend has increasingly seen couples and families getting their pupils snapped up close for a unique keepsake.

Green says everyone’s eye is different, reflecting our personality, emotions, and identity.

Her photos show the complex and intricate textures hidden within the human iris which gives our eyes a unique character.

“I used to think people had just green, brown, or blue eyes,” said Andriana, who lives with husband Cameron and their three-year-old daughter Nicole. “But with these pictures you can really see all the different lines and areas of the eye, everyone really is unique,” she said, comparing them to snowflakes or fingerprints.

“I find them truly beautiful and fascinating. They look like something from outer space, almost like planets by themselves.

“I’m originally from Bulgaria and found out about the trend a few months ago when we went back to visit some family. There was a big international business fair taking place in the city, so we went along to see what was happening and that’s when I saw it.”

PHOTOGRAPHY IDEAS: Say Cheese… for a Thousand Years: Camera Set up to Capture a Millennium-long Exposure of Tucson

“It is becoming more in demand here too so I thought I’d give it a go and it is proving popular with people wanting a different family portrait,” she adds.

“I mostly concentrate on family and children’s photography but in a matter of weeks, this seems to be quite sought after.”

In order to take the close-up pictures, Green says it’s necessary to shine a continuous light into the eyes, meaning her subjects will be required to sit completely still for a few minutes.

For this reason, she says this type of photography might not be suitable for younger children or anyone who suffers from light sensitivity.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: See What Magic Happens When a Photographer Adds Himself to Famous Album Covers – LOOK

“The process of taking the pictures only takes about half an hour but the editing takes three to four hours, so that is the time-consuming part,” said Green, who runs Moonlight Photography.

“The finished pictures make a really unique piece of art to hang on the walk and a great talking point.”

SHARE These Stunning, Alternative Portraits With Your Friends… 

The Nomatic orange pack was full of essentials—some $7,200 worth of drone, laptop, extra phones, solid state drives, microphones, GoPros, Insta360, plus all the charging cables and European power adapters. Everything I needed to be able to write stuff like this, and have access to essential directions to get myself around in a foreign country, and communicate with others. (The incredible Translate app!)

And it was the taxi driver’s fault.

Let me tell you what happened, and keep reading all the way to the end, because there’s a funny coda involving my wife Ruth as well.

The taxi met us at 7:30 in Palermo at our B&B (Bed and Breakfast Cannoli, a fine establishment, though they don’t actually serve any cannoli) to take us to the bus station for our next stop in Siracusa, and there are only two scheduled departures a day—at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.

The cabbie pulled up and double parked. A woman in the car behind behind him couldn’t pass and immediately started screaming at him like he’d murdered her baby—and he screamed back. I don’t speak Italian, but it was just like something you might see in an Italian movie. It went on for quite a while, or at least so it seemed.

He then opened his trunk, and began reaching for our bags, continuing to yell at the woman all the while. He wanted to put them in the back of his crowded car himself. Fine, I thought, and took my place in the back seat. He threw the bags in the trunk and we took off.

(MOVIE CLUE: SMELL A PROBLEM YET?)

In five minutes, he weaved his way expertly through traffic and we arrived at the train station. “Twenty euro,” he said. When he opened his trunk there were our two suitcases, my tripod and only one backpack, Ruth’s.

Mine was nowhere to be found. Horror as we realized that the orange backpack wasn’t there.

I demanded that he drive back to the B&B immediately, but he didn’t understand and wanted to be paid. I typed “drive back!” into Google Translate, and he got the message.

As he navigated his way through what was now Only in Italy early morning gridlock, with everyone seemingly honking horns, scooters coming at us from every direction, drivers weaving in and out of lanes, zipping through red lights and passengers taking their lives in their hands on the streets of Palermo, I braced for the worst.

After all, just the day before, Ruth had ordered a Croissant from a cafe, ate half of it, stood up to take a photo and walked a few yards away. Within seconds, a man came right over and snatched the remains off the table and put it in his mouth, as I was sitting right there.

My backpack didn’t stand a chance!

There’s a recent story about a photographer visiting Italy who stowed his gear bag (with $16,000 worth of stuff) on a train along with other luggage and took his seat, and then never saw his bag again. It was lifted by a trio of gear snatchers. The comments to his video had many people talking of similar experiences in Italy.

My bag was a goner. I knew it.

But as we finally arrived back outside the B&B, there was actually a storybook ending. The backpack had been pulled off the road and propped neatly against the wall, as two kind gents waited there, apparently certain that the owner would return for it. They were grinning with joy as we pulled up.

I was delirious.

We tipped them 15 Euro for their troubles, just what Ruth happened to have on hand, and dashed back to the station, where we ended up missing our bus by 60 seconds. (And the cabbie charged 60 euros for driving there, back and back again.)

But which would you rather do? Lose your laptop or miss a bus?

Moral: never let a cab driver in another country put your gear bag in the trunk. Hold it in your lap the entire time!