American Galapagos – Channel Islands National Park

American Galapagos - Channel Islands National Park. Channel Islands National Park. Channel Island Fox (Urocyon littoralis), Channel Islands National Park, California
Channel Island Fox (Urocyon littoralis), Channel Islands National Park, California

American Galapagos – Channel Islands National Park

The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located off the coast of Southern California in the Santa Barbara Channel.  Five of the islands (San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and Santa Barbara) were designated Channel Islands National Park on March 5, 1980 as our 40th national park, and are co-managed by the National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy.

Often referred to as America’s Galapagos, the Channel Islands are home to over 2,000 plant and animal species and 145 of those are found nowhere else on earth!  The island fox (shown here) is one example – a dwarf fox native to six of the eight Islands.  Due to their geographic isolation these curious creatures have no immunity to disease brought in from the mainland, and as a result their population dwindled to near extinction in the 1990s.  Fortunately they were federally protected as an endangered species in 2004, and efforts to rebuild fox populations and restore their ecosystems have been quite successful.

The archeological and cultural resources on the Channel Islands span a period of more than 12,000 years of human habitation.  The Chumash Indians lived off the sea for thousands of years followed by Spanish and American cattle ranches that thrived in the nineteenth century. Over the years, archaeologists have unearthed an amazing timeline dating back to the Pleistocene, including the world’s most complete pygmy mammoth specimen discovered on Santa Rosa Island in 1994.

The Islands are also part of one of the richest marine biospheres of the world.  The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary protects the surrounding waters six nautical miles off Anacapa, Santa Cruz, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Barbara islands, where a whole new world invites exploration above and below the surface.

 

©Russ Bishop/All Rights Reserved

Finding Balance

Finding Balance. Triple Falls, Glacier National Park, Montana
Triple Falls, Glacier National Park, Montana

Finding balance. The notion of coming together to create symmetry spans the worlds of economics, mathematics, computing, and natural science. Systems that work together to form a more unified whole are greater than the sum of their parts. They are efficient and economical, and equally important on the human side they create a sense of harmony and well-being.

It is a natural human desire to find equilibrium in our lives, and for many the definition of success is living a balanced life. Landscape photography is a wonderful medium in this sense as it provides us with an outlet for creating visual harmony. What we express through our lens is an extension of our personality and our vision of the world around us.

Webster defines balance as “an aesthetically pleasing integration of elements” and, while the evolution of our photographic vision is an ongoing journey, learning to find balance in your compositions does become second nature with practice.

The juxtaposition of color and form within the frame is often the key, and learning to recognize and integrate them into your photography will translate into more dynamic and satisfying images that hopefully reflect that balance we all strive to find in life.

 

 

©Russ Bishop/All Rights Reserved

Happy Birthday Ansel Adams

Happy Birthday Ansel Adams. Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View, Yosemite National Park, California
Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View, Yosemite National Park, California

Happy birthday Ansel Adams! The master of landscape photography, who was born February 20, 1902, had a profound affect on my creative direction and continues to be an inspiration to generations of outdoor photographers.

Adams pioneered the idea of previsualization, the concept of seeing the final image in the mind’s eye before the photo is created. He also co-founded Group f/64 with other photographic masters Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham, and he developed the Zone System, a technique for translating perceived light into specific densities to allow better control over finished photographs. Though he lived well before the time of megapixels and monitors I think he would have embraced the creative possibilities of the digital age.

As a strong advocate for the environment, his iconic black and white images of the American West influenced powerful decision makers in Washington and helped preserve places like Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks and California’s iconic Big Sur coast. Ansel was also largely responsible for photography being accepted into the world of fine art, culminating in major exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 1980. And shortly after his death in 1984, the Minarets Wilderness in his beloved Sierra Nevada Mountains was re-named the Ansel Adams Wilderness in his honor.

Thank you Ansel – your legacy lives on!

“Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.”   ~ Ansel Adams

 

©Russ Bishop/All Rights Reserved