John E Marriott's Canadian Wildlife and Nature Photography Blog

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2010-04-29T22:30:00.001-06:00

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Darwin Wiggett's Daily Snap

2010-04-11T12:47:00.002-06:00

Darwin, Samantha Chrysanthou, and myself were out for a little video/photo shoot this morning near Cochrane, Alberta and Darwin snapped this shot of me in my 'full camo costume'. Check it out on his blog!

More Grizzly Bear Hunt notes

2010-03-04T13:45:00.004-07:00

The campaign to put a halt to the grizzly bear hunt in British Columbia continues to grow, and this week features a visual petition by conservation photographer Andrew Wright. The "Faltering Light" Visual petition is a coffee table photography book sponsored by more than 40 Canadian organizations that will feature your signatures and will be delivered in person to government officials, including the Premier of British Columbia.

Now is the time to step up and sign a petition if you've been waffling about doing so, as this one may garner the most attention of all. If you think it's time British Columbia stopped allowing the trophy hunt (because that's what it is) of BC's grizzly bears, then please take a few seconds and electronically sign the petition.

A grizzly family in the Great Bear Rainforest near Bella Bella, British Columbia

Thanks to Andrew for taking this bold step, let's hope it results in some progress with government in the fight to stop this unnecessary hunt.

Cheers,

John

Canadian Prairies Wildlife Photography update on Facebook

2010-02-11T09:56:00.004-07:00

I've updated my Facebook fan page with another new gallery this morning called Prairie Critters which features wildlife photography from the Canadian Prairies.

Enjoy!

John

John E Marriott Canadian Wildlife and Nature Photography on Facebook and Twitter

2010-02-09T12:42:00.004-07:00

Seems I've finally given in to technology and much to my chagrin, I now have a Facebook fan page under John E. Marriott Wildlife and Nature Photography and can now also be found on Twitter under John E. Marriott for those of you that want to follow me that closely.

Both steps represent another slow, painful death for the old John, the one who boldly went about town with no cell phone until just three years ago. And while I'm still not sold on Twitter, I do admit that putting together photo albums for the Facebook page is far easier than doing it here on my blog, so those of you that join that page will get to see a lot of photos that aren't even available yet here on wildernessprints.com.

Also wanted to send out a quick reminder for anyone interested in attending my Wildlife Photography Seminar in Calgary this Saturday, February 13th. Registration is almost full, so sign up now if you haven't already.

And finally, I now have a Canon 1D Mk IV in my hands and my initial reactions to it are mixed. With my 70-200 lens the results have been fantastic, but the shots with my 500mm lens have been quite poor so far. Not sure why, but I'll post my findings in a week or two after more testing.

Happy shooting!

John

Canadian Landscape Photography Contest

2010-01-26T18:50:00.007-07:00

I've been slacking off on my blogging of late, choosing to chase wolves instead for an article I'll be writing later this year for Outdoor Photography Canada magazine on how to photograph wolves in the wild.

However, while I've been off shooting, my partners in SNAP! Nature Photography Seminars, Darwin Wiggett and Sam Chrysanthou, have been busy putting together a photo contest to promote our April weekend seminar in Canmore, Alberta. They've organized a Canadian Landscape Photo Contest on Darwin's blog which is open to anyone and includes some great prizes, like free participation in the seminar! Check it out for more info....

Abandoned grain elevators in Mossleigh, Alberta

There is lots of news on the wolf front here in Banff National Park of late, too. Unfortunately, it's not all good. After the demise of the Bow Valley wolf family in the past year and a half, we were very fortunate to have two new wolf families establish themselves in the park recently. However, this past week, one wolf from each pack was lost on Banff's roads.

Is it a case of "Here we go again?" Let's hope not, but the fact one of the wolves was the alpha female of the new Tunnel-Spray pack is not a good sign just as mating season goes into full swing.

Raven, one of the yearling pups of the new Pipestone wolf family, was killed recently near Lake Louise

I have been in several meetings with Parks Canada researchers and wardens in the past month trying to determine what steps can be taken to end these needless accidents.

Stay tuned for more information.

John

A Tribute to Delinda

2009-11-19T19:17:00.006-07:00

On the eve of Canadian Geographic's cover shot of Delinda, I have put together a new story in my Storybook Gallery about Delinda and the rest of the Bow Valley wolf pack, featuring a collection of some of my favourite wolf photographs from the past two years.

Delinda skirting the edge of a meadow

CBC has also posted an article online on CBC News about Delinda, the cover shot, and some of my comments about her death and what it means to me and to the Bow Valley.

The timing is interesting as we near some of the most important planning and management decisions in years concerning our first (and many would argue, most important) national park, Banff National Park. I encourage you to visit Parks Canada's website and voice your opinions about the draft management plan. The draft plan is woefully inadequate to support any sustained ecological integrity in the park, and suprisingly talks about increasing visitation in the park, which is NOT Parks Canada's mandate. Rather, they need to be concerned about making visiting the park a better experience for those that do come here, while at the same time putting far more effort into ensuring that our wolves and grizzlies do not continue to die on our roads and railways. This whole "if we pretend we're doing something about it then no one will question us" attitude needs to change immediately, the status quo is no longer acceptable.

Please consider writing a Letter to the Editor of either the Banff Crag & Canyon or the Rocky Mountain Outlook, as well as sending an email directly to Mike Murtha with Parks Canada.

John

New Seminars and CBC Radio

2009-11-18T10:55:00.005-07:00

CBC Radio in Alberta will be airing an interview with me this Thursday, November 19th between 12 and 12:30 p.m. (over lunch) on Wild Rose Country with Donna McElligott on Delinda, the wolf on the cover of the upcoming Canadian Geographic issue.

And after the success of my first two seminars with The Camera Store (this Saturday's 'Getting Wild about Photography with John E. Marriott' is also sold out), we've decided to offer my seminars again in February for anyone that missed the first two.

Getting Wild about Photography will be offered on Saturday, February 13th from 1-3 p.m. and How to Self-Publish (and actually make money at it) is scheduled to run on Saturday, February 27th from 1:30-3:30 p.m.

I also just learned yesterday that my insurance for my new tour off-shoot for my company has been approved, so stay tuned for tour information for a number of high profile and exciting trips in 2010 in early January.

Two polar bear buddies relaxing after a playfight

The destinations I hope to start with for 2010 include trips to Churchill to photograph polar bears, a trip to Princess Royal Island in BC to photograph white kermode bears, a trip to a remote location in BC to photograph mountain grizzlies, and a trip to Nunavut north of the Arctic Circle to photograph caribou, musk-ox and if we're lucky, tundra wolves.

Cheers,

John

Christmas Book Orders and Calgary Signings

2009-11-08T22:43:00.010-07:00

Chapters-Indigo is currently offering all of my books at 25-35% off for all online orders in North America before Christmas. The books make excellent Christmas presents and at those discounts, you can get all 4, plus free shipping, for just over $80 Cdn. Check out the Products section of this website for more information on the books, or order books online from www.chapters.ca.

For those of you in the Calgary area, I'm doing three big book signings in November and December, beginning with a signing next weekend on Saturday, November 14th from 1-5 p.m. at the Indigo CrossIron Mills in Rocky View (the massive new mall north of the city). If you want a personalized copy of any of my books for yourself or as gifts, this will be an excellent opportunity to do so. And if you just want to stop by and say hi, please do!

I'm also doing signings in the city of Calgary on Saturday, December 5th at Chapters Dalhousie from 12:30-3 p.m. and on Sunday, December 13th at Indigo Signal Hill from 1-5 p.m.

Here are a few sample page layouts from the most recent books, The Canadian Rockies: Banff, Jasper & Beyond, which comes in two editions, large and small:

Pages 4-5

Pages 20-21 of 96 pages

Stay tuned later this week for more polar bear images from last November, along with some spring grizzly bear shots from this past May and June.

I will also be posting further news of another Self-Publishing seminar in Calgary in February after the success of my first one this past Saturday which sold out and was packed to the hilt. Thanks to everyone that managed to come out! For those of you that don`t have access to Calgary seminars, I have been thinking of posting this seminar online as a purchaseable pdf e-booklet. Let me know if this would interest any of you.

Btw, a final note for anyone using Internet Explorer: IE is not a colour-managed browser, so if the colours of my photos or books online look ridiculously saturated, it`s not my photos or your monitor, it`s Internet Explorer. Try Firefox or Safari or just about anything else and you`ll be amazed how much more real the colours look as you surf the web.

Cheers,

John

Canadian Geographic Cover

2009-11-05T13:09:00.007-07:00

It's official! The December issue of Canadian Geographic magazine will feature this image of mine of Delinda, a wild wolf that I came to know very well over the course of a few years, on the cover:

I knew I was in the running for the cover about two weeks ago when the photo editor for the magazine called me and asked for my permission to put two of my images of Delinda in the online 'cover vote' that they do with subscribers to confirm their selection of each month's cover.

My two images (see below) were up against a red fox.

Fortunately for me, the readers chose one of the images of Delinda, though as this week's Banff Crag & Canyon article on the cover selection suggests, I wasn't sure I'd win. In fact, I was pretty sure that my two wolf images would saw each other off at the pass in the voting, handing the next cover to the image of the red fox.

Thankfully I was wrong! It's my first cover of Canadian Geographic magazine, though I've had several covers with them for their catalogs and calendars over the years and am quite regularly published in the magazine via my stock photography agents.

The Canadian Geographic website is also doing a feature story on the cover shot and on my experiences with Delinda, the former matriarch of the Bow Valley wolf pack who died tragically on the Trans-Canada Highway a year ago. You can read more about her untimely death in the article below from Macleans magazine in September 2008 (click on the picture to see the full-size article).

A year later and Delinda's death is still no easier for me to take. Every time I drive the Bow Valley Parkway I'm reminded of the cherished time I got to spend watching and photographing her and her pack. Her death signaled a changing of the pack structure and the beginning of chaos amid the Bow Valley wolves. Today, 14 months after her death, more than half her pack has been killed just like she was on the busy roads of Banff National Park, Canada's supposed 'flagship' national park. And with no sightings of any members of the pack in the past few months, no one is even sure if any of them are still alive.

Since this coming December issue is the special first anniversary of Canadian Geographic's annual Wildlife-only issue and one of the topics in the magazine will be the state of wildlife conservation in Canada, I think it's very fitting that this iconic image of Delinda, one that already greets millions of Banff visitors from the back of one of the town's hybrid buses, will be gracing the cover of Canada's most-read nature magazine.

I can only hope her picture and her story lead to an improvement in how wildlife is managed (an oxymoron in itself) in our national parks.

SNAP! Photo Seminars

2009-11-04T16:11:00.006-07:00

I am thrilled to announce that this coming April I am teaming up with renowned professional nature photographers Darwin Wiggett and Samantha Chrysanthou to offer a great weekend SNAP! Photography Seminar, called Mastering Digital Nature Photography from Capture to Commerce, in Canmore, Alberta, Canada.

Mastering Digital Nature Photography from Capture to Commerce will run from Friday, April 23rd to Monday, April 26th, with the two primary instructional seminar days being the Saturday and the Sunday. It's going to be geared at all levels of photography and will be a fantastic weekend for all involved. Please check out the site and feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Hope to see you here in Canmore!

John

Polar Bear Pictures

2009-11-02T14:14:00.005-07:00

A year ago, as a test trip as part of a Canadian wildlife photography tour company that I'm launching in 2010, I visited Churchill, Manitoba along with a few colleagues. We braved -40 temperatures and five days of blizzards, but got some absolutely fabulous opportunities with the polar bears.

This is the first sneak peek at the polar bear pictures (the best are yet to come!). Enjoy!

A young polar bear bedded down in a snow drift

An adult polar bear pops up for a look at us

Mother and cub in a winter blizzard

Large adult polar bear having a snooze on the ice

A polar bear crosses the vast tundra beneath stormy skies

Two polar bears spar (playfight)

A mother polar bear and her yearling cub cross the tundra beneath sunny skies

For more information and updates on my new tour company launching in 2010, please stay tuned here on my blog.

Cheers,

John

Wildlife Photography Instructional Seminar - November 21st

2009-10-31T12:39:00.006-06:00

I will be speaking all about wildlife photography, from tips, tricks and techniques, to essential must-have gear and my favourite locations, at the Gary Campbell Studio in Calgary, Saturday, November 21st, 2009 from 1-3 p.m.

If you're interested, you can sign up online at The Camera Store's website.

The Camera Store has also posted a video of me from last weekend's Western Canada Digital Photo Expo, so check that out when you have time (just ignore the supremely shiny bald head! Ha-ha!).

Stay tuned for updates on more seminars, field workshops, and new pictures in the coming days and weeks.

Cheers,

John

Speaking at Calgary Digital Photo Expo, October 24-25, 2009

2009-10-24T08:49:00.002-06:00

As usual, late, LATE notice, but I'm speaking twice each day at the Western Canada Digital Photo Expo in Calgary, Alberta. At noon today and tomorrow (Sunday), I'm doing 'How to Make a Million Dollars in Nature Photography' and at 1:45 p.m. each day, I'm doing 'Top Ten Lessons I've Learned in Outdoor Photography.'

Hope to see you there!

Upcoming Presentations in Canmore and Calgary

2009-10-16T09:48:00.005-06:00

I'll be presenting 'A Day in the Life of a Wildlife Photographer' at the Canmore Collegiate High School theatre this Saturday (tomorrow), October 17th at 2 pm as part of Canmore's Festival of Eagles. A day pass to all the presentations is $20 and includes a chance to get up-close and personal with a host of raptors and birds of prey (and sorry for the late notice, I have had this booked for several months now, but brain-cramped on actually putting it on my blog!).

The public relations director at the Royal Alberta Museum said that 'A Day in the Life of a Wildlife Photographer' was "the best presentation [they've] hosted in the four years [he's] been doing this." So feel free to come and see me shake like a leaf as I try to live up to that lofty billing ;-)

The following weekend, on Saturday, October 24th and Sunday, October 25th, I will be speaking twice each day at the national Digital Photo Expo in Calgary, Alberta. My topics each day will be 'How to Make a Million Dollars in Nature Photography' and 'The Top Ten Lessons I've Learned in Outdoor Photography'. For a complete schedule and times I'll be speaking, please visit The Camera Store's website. Tix for a weekend pass are just $15 and last year they had 9,000 people attend, so get there early if you want a good seat to either of my talks each day (note that I repeat each talk on the second day, so you can catch me either Saturday or Sunday).

Happy Shooting!

John

Globe and Mail article on the plight of British Columbia's Grizzlies

2009-09-09T16:34:00.004-06:00

The Globe and Mail, Canada's largest and most respected newspaper, published an article today on the plight of British Columbia's grizzlies and black bears all along the coast as the salmon runs continue to dry up. It's a disturbing article that's well worth a read.

And it's further proof that British Columbia's government is living in the dark ages by continuing to allow a grizzly bear hunt.

John

Stop the Grizzly Bear Hunt in BC

2009-09-08T10:20:00.004-06:00

Hello all. I've been wanting to write about the grizzly bear hunt in British Columbia for a long time now, but I never seem to have the time. So in the meantime, I'm posting a wonderful link to a website dedicated to stopping the grizzly bear hunt in BC before the 2010 Olympics by putting an enormous amount of pressure on the BC government to embarrass them prior to being on the world stage.

A grizzly bear eating salmon in the Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia

Grizzly bears are near and dear to my heart. So please visit http://stopthegrizzlyhunt.org when you can and write a letter or an email or even just pass the link along to friends.

Please stay tuned in coming months for more on this topic as I ramp up my own efforts to bring attention to this timely matter.

Thanks,

John

NEW Canadian Rockies Book

2009-08-21T11:19:00.004-06:00

My two new Canadian Rockies books, The Canadian Rockies: Banff, Jasper & Beyond (available in two sizes) are now available on my website in the Books section. Feel free to check out sample page layouts from the book, as well as the official press release.

NEW Canadian Rockies Book

As always, all of my books are available at a great discount for orders from anywhere in the world from Indigo-Chapters online.

Cheers!

John

Book Signing in Banff - Wednesday, July 22nd, 4-6 pm

2009-07-14T18:01:00.004-06:00

A quick note to announce that the official launch of my two newest books, both titled, The Canadian Rockies: Banff, Jasper & Beyond, will be this coming Wednesday, July 22nd from 4-6 pm at Banff Indigospirit in Cascade Plaza in Banff, Alberta. This event is open to the public and Indigo is discounting all of my books by 20% for the launch. Please click on the image below for more details.

Stay tuned for more details on the new books in the near future, but in the meantime, you can order the books from Chapters (they ship orders around the world).

Hope to see you there!

John

Wildlife Photography Presentation - BBC International Wildlife Photographer of the Year touring exhibit

2009-07-14T10:35:00.003-06:00

I will be presenting a wildlife photography talk entitled, A Day in the Life of a Wildlife Photographer, at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, Alberta on Sunday, July 19th at 1:30 pm as part of the touring exhibit of the BBC's International Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

This presentation is open to the public.

Cheers,

John

Book Signing in Canmore, July 1st, Cafe Books, 3 pm

2009-06-24T23:53:00.002-06:00

Just a quick note that I will be signing my two new Canadian Rockies books, along with all of my other books, at Cafe Books on Main Street in Canmore on Canada Day at 3 pm. Hope that at least some of you can make it down to say hi and check out the new books.

On another note, I'm in the final days of my loon photography workshops near Kamloops, BC, and they've been an incredible success. We've had a total of 8 participants (we had 4 spots for each workshop) from all over North America (Alberta, Connecticut, New York, California, etc) and there have been a plethora of wildlife photo opportunities: we've watched three loon nests hatch (another two to go), and we've photographed loons, moose, marmots, bluebirds, flickers, three-toed woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, and a host of other species in absolutely incredible settings. I can honestly say that the quality and length of the various wildlife encounters has far surpassed my expectations.

I have two more workshops this fall with the same company, Nature Photo Tours, so stay tuned on this blog for upcoming information on those tours.

Cheers, John

Focus on the Rockies III - Photography Workshop - September 4-7, 2009

2009-06-09T15:52:00.003-06:00

Join me and renowned Canadian landscape photographers Daryl Benson and Jeremy Jackson in Jasper National Park from September 4th-7th for Focus on the Rockies III, Canada's premiere nature photography workshop for novice and intermediate amateur photographers.

Ice chunks floating in Cavell Pond below Angel Glacier
Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

This workshop is hosted by the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and features two full days of instruction and field sessions, as well as three nights at the Lodge. Jasper has long been one of my favourite places to photograph, so I'm honoured to be one of the instructors at this prestigious event.

For more details, or to register, please visit the Focus on the Rockies III website at http://www.fairmont.com/jasper/HotelPackages/Discovery/FocusontheRockiesIII.htm

I look forward to seeing many of you there!

Cheers,

John

One Spot Left in Loon Photography Workshop, June 14-20th

2009-06-09T15:05:00.002-06:00

One of my loon and bird photography workshops in June at Lac Le Jeune near Kamloops, British Columbia has just had a cancellation, so we have one free spot open, first come, first serve. The dates available are June 14-20th, please email me or visit www.naturephototours.com for more information.

Cheers,

John

Loon and Wildlife Photography Workshop - June 2009

2009-04-16T12:35:00.005-06:00

I have all kinds of workshop and seminar information coming down the pipe in the next few weeks, beginning with a series of workshops I have signed on to do with Nature Photo Tours out of New York this spring and summer in British Columbia and Alberta. The first of the photo tours/workshops to be advertised is a loon, bird and wildlife photography workshop at Lac Le Jeune Resort near Kamloops, British Columbia from June 14th - 20th and another one from June 20th - 26th.

Loon Photography Workshop - June 14-20, 20-26, 2009

This is an amazing deal and offers up some fantastic photo opportunities for a variety of species. They've even had a lynx hanging around this year! You can sign up for the workshop and read all about it here.

I'll have more information up about the other workshops and seminars in the next month.

Cheers,

John

Getting Your Images Out There

2009-04-15T21:01:00.003-06:00

If you've ever had an interest in learning more about turning your photography into a business and you live in the Calgary, Alberta area, I will be giving a free presentation with two of Canada's premier nature and landscape photographers, Darwin Wiggett and Sam Chrysanthou, on 'Getting Your Images Out There - How to Get Your Photos Seen,' at the Loose Moose Theatre on Tuesday, April 21st at 7:30 pm. Visit the Foothills Camera Club website for more information.

Self-portrait at sunrise, Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada

Cheers,

John