©2000-2016 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.
Dawn of Autumn 2016
in October 2016
Autumn
View of the Beaver Lodge 10/25/2015
Nikon D800E + 17-35mm f2.8
The Civil Engineers
It is hard to deny the intellectual prowess of those with a prominent and bulbous pre-frontal cortex. Responsible for higher cognition and executive functions that include, but are not limited to the capacity to make decisions, orchestrate thoughts, and interpret abstractions, this master of meta-cognition has enabled our primate lineage to transcend a life in the trees to one among others in a creative civilization.
Buck-toothed Bob (Castor canadensis)
Nikon D7200 + Nikon 200-400mm f4.0 VR
While the frontal cortex is an oft cited reason for many of our unique qualities, recent research now suggests that we humans may not be so special. For example, the diminutive chihuahua has a bigger brain per unit body mass than the typical human. What’s more, the gregarious California sea lion has a larger frontal cortex than well respected primates like baboons and gibbons. As if this is not humiliating enough, it appears that the lowly llama has a pre-frontal cortex that exceeds that of a macaque monkey (Kaufman, 2013).
Bob's Cousin (Castor canadensis)
Nikon D7200 + Nikon 200-400mm f4.0 VR
The cognitive superiority I have proudly worn for the past 50 years has recently suffered yet another indignity. While my pre-frontal cortex continues to search for meaning to that which I witnessed this weekend, I can confidently state that I have been bested by a lowly rodent. The beavers I have watched and photographed with a strange obsessive passion have now conspired to outsmart my big brain and thus deny me access to my voyeuristic perch. What you see in this collection of photographs is the work of a small group of radicals who managed to reengineer my once unfettered view. What is so amazing and beyond my cognitive grasp is how these thumbless engineers managed to do so much in only 7 days… at this point, one has to ponder the value of a large pre-frontal cortex when a small pack of bucked toothed scaly tails can do so much with so little.
View of Beaver Lodge 11-1-2015
iPhone 6
©2000-2015 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.
Greater Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) : Crex Meadows, WI
Nikon D7200 + Nikon 200-400mm f4 VR1
Portfolio by a Weekend Warrior
in October 2015
Fall is a refreshing departure from the photographic malaise of an August in the midwest. While the heat of summer is a comfortable respite from Minnesota's endless winter, it is a bit monotonous for an image maker. Green leaves are dull from months of exposure and are rendered as faded cyan even when photographed during the magic hours of dusk and dawn. Despite the abundance of naive chicks, fawns and cubs, the thick vegetation during this brief growing season makes it nearly impossible to isolate a photographic subject. In contrast, fall ushers in the the "great clearing." With shades of yellow, orange and red serving as my studio, impenetrable thickets now glow in the morning light to clearly reveal my subjects as they toil and prepare for winter. To the photographer, autumn is a near perfect collision between subject matter and light; to the worker bee/weekend warrior it is the season that rewards sleep deprivation with seldom seen snippets of time.
©2000-2015 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.