Yin and Yang Revisited

How is it possible to reconcile the unavoidable dichotomies we encounter every day? Fundamental to the human psyche is a core need to experience and resolve opposing forces. Steeped in ancient Daoist philosophy, the existential battle between dark and light is as old as conscious thought. This idea of a yin and a yang embodies the notion that while polarities exist, each is complementary to the other. 

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Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) - Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Nikon D500 + Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 VR

Thoughts of opposite energies have never been so prevalent in my life and my mind. As we enter a new era with a president who represents everything I oppose, I have begun to search within myself to better understand the paradigm I am now forced to live. In a country where 49% defines the discourse for the majority, I can’t help but question that nature of this “democracy.” Today, male thinking overshadows female, false data supersedes science, and the needs of the many are marginalized to benefit the few. 

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Seljalandsfoss Detail - Iceland

Nikon D500 + Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR1

Like the body politic that defines the course of the present, the present defines the course of my vision. With the ugliness of the 2016 election season, I sought out beauty to oppose the oppressive nature of the news. While I read and listened to daily reports, I also retreated to the simplicity of my art. My concerns of corruption, abuse and environmental decay have emboldened a desire to get involved physically, emotionally and financially. We, who are concerned about a sustainable future, are now faced with the ultimate yin and yang; do you stay at home and mourn a loss, or do you stand out and speak for those who can not?  

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Orchid Details - Bachmann Garden Center, MN

Nikon D810 + Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Macro

©2000-2017 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.

Can it Get any Better?

Have we reached a point in wildlife photography where it can't get any better? With the ever crashing prices of high quality digital gear, the pursuit of wildlife imagery has become "every man's (or woman's)" game. In 1994 I spent $2000 for a previously owned Carl Zeiss 300mm f/4.0 lens because I desperately wanted to photograph the wildlife of Costa Rica, Minnesota and the West Coast. A fortune to me at the time, the choice to buy the lens translated into real sacrifices. Rather than splurge on a nice car, an apartment in a trendy neighborhood or pay off my debts, I chose to embellish my photographic and travel desires. 

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Atlantic Puffin in Flight - Iceland

Nikon D500 + Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0

In stark contrast to when I began taking my photography seriously, today I could spend the same $2000 and purchase an amazing 150-600mm lens and prosumer DSLR camera with a wide-angle to mid-range zoom lens. What's more, rather than risking the unknown of the used market, all of my gear would be new and under a manufacturer's warranty. The obstacle that was once the price of quality gear, is not an impediment to making quality images today. 

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Atlantic Puffin - Iceland

Nikon D500 + Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0

In 1995 I took my first of ten trips to Costa Rica. As a formally trained ecologist and evolutionary biologist, a trip to the tropics was high on my "future travels list." Even by the mid-90's Costa Rica was less exotic than other destinations, but it remained a relatively low-touristed hot-spot for photography. With one bag packed with thirty rolls of film and the other with quick drying clothes, I can still recall that primitive outdoor airport the greeted us in San Jose. A trip that might cost $1500 per person today was about double the expense in 1995. So, much like the democratization of gear, travel to lesser-visited wildlife destinations have become easier to find and increasingly affordable. 

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Atlantic Puffin Looking Back - Iceland

Nikon D7100 + Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

And what of the art in image making. Quite honestly, the photographs I see today during a random Google Search, on forums and on blogs match or surpass what was once the "gold standard for nature photography,..." National Geographic. Digital image making rewards those willing to engage in trial and error and inquiry-based learning. It has never been easier to take a picture, review the product and modify the process on the spot. No more waiting for film to be developed by a lab, the digital artist is free to experiment, invent and grow faster than I ever could when analog (aka film) was king. 

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Atlantic Puffin with Meal for Chicks - Iceland

Nikon D7100 + Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

So, can it get any better? Well at this point, I am not sure that the answer is yes. Every day people are producing photographs of hummingbirds where every feather can be visualized with light refracting through prismatic barbs, while others capture lions (or insert the predator of your choice) leaping, biting or chasing their quarry in a display that was once only producible by the "professional" nature photographer. While I am beginning to doubt that images of the future can get better, I do believe they will be different. Every photographer sees and interprets their world through their eyes. While many try to emulate the "masters," it is still the individual image maker who decides to snap and share or withhold a given picture. Even if nothing new can be made, anyone who holds a camera and treasures the image making process has the capacity to see "it" and photograph "it" before "it" or they are gone. So, it is likely that my initial query is not the question that needs be asked, rather than "Can it..., maybe I'm wondering... "Does it matter if it can't get any better?"

©2000-2016 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.

Good Work

During one of those all too frequent moments where I was waxing poetic about some prior exploit, a student asked me if I regretted my decision to become a teacher. As these queries often appear in a flurry, I was not surprised when the topic turned to my decision to live in Minnesota rather than my childhood haunts of New York City and Southern California. I suppose that if I grew up in a midwest suburb and my teacher was from a heavily publicized city and appeared surprisingly competent, I might wonder why he chose to stick around rather than pursue what seemed to be a more exciting life. Were I was asked to reflect on these choices twenty years ago you might here a hint regret, but today I am rather sanguine when it comes to my plight. Teaching has been good to me. While it is very hard work, emotionally demanding and can be painfully redundant, the rewards far outweigh the costs. There is a real purpose to my life, as I have the opportunity to share my deep passion for how scientists do science. While I love to lecture about all things ecology, evolution and molecular biology, my real creativity is borne from those rare moments when I can frame an exploration that fosters naive discovery. 

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In the Hole of the Storm

Nikon D500 + Nikon 200-400mm VR AFS

As "Teacher's Week" came and went, I couldn't help but reflect on the good fortune that led me into this field. Working as a field ecologist for a university team on St. George Island, Alaska, I was also charged with helping a middle-school teacher on sabbatical to fit in with our group. Not being much of a people person, this was quite a daunting task; yet there was something about the man that seemed remarkable to me. Dwight was not only a middle-school science teacher, but he was an amateur photographer who chose to spend his free minutes documenting life with a camera. After nearly two weeks of collaboration and training Dwight and I parted company, but he left a little something behind. I think it was the midnight dinners and frosty beers that loosened our tongues, and resulted in philosophical chats about living a quality life. This teacher loved his work, believed he was doing good, and enjoyed the small things like so few seem to do. It's been nearly 30 years since I last talked to the man, but I sincerely believe that the teacher I am today can be attributed to my own naive discovery about a guy and his career that evoked passion and a love for good work. 

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In the Shadow of Fairy Falls

Nikon D810 + Nikon 16-35mm VR AFS

©2000-2016 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.

When You Hear the Quiet

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear, does it make a sound?" The thought experiment that attempts to assess the essence of being and reality blurs the lines between knowledge, observation and truth. The answer to the question clearly depends on one's frame of reference. In an anthropocentric world, the zealot might say no, for in the absence of a person to hear, the phenomenon does not exist. However, if one separates the id from the humanness label and accepts that science exists in the absence of oneself, then the tree clearly does make a sound. The falling body compresses the air, alters localized regions of pressure, and creates waves that propagate through matter; the product is a sound that emanates across the forest. 

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The Young Buck

Nikon D4 + Nikon 200-400mm VRI

This exercise that seeks to find a connection between sensation and reality is, to me, about truth. An argument that claims a falling tree makes no sound, parallels those which profess humans bear no responsibility for a changing climate. The empiricist who that knows sound waves are not about the hearing but about the physics, can also recognize the body of evidence that point towards an anthropogenic cause for the predicament we now face. 

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The Conversation

Nikon D4 + Nikon 200-400mm f4.0VR

There are countless models that correlate human expansion with accelerated global changes. The impact of our species is so profound that recent research now suggests that the development of agriculture in North America 6,000 years ago is linked to fundamental structural changes in plant and animal distributions that had previously remained constant for 300 million years  (Scientists peg Anthropocene to first farmers). Not recognizing ones impact in the past is a forgivable offense, but in this modern era. denial is not reality and ignorance is a choice. 

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Clash of the Titans

Nikon D4 + Nikon 200-400mm VRI

Today is December 25, 2015 and we have yet to experience a cold stretch or significant snow in central Minnesota. It is the warmest year on record and the rut continues throughout a season that is often defined by nutritional stress rather than sex. Just like the falling trees that break the solitude of a quiet forest, humans must accept the responsibility for the changes they impart on our home... these are strange days on planet Earth. 

©2000-2015 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.

The Id and I

To the id, I am a wildlife photographer and biologist, to the world I am a biology teacher posing as a nature photographer. In this movie, the credits are meaningless, as reality suggests that both contain a grain of truth. Multiple degrees in biology and years of field research validate one credential, while 23 years in the classroom support the other. The biologist is a teacher and the teacher is a biologist; yet we are both a photographer. The latter is my passion, but this commitment to photography is rooted in the former. The pursuit of nature through a lens began as a way to document research, and this same pursuit continues to support my work as a teacher. The images I make are proud possessions woven into lessons, but more than this, they are the raw material for my stories. Tales of survival, evolution, ecology and adventure are painted with photographs. This library of images say that life is real, while the stories claim that it is about the journey. A man of three passions; biology, teaching and photography are the points of my equilateral triangle. Each is connected to the other, all have equal value and weight to the id. 

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A Cute Approach (Castor canadensis) - St. Croix Valley, MN

Nikon D300 + Nikon 200-400mm f4.0 VR

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Reflection (Castor canadensis) - St. Croix Valley, MN

Nikon D300 + Nikon 200-400mm f4.0 VR

About the Images: This series of images were made near a beaver lodge I found during the winter while hiking through a nearby forest. Having seen trails through the icy pond, I realized that this was a very active lodge and made plans to visit as spring approached. For the past two weeks I have arrived on site by 6:00 a.m. just as the sun was beginning to cross the horizon. With at least three mature beavers, this pond is a near ideal place to study a variety of behaviors that include territoriality, predator avoidance and environmental engineering. In the interim between autumn and the present, the boundary of this pond has expanded despite a persistent draught. This observation is physical evidence that we humans are not the only species capable of manipulating the environment to meet some fundamental need.

©2000-2015 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.

Did You Know (25)?

Laozi, author of Tao Te Ching, lived around the the 6th century BC and is considered to be the “father of Taoism.” Often associated symbolically with a black and white circle that melts together to form the yin and the yang, Taoism is a philosophy and ethic that suggests we live in the moment and go with the flow. When considering the nature of one’s existence, Laozi (also Lao Tzu) saw water as a metaphor for being. His thoughts on this subject continue to resonate today, “The very softest thing of all can ride like a galloping horse through the hardest of things. Like water, like water penetrating rock, and so the invisible enters in.”

Tao Te Ching

©2000-2015 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.

The Butterfly Effect

Moon Tree Number II - Minnesota

Canon 5D mark II & Canon 50mm f1.4 USM

Most of my free time is spent at work, working on work or talking about work. My commitment to “the job” reflects the passion for the work I do. Twenty-one years later, I still believe that I can influence the future and make a real difference in the lives of the people I see each day. Teaching is one part insanity and one part naïveté.

I am delusional because I believe that what I do each and every day really matters. It’s a crazy thought when you go to work with the assumption that what happens today makes a difference tomorrow. Some call it the “butterfly effect;” a sensitive dependence on initial conditions which assumes that a small perturbation will result in large-scale changes to a future state. 

Eastern-tailed blue butterfly ( Cupido comyntas ) - Wm Obrien State Park

Canon 5D mark I & Canon 100mm f2.8 USM

What is your motivation? If you work for the money, you will never know the pleasure in the work you do. My craft, photography, is not limited by the product. The picture is something to share, while the story in the image reflects the life that is lived. Like the work I do everyday, my art is my passion. Images are like the beat of wings in the still of the night that generate ripples in the air. Regardless of the stimulus, both will have unpredictable consequences. In this non-linear world where chaos rules, I choose to embrace the experience, and believe my actions can influence the future.

©2000-2013 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.

Fear and Inhibition

Finch Flight (Carduelis tristis) - Pasadena, CA

Canon 5D mark iii + Canon 300 f2.8L IS w/ Canon 1.4x Converter

This craft, photography, can be defined in so many ways. It is...

...a form of pure journalism when the photograph captures the “decisive moment,” a proverbial blip in time.

...a narrative, when the photograph tells a story about a place and time.

...a form of commerce, when the photograph captures its subject and portrays an ideal that can be bought and sold.

...a form of expression, when the photograph is a tool used by an artist to convey an idea or abstraction that resides within.

Sharks Love Popcorn - New York City Aquarium

Fuji X100

To the working stiff, this craft is a hobby, an outlet for the weekend warrior who is trapped by the constraints of life, career, and time. Yet we, the amateurs of the world, have the least to lose by taking a risk and still, we  tend to play it safe. We stay in our comfort zone rarely look beyond our strengths. 

Years Later at Ground Zero - New York City

Fuji X100

Guilty as charged, this is my modus operandi. I travel, document untouched ecosystems, avoid people and photograph large charismatic mammals. Shrouded behind a veil, I stay within my predefined limits and protect myself by hiding the experiments. Sadly, this is also a formula for quieting creativity, innovation and growth. My craft requires an adventuresome spirit and desire to take a risk, bug fear of acrimony or ridicule inhibits the urge. So here it is, the New Year and the requisite Resolution. 

Green and Gold (Carduelis tristis) - Pasadena California

Canon 5D mark iii + Canon 300 f2.8L IS w/ Canon 1.4x Converter

“I Bruce Leventhal will continue to push myself beyond my comfort zone, and I will share the experiments that I too often hide from my peers.”

©2000-2013 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.