EPSON INTERNATIONAL PANO AWARD

I'm proud to announce that I have received a bronze award in the 2010 Epson International Pano Awards.

The Epson International Pano Awards is aimed to showcase the work of panoramic photographers, professional and amateur alike, worldwide.
There were two entry classes, one for amateurs (amateur) and one for professional photographers and amateurs (open), with two categories each, Nature and The Built Environment.

The awarded image was entered in the open competition Nature category.

June Conservation Tip

Still looking for a meaningful Graduation or Fathers Day gift?
Or a birthday gift for a good friend? Since most of us have more worldly goods than we actually need, why not give a wildlife adoption.
What is a wildlife adoption and how does it work?
There are many wildlife support groups out there that offer wildlife adoptions. Most of the organizations have different packages, some starting as low as $ 10. You choose the amount of money you want to spend and for this amount a donation will be made in the name of the person you want to give the gift to. The recipient then gets, depending on the organization and the package you chose, a certificate of adoption and other information regarding the chosen animal. The money they raise with the adoption will be used to protect the specified animal and it's environment. Some offer the adoption of one specific animal, like the WDCS (Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society), others put it use for the whole selected species, where ever it's needed most.
A few of the organizations I have used in the past are: Defenders of Wildlife, Polar Bears International and WWF
But this is by far not a complete list, just suggestions to start with. Also check with your local organizations.
Not into wildlife? Check out Heifer to support families and farmers in third world countries.
Feel free to add your favorite organization in the comments as an idea pool for others!

Save the Whales

This last weekend people from my town, Half Moon Bay, gathered at the beach to protest lifting the moratorium on commercial whaling. The organizers made a grid with stakes and twine in the sand to form a 100 foot long whale. Protesters wearing black and gray filled in the body and were then photographed from an airplane. This aerial shot will be send to President Barack Obama to protest against the lifting of the moratorium.


Protesters waving to the airplane

What is the moratorium?
Agreed in 1982, and introduced in 1986, the whaling moratorium was brought in after long campaigns by environmental groups pointing out the fact that many populations of the great whales had been drastically reduced by over-hunting. The largest of them, the Blue Whale, had even been driven to the brink of extinction.

The main article of the moratorium of the IWC (International Whaling Commission) reads:
“....catch limits for the killing for commercial purposes of whales from all stocks for the 1986 coastal and the 1985/86 pelagic seasons and thereafter shall be zero.”

As the moratorium applies only to commercial whaling, whaling under the scientific-research and aboriginal-subsistence provisions is still allowed. However since 1994, Norway has been whaling commercially and Iceland began hunting commercially in September 2006. Since 1986, Japan has been whaling under scientific research permits. 2009 about 1700 whales were killed, half of those whales were taken by Japan under the guise of scientific research. One wonders what they are researching that makes it necessary to kill so many whales​?! The US and several other nations are whaling under aboriginal whaling provisions.
The IWC now proposes to lift the moratorium and put in yearly quotas of how many whales can be killed. Supposedly the whaling vessels would have to have observers on board and a DNA registry of whale meat would be required in order to track whales being caught and sold illegally. The question now is, if Norway, Iceland and Japan have killed 1700 whales last year with the limit being zero, how many will they hunt if the moratorium gets lifted???

In my opinion whales should not be hunted, period!

They are extremely intelligent and gentle mammals that already suffered so much through us.
In spring 2007 I traveled to Silver Bank, off the coast of the Dominican Republic, to snorkel with Humpback whales.
Silver Bank is part of the Sanctuary for the Marine Mammals of the Dominican Republic.
Pregnant Humpback whales come to these shallow waters to give birth and “hang around” with the calves until they are ready for their first journey north to the feeding grounds in the waters off Newfoundland and Labrador.

On our first encounter in the water with these gentle giants, we watched a mother with her calf, resting on the bottom of the shallow bank.



After a few minutes the calf came up to breathe. On it's way down back to mom,



it swam really close by me, looking me right in the eye, curious, what strange whale I might be. For seconds our eyes locked. I was so mesmerized, that I completely forgot that I had a camera in my hands. I didn't get the photograph, but I caught something way more important, I caught a glimpse of a deeper understanding between two mammals, one being a whale and one being a human.



All photos © Susanne Weissenberger - White Mountain Photography

May Conservation Tip

Since we are hopefully by now done with this rainy spring, and summer is approaching fast, why not use solar energy to dry your clothes. Just hang them out for the sun to dry. I know it's a hassle with the small stuff, but if you just hang up one or two loads of laundry a week, sheets or jeans for example, it makes a huge difference.
Don't have any outdoor space? Try dryer balls.
As I first got them from our son as a result of a energy saving school project, I was rather puzzled. But I have to say, they really make a difference. I was not standing in front of my dryer stopping the time, but I noted a distinctive shorter running time when the balls where in there. Also fleece items seem to be fluffier with the “ball drying” method.

What are dryer balls? Well, meanwhile you can buy all sorts of plastic dryer balls in stores, but the original dryer balls are soft wool felted balls that you put in the dryer with your wet clothes when you start the drying cycle. The balls bounce around lifting and separating the clothes, allowing the hot air to flow more efficiently. This makes the drying time shorter and therefore you use less energy. If you use 4 balls in the dryer at one time you can cut an average of 25% off your drying time. Our son recommends using 16, so you would save 100%.......

How to make dryer balls: You will need 100% wool yarn, preferably light colors to prevent initial bleeding. It needs to be relatively unprocessed wool, so no super wash or acrylic mix wool, since you want the ball to felt.
Make the core: Wind the wool tightly to a about golf size ball, secure the end and put it in a sock or nylon stocking, knot the sock tightly and wash and dry this a couple of times in your hottest cycle. If you do multiple balls at once, make sure to separate them in the sock or stocking by tying a band around the sock between each ball (looks like a caterpillar).
Finish the ball: Once your core is nicely felted, wind more wool around it, until it has the size of a tennis ball, secure the ends and repeat the sock/washer/dryer exercise. Take the sock off and your dryer ball(s) are ready to use.
I used my original ones for about a year before they were starting to fall apart, but since I have enough wool scraps, I just made myself new ones.

And more dogs...

Dogs just make me happy, can you tell?

After the last blog entry, where I was showing off the photographic results of the Unleashed workshop, many were asking for pictures of my dogs. Well, here they are:

At the Ranch





Peeking



And at the Beach:

The Race




Flying Trouble




Double Trouble...

Texas hold'em - Unleashed in Dallas

As many of you know, I started my professional life as a veterinarian in Germany. After moving to the US, due to law and order, I wasn't able to practice Veterinarian medicine, without redoing all my exams and more.




So I pursued my interest in photography to lift it to a professional level.
Although successfully working as a professional photographer for the last couple of years, I was always for the lookout to combine my experience and knowledge as a veterinarian with my passion of photography.




Last fall I photographed a litter of doxies (Miniature Dachshunds)from my favorite breeder. After delivering the images to him, he confessed to have had tears in his eyes as he was looking through the images. Hearing this from a somewhat tough cowboy, I thought I must have done something right.



Coincidentally, or call it serendipity, the same week I stumbled upon an article in the PPA (Professional Photographers of America) magazine about three dedicated and successful pet photographers and their concerted “Unleashed” workshop. Researching the websites of these queens of pet photography, something clicked into place: That's it, that's what I want to do. Go figure, one of the queens is also a veterinarian....


Winston:




Missy:







Knowing that I would need every bit of advice and information to successfully embrace pet photography, I signed up for the “Unleashed” workshop.
Off I went to Dallas, Texas, last week to see what Unleashed is all about.

We enjoyed dedicated instructors,




...tough dog handlers...




...and models available for close ups.




We even picked up models in the park:




In short: We had a very calm and conventional learning experience...



This was probably one of the best investments I made so far in my professional life. The Unleashed team put us through a full packed three day workshop that left no question open. We went from the basics of studio lighting over dog handling to marketing with all it's bells and whistles.
Seeing three different styles and learning about three different approaches, the main lesson I took from this is, that if you stay true to your style, who you are and how you shoot, you are on the right way to success.


I strongly encourage you to browse through Bev's, Barbara's and Teresa's websites, you won't be disappointed. Links to the right under: Friends and Links


My sincere THANK YOU to Barbara, Bev and Teresa for putting this amazing workshop together, to Don for freely sharing his valuable marketing advice, to Brandy and Robin for complying with all our possible and impossible demands, and of course to our fantastic canine models!

All images in this post were photographed during the workshop.

April Conservation Tip

I see myself as a conservation photographer.
With my images I want to be an ambassador for nature and wildlife, showing people places they might never go to, but they should know about. So that they see what's at stake.
But is taking pictures enough?
No, they also need to be shown and a story told. I try that, too, but I still feel it's not enough.

After sharing some “eco” tips with friends, who almost always are astounded how easy it is to make an positive impact, I thought I share these tips on a at least monthly basis on my blog, to reach even more people, to spread the word.

The idea for this months tip was inspired by an initiative from Starbucks:

As the new Academy of Science opened we took the kids for a first look. Through it is a really stunning museum now, the one thing that impressed me most, was a display of how many paper cups get used daily in the US, and how many trees have to be cut for that. I don't recall the exact numbers, but it was mind boggling. After this visit, I started to use a travel mug for my frequent Starbucks trips. I always have one in the car, and one in my camera bag. But I noticed, that hardly anyone else does.
So for this blog I did a bit research and found the following:

“ If only 50 Starbucks customer a day in every store were to use reusable mugs, Starbucks would save 150,000 disposable paper cups daily. This equals 1.7 million pounds of paper, 3.7 million pounds of solid waste, and 150,000 trees a year”

That's pretty impressive. An average Starbucks store has about 400 customer a day, so the above amount of trees and waste could be saved if only 12.5 % of all customers would use reusable cups....And this is just Starbucks, there is also Peets and many more other coffee shops out there.

Obviously Starbucks noticed that too, and launched the following initiative:

www.starbucks.com/thebigpicture
Just click on the the header (April Conservation Tip) to go directly to the Starbucks website.

Check it out and take part. And in the future, just use these travel mugs that are catching dust in your cabinet!