We are all sentient beings, even the smallest creatures.
Today I'll share some of my favorite portraits of our non-homosapien friends.
Fijian Goats
I spent June-August 2015 on the island of Vanua Levu, Fiji shooting a series of documentaries, and the house we lived in was next-door to an old farm whose abandoned farmhouse had been taken over by this herd of goats. I woke up one morning determined to capture their portrait using my infrared camera (a retrofitted Nikon D5200 with a 650 nanometer IR filter installed by the folks at Lifepixel). This has become one of my all-time favorite images -- the goats are completely aware and present.
Highway 1 Cow
While driving back from Bowling Ball Beach in Mendocino, we came across this cow by the side of the road on the Sonoma coast. The light on the Pacific Ocean behind it along with its expression compelled me to pull over and make its portrait.
Szechuan Pigs to Market
I saw this truckload of pigs headed to a slaughterhouse on a highway outside
of Chengdu, China. It struck a deep chord of empathy within me.
So-Dak Mother and Child
I love horses and will devote a blog post to a few films about them soon. This little foal and his mother near Rapid City, South Dakota completely captivated me.
Prairie Bison
My friend's family runs a Bison Farm in South Dakota and I've been lucky to spend time there. Bison bulls are the largest terrestrial animals in North America and Europe, and when you're 15' away from them you really feel their imposing nature. I treated the image in photoshop as if it was shot 120 years ago, with sepia toning and and simulated staining.
Chicks
A friend of mine had rescued these baby chickens and I set up a small seamless portrait studio to photograph them.
Jerusalem Bug
Jerusalem bugs, also known as Jerusalem crickets (although they are not in the cricket family), are one of my favorite insects to run across while weeding in the garden. They just look so cool! While they are not venomous, they can emit a foul smell and are capable of inflicting a painful bite. I gingerly placed this guy on top of a piece of frosted plexiglass and lit it from both above and below with a strobe.
Honeybee Tableau
This is a bit of a fake in that the bee died and I found it in the garden, then posed it on a piece of a wasps nest that I had lying around. I shot it with a strobe that was "snooted" with black foil to create a very tight vignette and I love the way it looks.
Coccinellidae (ladybird beetle)
You may have seen my hibernating ladybug video that I posted here a few days ago. Suffice to say I can't get enough of these elegant-looking miniature beetles (that are not actually in the "true bug" family).
Desiccated Lizard
My wife brought this juvenile alligator lizard into my studio one day... she saw it while planting flowers in the front yard. At first I thought it was alive and then realized that it had died stuck to this heart-shaped rock and then became desiccated. It reminds me of what a baby dinosaur might look like.
I hope that you enjoyed these images and thanks for watching!
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