Category Archives: Photographic & Videos

When the Iron Curtain came down and the old USSR fell apart our world changed dramatically. The internet and modern media techniques means that what is going on in many parts of the world can appear quickly in others (OK China tries to stop this when it wants!). Personally I had no idea when Russia celebrated their Victory day but without an Eastern front our history might have been quite different.
The thing is good photography is good photography wherever it comes from. I have included this link to the photographs from Russia’s Victory Day celebrations. They are good with some being exceptional. I hope you enjoy them.

Victory Day

Moses Mokvin, 86, a World War II veteran stands in Red Square after the Victory Day Parade, which commemorates the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany in Moscow, Russia. Tens of thousands of granite-faced soldiers marched in lockstep across Red Square in Russia's annual Victory Day display of military might. The parade, marking the surrender of Nazi Germany in World War II, is the centerpiece of Russia's most solemn secular holiday, both commemorating the Soviet Union's enormous sacrifices in the war and asserting the potency of its modern military, May 9, 2011. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press)

Victory Day, May 9th, marks the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War. It was first begun in the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union following the signing of the surrender document late in the evening on May 8, 1945, but already after midnight by Moscow time, thus May 9th. During the Soviet Union’s existence, May 9th was celebrated throughout the USSR and in the countries of the Easter Bloc. The war became a topic of importance in cinema, literature, and history lessons at school, the mass media, and the arts. After the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, most former USSR countries retained the celebration. In Russia during the 1990s, May 9th was not celebrated massively, because Soviet-style mass demonstrations did not fit in with the way the liberal power base in Moscow communicated with the country’s residents. Things changed when Vladimir Putin came to power. He started to promote the prestige of the governing regime and history, national holidays and commemorations all became a source for national self-esteem. Since then Victory Day in Russia has increasingly been turning into a joyous celebration in which popular culture plays a great role. — Paula Nelson (47 photos total)

Link to Part One
The orangutans at KRUS are all “orphaned” that is, as far as we know they were all born in the wild but have been taken away from their mothers. The likelihood is their mothers would have been killed during forest clearances in order to make way for palm oil plantations. The “cute” babies are often taken as pets, something that is illegal in Indonesia but about which they do very little. Fathers play no part in bringing up orangutans.

When COP and OAUK first went to KRUS there were nine orangutans in all. Three adult orangutans, two females and a male in a cage just 7 meters wide by 3 meters deep and 2.5 meters high. (See first picture) This is too small for one animal. Sadly one of the females became ill and died of an infection.

Four young male orangutans were in a cage shown below. Two very young male orangutans were being held in a smaller cage together but following blood tests they had to be split up as one had hepatitis. The conditions in which they were all being kept were poor with little enrichment inside the cages and no opportunity to be rehabilitated and then released.

It was decided to use an empty enclosure and to develop it into a much better environment for the younger orangutans. In the meantime forest school was started whereby the youngsters would be taken to the forest to learn or improve skills their mothers would have taught them in the wild. Enrichment for the cages was also added. Simple things like branches to climb on and old fire hoses and tyres were added to provide something to swing on.

The public were also able to get too close to the animals. This led to the animals being given inappropriate items to eat and drink and in some cases danger to humans and the animals. (You may think this is odd but take a look here at what has been going on in Malaysia at a zoo) Netting was therefore erected to keep the visitors away from the cages. The big task was the enclosure and this involved some incredibly hard work as it was all done by hand as very little equipment was available.

The results were amazing. The four young males previously in the cage love it. The one who has hepatitis remains caged in isolation until a negative result comes back from his blood tests. His earlier cage buddy remains in a cage too. This is because the other four appeared to “bully” him but this may have been their way of getting him to join in. As he is very insecure he simply sat on the floor and hugged himself so he was returned to a cage where he seems quite happy for now.

Coming up -
Orangutan profiles. Get to know each of these adorable creatures, their known background and what lies in store for them.
Forest School. What they get up to when they are let out.
Plans for the future at KRUS.
The bleak future for orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra

My fondness for photography and a desire to see endangered species has led me to  travel widely. Armed with an array of camera equipment I have been fortunate to photograph a lot of wild animals including leopard, tiger, mountain gorilla and lately, my favourite, orangutans.

In October 2010 my wife Jo and I went on a trip to Malaysia. This took us to Sepilok, an orangutan orphanage and rescue centre partly funded by the Orangutan Appeal UK a charity based in Surrey and Hampshire (www.orangutan-appeal.org.uk). Whilst in Sepilok I took a lot of photographs and when talking to the Appeals staff they asked if I had any decent photographs as they were short of some for the 2011 calendar. Long story short, on my return I sent them a CD of my photographs and they were delighted using five in the calendar with one of mine on the cover.

A few weeks later, tongue in cheek, I said that if they needed any more taken I would be available to go out there again. To my surprise they said yes but asked if I would go to Indonesia to another new project they were working on.

So it was I found myself in February this year on a flight to Singapore and then on to Balakpapan in Indonesia. A long drive from there brought me and my two companions, both primatologists, in Samarinda. To say Samarinda was a bit of a culture shock is putting it mildly. If you have been to Thailand then it is like that only poorer and they see very few westerners you are a bit of a novelty so you get asked what you are doing, where you are going and such like a lot usually preceded by “Hello Mista” Anyone over five feet tall is also a giant out there. I have to say we were made very welcome and everyone seemed friendly, even the police officers who insisted we sheltered in their police office when we got caught outside in a torrential tropical downpour.

Rubin, watching us watching the others

It was though, the orangutans I was hoping to see. These were at KRUS. Kebun Raya Unmul Samarinda is Indonesian for the Botanical Gardens of the University of  Samarinda.   KRUS for short. These gardens house a small zoo and an organisation called COP, the Centre for Orangutan Protection, work there rescuing and rehabilitating orphaned orangutans. (www.orangutanprotection.com) I was not to be disappointed.

Although the zoo is badly in need of repair (and the funds to do it) they had, when I was there, eight orangutans along with gibbons, macaque monkeys, sun bears, crocodile and a variety of birds. Four of the youngest orangutans are in a newly built enclosure. Two orangutans are in separate cages – I will explain later, and two other much larger orangutans are kept together in another cage. I know each of them by name. I went with all but one of the youngest to Forest School and watched as the keepers and staff encouraged them to climb and forage, some needing more encouragement than others, getting them ready for the day when hopefully they can be reintroduced to the wild.

For now enjoy the photographs from Sepilok in Malaysia. I will introduce you to the orangutans at KRUS another time.

Yoda deciding it was time to leave

 

 

 

 

 

Motherly love

Denis asked me to start something here mainly I guess because I am now a wedding and portrait photographer.

I have always been interested in photography, I have over 60 cameras ranging from early Kodaks through twin lens reflex cameras and into the digital age. Sadly no plate camera, have you seen the price they go for on E-Bay?

I have not used them all some were given to me some I bought, some I have used. I am unashamedly a Nikon person and currently have a D2x and a D3 for work. I am also an Apple nut so all my computers are Apple, a 27″ iMac i7 quad core is the latest and it is amazing. I use Aperture mainly and an old version of Photoshop.

Anyone out there interested in all this? I thought I would put some interesting facts on here (if you are into photography) Early “cameras” like the Camera obscura or pin hole camera did not produce a photograph and were used to draw. These have been around for centuries with Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham), a great authority on optics in the Middle Ages who lived around 1000AD, inventing the first pinhole camera However it was Louis Daguerre who invented the first practical process of photography. In 1829, he formed a partnership with Joseph Nicephore Niepce to improve the process Niepce had developed two years earlier but which produced images which quickly fade.

In 1839 after several years of experimentation and Niepce’s death, Daguerre developed a more convenient and effective method of photography, naming it after himself – the daguerreotype. Daguerre’s process ‘fixed’ the images onto a sheet of silver-plated copper. He polished the silver and coated it in iodine, creating a surface that was sensitive to light. Then, he put the plate in a camera and exposed it for a few minutes. After the image was painted by light, Daguerre bathed the plate in a solution of silver chloride. This process created a lasting image, one that would not change if exposed to light.

In 1839, Daguerre and Niepce’s son sold the rights for the daguerreotype to the French government and published a booklet describing the process. The daguerreotype gained popularity quickly; by 1850, there were over seventy daguerreotype studios in New York City alone.

Moving swiftly into the digital age before you fall asleep. Do you know how your digital sensor works? Keeping it simple (as told to me so I understood) my D3 has 12.1 million pixels 12 million of which capture the image, and the rest? Well each of the 12million operate on light hitting them. Each one when you press the button says “Am I on or off” If off they are black, no light hitting them. If they are on they then ask “Am I red, blue, or green” and switch to the relevant colour hitting them.

You with me so far? If they are none of those they ask “I must be something else and ask the guys in the .1 million which happen to all be white. Generally they then show white – all that in a fraction of a second.

It is a lot more complicated but it makes my head hurt beyond that. If there is interest I can do more. Happy to talk cameras, photographs, digital manipulation and printing with computers and software thrown in.

Lets get chatting folks

(Oh and yes I am up at this time of day. I am off to Spain for a break, early flight and cant sleep so…..)