Pete Thomas Outdoors

Dazzling new Death Valley Dreamlapse time-lapse video

 

Stargazing has been taken to brilliant heights, showcased in a new video released this week by Sunchaser Pictures.

Death Valley Dreamlapse 2, above, was shot by Gavin Heffernan and his team of producers, who traveled to Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park in mid-March and over the course of three days caught some stunning time-lapse shots of the night sky.

Heffernan said the new video includes "plenty of wonder and amazement, including some insane star trails, a beautiful milky way pass over the lakebed, and an incredible pink desert aurora."

He added that "no special effects used, just the natural rotation of the earth's axis."

The crew tried out some new time-lapse techniques, such as moonpainting the foreground landscapes, and also some experiments merging regular time-lapse footage with star trails. Sunchaser Pictures also offers up a cool, behind-the-scenes video on their Vimeo page.

They were also in luck and caught an amazing pink aurora (seen at 1:36 and 2:22), which was caused by a Coronal Mass Eruption solar event on March 17.

Heffernan suggests that viewers should "watch in HD with headphones on and the volume cranked, if you can."

-- Kelly Burgess

Restrictions on using remote-controlled aircraft in California wildlife reserves?

In support of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and its effort to keep hunters and anglers informed, Pete Thomas Outdoors, on Thursday or Friday, posts marine biologist Carrie Wilson's weekly California Outdoors Q&A column:

Question: I am a conservation advocate and an avid wildlife photographer. Over the last several years, I have been photographing birds and landscape views of Southern California’s wildlife areas. I am interested in expanding this documentation with video, and in particular aerial video taken from a remote-controlled electric helicopter. While I am very aware of the need to not disturb or harass local wildlife, I am wondering if there are regulations that restrict or prohibit the use of RC-aircraft in or around the perimeter of ecological reserves and conservation areas? (Bill K.)

Answer: There is no general prohibition against using radio-controlled "vehicles" in wildlife areas (California Code of Regulations Title 14, section 550). However, in ecological reserves, prohibitions against: 1) disturbing any bird, mammal, etc.; 2) operating vehicles; and 3) operating any type of aircraft or hovercraft without permission may apply (CCR Title 14, sections 630(a)(1) & (a)(4) and (a)(17)). There is also a provision that prohibits the use of any motorized, hot-air, or unpowered aircraft or other device capable of flight or any earth orbiting imaging device to locate or assist in locating big game mammals beginning 48 hours before and continuing 48 hours after any big game hunting season in the same area (CCR Title 14, section 251(a)). In addition, a permit could be required if there are concerns your aircraft will " … herd or drive… or disrupt animal’s normal behavior patterns, which includes, but is not limited to breeding, feeding or sheltering …"

Please contact the Regional Manager for the area you intend to visit for information on the application of these laws. For a list of contact numbers available, please go to www.dfg.ca.gov/regions/.

Q: My husband and I are residents of both Humboldt and Sutter counties. We occasionally dive for abalone in Humboldt where we live. If we don’t consume them right away, we freeze them whole in the shell as the local game warden advised us years ago. I also work for a nonprofit hospice in Sutter County and they are having a fundraiser in May at a private house, where many of our staff will prepare appetizers for 100 guests. I want to prepare abalone appetizers from three abalone that we already have tagged and frozen from last season. The event is being professionally catered for the meal and dessert and so they are selling tickets, but no one is paying for or making money from the abalone I want to cook. The abalone is such a minuscule part of the meal. I just want to make sure I am allowed to bring it to an event like this and I was not able to find anything specific about that in the regulations. Please advise. Thank you. (Amy M., RN)

Skimboarder jumps over the sun in amazing photo sequence

The photo sequence atop this post speaks for itself: Skimboarder Bill Bryan is depicted as jumping over the sun during a recent session in large shore-pounding surf.

Photographer Robbie Crawford shared the sequence Monday on his Facebook page with a vague caption that reads: "Not many people can jump over the sun… But Bill Bryan can…"

As of Wednesday afternoon it had been shared more than 350 times.

Because people might be curious about the location and technical aspects of this photo session, I asked Crawford to share some details and here's his response:

"The photo was taken in Laguna Beach at one of the heavier shorebreak spots in California. I shot this image with a GoPro HD2 on 10 shot in 1-second burst mode.

"I had been working with Bill Bryan a lot over a couple months and we were coming up with some pretty cool angles. On this particular evening the tide was rising and there was starting to be a really heavy surge where head high waves would break just feet from shore.

"As the sun was setting I said to Bill he should try to jump the sun. So I set up with the sun directly in front of me and Bill Bryan being the amazing athlete that he is did it on his first or second try. He's one talented human."

--Pete Thomas

--Note: Find Robbie Crawford and Bill Bryan on Instagram

Ravenous bald eagles swoop into Washington State for annual salmon feast (video)

 

Bald eagles have arrived by the thousands in northwestern Washington State to feast on spawning salmon, and Meg McDonald has captured this annual spectacle beautifully in a compilation of photographs and video footage.

(McDonald's amazing footage of endangered Southern Resident orcas frolicking in Puget Sound was featured here last month.)

The eagle footage was captured on the Nooksack River, which is not as well-known as the nearby Skagit River in terms of bald eagle-related tourism.

That's largely because the Nooksack is not nearly as accessible as the Skagit, which flows adjacent to State Route 20. (There are roadside viewpoints on the Skagit and several outfitters offer boat trips for viewing and photography.)

But as viewers can see, the Nooksack is plenty popular among the majestic raptors, which, as shown by McDonald, skirmish quite a bit among themselves during these incredible feeding events.

December and January are peak months for viewing on the rivers and their tributaries, but some eagles stay into February before migrating back to Canada.

Diver's out-of-cage great white shark encounter is photo opportunity of a lifetime

When one of Daniel Botelho's images last appeared on this website it was a spectacular depiction of a giant mola mola, captured while searching for blue whales off San Diego.

(Editor's note: This is a reprint of a Pete Thomas post on the GrindTv Outdoor blog. All images are protected by copyright laws.)

More recently the photographer traveled to a remote island off Mexico to photograph great white sharks without cage protection, and returned with a series of captivating images he hopes will help dispel perceptions of white sharks as blood-thirsty killers.

Botelho was on an assignment for Disney but also served as safety diver during an odyssey to Guadalupe Island, during which passengers--only one at a time--were allowed to venture out of submerged cages and swim freely with full-grown white sharks.

"White sharks are like the Lion King," the photographer states on his Facebook page. "Predators, yes, but not psychopathic man killers."

Asked to provide more details, Botelho messaged back to say that he has been diving with white sharks since 2006, but this was his first time in the gin-clear waters of Guadalupe Island, which is located 165 miles west of Baja California.

Of his role as safety diver he said: "The safety diver is the guy that takes care of everybody in the water, a bodyguard of the guests, and that doesn't mean to be brave; not at all, it is much more about keeping a relaxed and peaceful interaction with the animals."

Three divers were outside of the cage at a time. Botelho, the expedition leader, and one guest. Botelho said he logged nearly 24 hours outside the cage during a two-week trip. He experienced no close calls with predators that can weigh up to 5,000 pounds and bite an elephant seal in half.

"The sharks are like dogs; you need to keep them calm," he said. "As dogs, they can get excited with wrong moves and unstable attitudes, so the trick is to keep the right attitude, transmitting tranquility and peace to the animal, so it can come really close but not try to touch the diver.

"This is the definitive proof that great white sharks are not man-eaters; people can live and interact with great white sharks, as long as they have the understanding of how the animal reacts and how to build a positive interaction with this magnificent creature!"

White sharks are specialized feeders and do not regard humans as prey, and most attacks on humans occur at the surface and are believed to have been cases of mistaken identity.

Still, they're wild and extremely powerful creatures, which is reason for pause when considering an out-of-cage experience.

Botelho said the divers sometimes had as many as six great whites around them at a time, all making close approaches, as if curious about the intruders.

"It was one of the best dives of my life and the experience as safety diver out of the cage was incredible," Botelho said. "It is much more than just taking photos; I learned so much more about how to 'read' and interact with those apex predators."

He labeled the 24 hours he logged outside of the cage during the final seven days of this odyssey as his own personal "Shark Week" and from now on for the photographer, the TV version will never quite compare.

--Pete Thomas

Fishing guide explains amazing humpback whale image

Matt Thornton is a British Columbia fishing guide, but late last month while targeting halibut he captured a very unusual image showing a young humpback whale breaching alongside his boat.

The image has been shared by just about every Facebook page pertaining to marine mammals, and is even entered in a National Geographic photography contest. But beyond a brief caption there was little information about the photo, in part because Thornton had been busy fishing and difficult to reach.

But in a telephone interview Thursday he explained that he captured the image with one lucky camera shot (no motor drive), and that the whale calf exploded out of the water so close to the boat "that we could have touched it with our fishing rods."

Thornton, who works for Tofino B.C. Fishing Charters, was with two clients near Vancouver Island when they noticed that another boat had stopped to watch a larger humpback whale slapping its fins on the water.

Thornton motored over for a closer look, grabbed his camera to shoot photos of the larger whale, and before he could do that the smaller whale breached, just the one time. "It was literally 10 feet from the boat; so close that it splashed us," Thornton said.

He wasn't the only one quick on the trigger. One of the clients used an iPhone to capture the event on video, which has not been widely shared. Here it is:

 

 

Incredible Mola mola image becomes Internet sensation

This is a reprint of a Pete Thomas story published Tuesday on the GrindTv.com Outdoors blog. It also appeared on the Yahoo homepage.

Among the more bizarre-looking visitors to California waters this summer are Mola molas, or ocean sunfish, which are being seen in unusually high numbers. But it's a stunning photograph of one of these gentle giants that appears to be getting the most attention. The image, captured off San Diego by Daniel Botelho, became an instant hit after being posted last week on his Facebook page.

"It got 1,000 'likes' in 36 hours," said Botelho, an award-winning photojournalist who specializes in underwater photography. Through Monday the number of likes and shares beneath had grown to 1,375 and 1,237, respectively.

There was no back story provided but Botelho, when reached via email, explained that he captured this image in July of 2010, while on a blue whale photography mission. But he somehow placed it in a folder of non-used images and did not discover it until recently, while planning another blue whale odyssey.

The Facebook post was the first time the image had been published. "It is so funny, I wasted that image and after two years I found it, posted it, and it becomes viral," Botelho said.

Though molas are docile and appear sluggish, they're difficult to photograph because they're deceivingly swift and do not generally tolerate divers who try to get close.

"There were more than five in the same spot but once I got in the water, as stealthily as I could, they all went out fast," Botelho explained. "But one specific fish stopped to check what I was, and God knows why the fish decided to follow me. People in the boat said it seemed like a dog following his owner."

The photographer in the image had hoped to photograph Botelho next to the sunfish but instead he became the subject to lend perspective as to how large and moon-like molas can be.

The sunfish can measure 14 feet and weigh as much as 5,000 pounds. They're found in tropical and temperate oceans. With their large bodies, truncated tails, tiny mouths, and huge eyes, they look like something not entirely whole and not of this world.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium, in a species description, states: "Ocean sunfish, or molas, look like the invention of a mad scientist."

They feed primarily on jellies but will also eat squid and small fish. Large numbers of jellies and gelatinous creatures called salps this summer may help to explain an increase in sightings made by California boaters.

-- Image is courtesy of Daniel Botelho for use with this story only, and is protected by copyright laws

Dolphins are often the biggest stars of a whale-watching trip

July is just around the corner and marine mammal enthusiasts are beginning to wonder whether blue whales will arrive off Southern California and put on a long-lasting show like they did the last two summers, beginning in June.

The Santa Barbara Channel remains the closest destination for Southland whale-watchers to have a reliable chance at seeing the planet's largest creatures.

But thank goodness for dolphins, which are found most days, and which are considerably more active and playful than blue whales.

I embarked on noon excursions Saturday and Sunday aboard the Ocean Adventure out of Dana Wharf Whale Watching in search of blue whales, which have shown only sporadically off Orange and Los Angeles counties during the past few weeks.

No whales. But the high-speed catamaran was visited by about 400 common dolphins not far from the harbor, and the crew later discovered a much smaller pod of much larger bottlenose dolphins. One bottlenose dolphin dazzled the crowd with an acrobatic display of the type that might be choreographed at a marine park (see video).

For several minutes these sleak mammals rode alongside the vessel and beneath its bow, and at no time during this encounter was anyobody inquiring about blue whales. 

It was much of the same the next day -- common dolphins galore, this time in a feeding display that also featured pelicans diving after sardines chased to the surface by dolphins.

As for the blue whales, they could just be a little late, or they have found greener pastures -- much larger quantities of krill -- elsewhere off the West Coast.

At least one was spotted Monday evening off Dana Point. Hopefully it found lots of food and called for others to join the feast.

But if, like the others, it moves on, there will always be the dolphins.

-- Pete Thomas

-- Image showing  comon dolphin off Dana Point is by ©Pete Thomas. Video showing a leaping bottlenose dolphin also was filmed off Dana Point

Unusual minke whale influx delights Orange County boaters

Orange County whale watchers remain hopeful that blue whales, the largest creatures ever to have inhabited the planet, will begin to show over the next several days.

Meanwhile, however, boaters are enjoying an unusually strong influx of minke whales, which are the smallest baleen whales in the northern hemisphere.

There are few complaints. Minke whales, although they measure only to about 30 feet, are still whales, and some have been incredibly boat friendly (see accompanying image).

Dana Wharf Whale Watching reported 16 minke whale sightings last week, and three more on Monday. Typically, minke whales are seen only sporadically.

Capt. Corey Hall said the smaller whales are attracted by a high volume of anchovies, which are feeding on an abundance of krill, which hopefully will lure in blue whales, which last year began to arrive off Orange County in mid-May.

"There are a ton of 2- to 4-inch anchovies, which I think is due to the volume of krill," Hall said. "The anchovies have also attracted lots of common dolphins."

Blue whales, which can measure 100 feet and weigh 150 tons, feed almost exclusively on krill. About 2,000 blue whales utilize West Coast feeding grounds each spring and summer.

The last two whale-watching seasons off Orange and Los Angeles counties, for blue whales, were the best ever.

-- Image of minke whale is courtesy of Dana Wharf Whale Watching

Acrobatic thresher shark photographed off Australia

One of the great things about being on the ocean is that you never know what you might encounter.

Scott Sheehan of Marine Mammal Research in Australia was hoping to photograph humpback whales Saturday, but instead managed to capture amazing images of a leaping thresher shark.

According to the research facility website, Sheehan was aboard a Dolphin Watch Cruises boat, observing a pod of common dolphins and fur seals as they preyed on schooling bait fish.

The acrobatic display -- click here for more images -- occurred in Jervis Bay off New South Wales.

-- Image is courtesy of Scott Sheehan / Marine Mammal Research