Nature Photo Magazine 2011/1 by Természetfotó Magazin

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2011/1.

The wedding of the birds amphibians | Tips and tricks Szabolcs Vass | Portfolio

Welcome Dear Reader, Another three months have gone, so here we are with our new issue. The spring is about to come, trees are in bud, spring flowers have come out of the earth, flocks of birds are setting off their migration, the nature is beginning to revive again. The cycle is unstoppable. Now we would like to favour our readers with the following subjects. In the “Photo adventure” column we will guide you around South of Sweden where ten thousands of migrating common cranes start their breeding to ensure the existence of the next generation of cranes. The article is illustrated with pictures made by Anikó Imre and Tamás Imre. In the “Interesting places” you can be informed about the story of Bence Máté’s capercaillie photo and Béla Szabó shares his experience with you about his wanderings in South of Serbia. To take a little excursion towards the East, János Eifert introduces the Uyghur people to us in the third part of his China series. In the “Portfolio” column we wish to introduce a young Hungarian nature photographer Szabolcs Vass to you who has won the special prize of the Nature Photo Magazine at the 18th Pannonia Photo Salon, so he can present himself to the readers with his macro photos. In the “Photo School” column László Suhayda and Árpád Krivánszky nature photographers give their advices on flower photography, and in the “Tips and Tricks” column they reveal the secrets of amphibian photography. Our diaporama column continues with the import of materials made by Wings Platinum 4 software. Our photoshop expert Márton Perhiniák gives a presentation about pictures sizing problems, webgallery, printing etc. with the help of a tutiorial. We can also read a passage from Bence Máté’s book, a story about pelican photography in the Danube delta which is from the chapter titled “3 days, 3 countries, 3 hides”. Please receive our eighth issue with love! Tamás Imre Editor-in-Chief Photo: © Tamás Imre Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, EF 600mm f/4 IS USM 1/1000 sec, f/5, ISO 400 stand

Portfolio - szabolcs Vass

I was born in 1977 in Budapest and I still live here. However, since my grandparents lived near the Tisza Lake, I spent a lot of time in the countryside. I use to fish, go hiking and soon I became attached to the nature. Today my home is near the bank of Danube. I have been interested in photography more seriously since 2006. In the beginning I tried to take my photos with a Bridge camera and other photo equipments.

photo school - flowers

tips & tricks - amphibians

Winter has gone and nature photographers â&#x20AC;&#x201C; now getting bored of snowy-icy themes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; want to shoot something different. One option is to photograph the sets of early spring flowers, and the other one is shooting amphibians which have just emerged at the same time. Amphibians form a populous group of creatures providing numerous photo opportunities.

Photo adventure

Sweden: The wedding of the birds

China III - land of Uyghurs

In the previous parts we frequently mentioned that the Uyghurs live in Wester China in the vast Xinjiang Region, along the ancient Silk Road where Europe, Asia and Russia meets. Namely in autonomy. For six thousand years. They regard the Huns as their ancestors. The practised shamanism.

Bence Máté - Pelicans

In the winter of 2006 some members of the Dalmatian Pelican Life Project asked me to design a hide for them. They had seen the hides I had made using the semi-permeable one way privacy glass technique on the internet and wanted a similar one from which they could observe pelicans.

Interesting places south serbia BLACK GROUSE ADVENTURE IN Finland

diaporama wings platinum 4 / IV

digital image editing resolution & image size

Photo adventure

Sweden: The wedding of the birds Bird migration always was and always will be an important event for environmentalist and nature photographer circles. Having spent the winter in Spain or France, cranes return to Northern Europe in great numbers, more closely to the moorlands of Sweden, Norway and Finland to start their annual breeding. During the long journey they stop in Sweden for 10-12 days to strengthen their relationship by a joint wedding dance.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 300L IS USM + 1,4x 1/2500sec f/8 ISO 640

Cranes on the horizon We would like to show you the scene of the wedding dance of the Common Crane (Grus grus) and the mystical atmosphere of Västra Götaland county which is less known in Eastern Europe. Choosing the right time is not a simple task. March or April might be the best, however, they spend only 10-15 days in great numbers at the lakeside, so it is worth to visit the place for several years to watch and photograph them. Weather can be changeable in this season, the temperature ranges from -5 C° to even +15 C° degrees. We have to dress warmly for photography as there is no chance to heat during the shooting. If we are lucky, even 18,000 cranes can be in this bird paradise at the same time. We had good luck: the sound of their „croo-croo”-ing and hooting covered the horizon and the area at the lakeside. Sometimes they were so loud that I could not hear the photographer beside me. Before the shooting it is worth to gather articles ind information about the migration of the birds. We can read a lot about their behaviour patterns, and an experienced ornithologist or photographer can help a lot in choosing the right photo theme and show us the dance motions in this hurly-burly of birds. I find it important because when you see that they are already in action, there is no time to photograph the right moment not to mention the composition. What is worth to take with us? Being a northern country in this season we must take plenty of warm clothes. During the day it can be plus 5 to15 C°, but by the evening it could cool down to - 8 C° and 0 C° degrees. In March it can snow or sleet anytime so we must bring some protection against the rain for our equipment. We need a minimum of 300 mm telephoto lens, however, to take nice pictures or for a possible longer distance a 500 mm or 600 mm telephoto lens is the best solution. We should not forget our stable tripod (Gitzo) to which we should fix a video head (Manfrotto) our a Wimberley head. These equipments are the most ideal for photographing flying birds.

Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, EF 600L IS USM 1/320sec f/5 ISO 800

Canon EOS 1D Mark II N, EF 600L IS USM 1/400sec f/5,6 ISO 400

Canon EOS 7D, EF 600L IS USM 1/1600sec f/6,3 ISO 500

If possible, we should take at least two camera shells, to which we should apply lenses with different focal length. There is no time for changing lenses in a good situation. We should take as many memory cards as possible, and a smaller laptop or external memory can do a good service too. I recall a day of photography from our memories. It was at the beginning of April and we got up at 3 in the morning to go out to the birds on time. I looked out of the window of our rented house and I could see no further than the end of my nose. Well, that was what I wanted. I told my photographer friends that there was a fog and to my great surprise they said that sorry, we had taken far too many pictures and we could see no further than the end of our noses, therefore we would skip this morning. Well, I said to myself, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m gonna go even if nobody comes with me, but luckily my wife AnikĂł and my two other photographer mates thought it different than the others. We pulled ourselves together quickly and I put in a demister spray and a cleaning cloth supposing the lenses would not stand the coldwarm fluctuation. In such cases it is worth using a sun shield even if we cannot see the sun because it protects against the condensing mist. It was really an awful fog, it took twice more time to get to the scene than on other days. Luckily we did not miss anything, not a living soul was there at the cranes except of us. Filled with adrenaline and photo ideas regarding the visual encounter of the fog and the backlight, we set up our equipments and waited for the birds. It was already eight oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;clock in the morning when it was growing light but we could not see a single crane and I could not even make my friends out clearly beside me. Then the miracle had happened: the birds set off their night places almost at the same time, the light became more and more strong. I could describe the sundisc as a planet burning red hot and similar to the moon which painted the landscape in a way if we had not been on the earth. That was what we went there for: the joint sight of the birds, the fog and the backlight conjured a fabulous atmosphere to the scene. It is very hard to describe what I felt then. Perhaps the best comparison: when I looked up the sky I was overwhelmed by a light feeling which can be rooted in our ancient desire for nature and freedom. I was simply happy to be able to see and feel then and there the landscape coloured in pastel shades in which the cranes just like a mythological phenomenon was flying in the fog.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 600L IS USM + 1,4x 1/200sec f/6,3 ISO 1600

I knew that I would remember this moment forever and I wondered why the other people had left this experience out of their lives. I would like to say thank you to my wife and to my two photographer friends who trusted me. This work could not be done without them.

Text: Tamรกs Imre Pictures: Anikรณ Imre and Tamรกs Imre photographers

Planning: Scene: South of Sweden. Accessibility: From Stockholm airport by car. What can you photograph: birds. What to take with us: wide-angle lens, a minimum of 300 mm telephoto lens, however, to have a bigger, about 500 mm telephoto lens even better, with 1,4x teleconverter if possible; tripod; memory cards and batteries, as many as possible. Accomodation: We can find very good quality accommodation near the lake. Best time to go: March - April

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 7-200 mm, 1/1600s f/4,5 ISO 200

Interesting places

Roaming around in South of Serbia I think that Serbia, a succession state of the former Yugoslavia, burdened with ethnic conflicts has not really been attractive for visitors for the last two decades. Although the country has real specialities in store. Last year, some of us got together for a tour to our southern neighbour. Our main destination was a gathering in Guca which is considered to be the biggest brass band festival of the world. This has been a meeting point of brass bands from all over Serbia for fifty years now. In the life of the Serbian countryside and its small towns every important event is accomponied by the sound of trumpets. Hearing the name of the Serbian town Guca, what else could come into our mind than the World Championship of Brass Bands. Every year thousands of visitors come to hear how would brass players pit their wits against each other in the one-week long festival. Dozens of bands perform in front of the jury for gaining the Golden Trumpet award. The festival was made world famous by Boban Markovic and Goran Bregovic. You have to be born to this music, we could do it for one and a half day. But we thought if we were there, we should have a look around.

We came across the gorge of the River Uvac in a tourist prospectus so we went to find it. I must admit it was not that easy but we succeeded. Local people told us that it cannot be approached by car only by boat. It was a true wonder to set off in the early morning with mist floating over the water. Above our head hundred meters high steep rock faces. We could see how the river meandered when we climbed up to the top of the rock walls. It was worth. The biggest attraction of the region besides the beautiful scenery is the Griffon Vulture. Wingspan of this wonderful and rare bird can be even three meters.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 15 mm 1/125s f/13 ISO 200

We continued our trip to explore the natural beauties south-west Serbia, so we got to the Tara National Park. The area of the national park 37,584 hectars out of which 19,200 hectars is an inner zone. This area is practically uninhabited. They say that one of the most preserved forests of Europe can be found here. The highest peak of the area is 1591 meters high, with an average altitude of 1000 meters. This mountain is embraced by the huge bend of the River Drina which separates it from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The gorge of Drina is considered to be one of the most beautiful lands of Serbia. From the Tara Mountain we descended more than 800 meters through the serpentine road built into the rock face to the town of Bajina Bašta which is situated in the valley of the river. The Tara National Park was listed by the UNESCO as a biosphere reservation in 1977 and got on the World Heritage list in 1980. Tara National Park is the empire of the intact nature. Its flora includes the slender Pančić spruce which is native to West of Serbia and its first scientific description was made by Josif Pančić, the father of Serbian botany. This kind of spruce is also called a living fossil and it can reach even 40 meters height. The flora and fauna of the region is very rich. Bears, wolves, chamois and many other – today rare - mammals and bird species. Atkin Clark, director of the Association of European National Parks once said that he imagined heaven just like the Tara National Park. I am organising a summer workshop in this region to let other people get to know this wonderful land.

Text and pictures: Béla Szabó

Szabolcs Vass I was born in 1977 in Budapest and I still live here. However, since my grandparents lived near the Tisza Lake, I spent a lot of time in the countryside. I use to fish, go hiking and soon I became attached to the nature. Today my home is near the bank of Danube. I have been interested in photography more seriously since 2006. In the beginning I tried to take my photos with a Bridge camera and other photo equipments. 2008 was the year of breakthrough as I bought my first DSLR camera with a macro lens. I also became a member of a photo club called „Ágens Fényfestő Egylet” through which I took part in several exhibitions and competitions. Later I put myself to the test individually and I won my first prize at the „Green Planet” competition in 2008. My pictures were accepted and exhibited among others at the competitions of Lumix, National Geographic and Nature Photographer of the Year. In my spare time I go hiking and take photos and, if there is a chance, I participate in photo tours. I managed to get to the Bayerischer Wald National Park in Germany and to one of the most beautiful region of Croatia, the Plitvice National Park. I tried myself out in several fields of photography, but I am especially on friendly terms with landscape and macro photography. With the help of digital technology, I find it interesting to show a common butterfly or dragonfly in a way which cannot be visible to the naked eye. I am never satisfied with my pictures taken as I always want to show something different. That’s why I try to find interesting, spectacular points of view as, through my pictures, I want to draw attention to these tiny miracles of nature. Szabolcs Vass Vassszabolcs.blogspot.com Vass.szabolcs@gmail.com Awards: Pearl world: Special prize, Green planet 2008 2008 publication in Photographer’s eye magazine 2009 publication in Photographer’s eye magazine Beyond the summit: 2009 publication in Photographer’s eye magazine Drop flower: 2008 publication in Photographer’s eye magazine Moisture snail: FTN 2009. photo competition In action: 2008 National Geographic competition Spider’s dinner: Nature photographer of the year 2010. special price, publication Burning flames: 18. Pannónia photo festival, Nature Photo Magazine’s special prize

Portfolio

Spiderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dinner

Flame

knight

In the

finish

In ac

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Pearl world

Dawn shine

Burning

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flower

Photo school

The secrets of flower photography

Canon EOS 30D, 2,8L/80-200 mm+ közgyűrű

ád Krivánszky EOS 30D, 2,8L/80-200 mm+ űrű f/5,6 1/60 s ISO 100

The snow is melting slowly and the sun is shining more and more warmly conjuring buds, sprouts and flowers up. Where should we look for flowers? Of course in the dryer, warmer areas such as the southern sides of hills and mounts. Wet places get warm much slower so flowering starts later there. A nature photographer mostly looks for the flowers, although buds, sprouts or blooming branches can also be attractive. Some types of flowers – even in the spring – make beautiful carpet of flowers in the meadows and in the skirts of the forests under the bare, still leafless trees. Such as the different crocus species in the high mountains and the multicoloured carpet of the Corydalis cava in the Hungarian forests, or later even the ones made of common dandelions could provide a beautiful scene. We cannot have any effect on the lighting conditions of an extensive meadow of flowers so we can only take good pictures in suitable light. Normally backlight does not help us either as we might lose the colours. We can take beautiful pictures of plants even by the general means of photography, especially in late spring when more and more bigger and spectacular flowers appear after the tiny ones of the early spring. In case of smaller flowers or nice flower parts, we will need extension tubes or a macro lense. With the help of lenses with longer focal length we can take nice, patchy backgrounds to highlight our main theme, a nice flower. A nice background can be enhanced by moderate use of aperture - use just as much as it needed for the sharpness of the main theme. It is not a requirement that the whole flower head must be sharp, perhaps only the inner parts such as the stamens or the stigmas want sharpness.

On a small area such as a flower or its nice parts, we are able to have an effect on the quantity and the quality of light; a flower photographer sets off with a whole arsenal of portable studio equipments. Too

strong, contrasted light is no good for flower photography, that is why we have to use light reducing devices made out of white, transparent material such as a white umbrella held in the direction of the light. To enlighten the shadowy parts of the picture, reflectors do an excellent service, although if we do not have one a white sheet of paper or a slightly crumpled kitchen foil will do. For a sharp plants photo we often need a nature photography tripod which can be set to the level of the plant, and a beanbag on the side. Today most digital camera has an LCD panel which is an excellent help to photograph themes in lower position; or if we do not have a camera like that, then an angle finder will help. If we need more light on a flower or one of its parts a torch can do a good service. Hungary is very rich in flowering plants, among them there are many rare species which are under environmental protection, like the terrestrial orchids, that is the genus of Orchis and Ophrys. To recognise them herb books, the websites of the national parks, the „Természetbúvár” magazine do a good service and last but not least nature photography clubs can also help. However, it is not necessary for a flower to be protected by all means, it can be beatiful and exciting on its own. The early morning dew looks pretty well on flowers; and it is worth to photograph bigger, more spectacular flowers in backlight, similarly the fresh and green leaves: the backlight reveals their wonderful veins. The visitors of the insect world show a preference for flowers, pictures of these visits might be our carefully kept treasures. So off we go to the meadow, to the mountains as carpets of flowers, flower groups and individual flowers or their nice parts are waiting for us from the early spring to the late autumn. Apart from a possible summer holiday, except of the high mountains. Have a nice light!

Text and pictures: László Suhayda – Árpád Krivánszky

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Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL, MP-E65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo

Tips and tricks

Photography of amphibians Winter has gone and nature photographers – now getting bored of snowy-icy themes – want to shoot something different. One option is to photograph the sets of early spring flowers, and the other one is shooting amphibians which have just emerged at the same time. Amphibians form a populous group of creatures providing numerous photo opportunities. Newts are attached to water when breeding, and apart from this early spring period of time they can be shot very rarely due to their hidden lifestyle. There is a very simple and good method to photograph them (which of course can be applied to other amphibians too) even without a waterproof camera.

We have to sink into the water a clean, smaller, non-leaking fish tank, being careful not to let water inside. We can place the camera at the bottom of the aquarium using an angle finder or, if the camera has it, a vari-angle LCD for view in. To avoid reflections, the lens must be fit to the glass of the fish tank tightly. Salamanders are not attached to early spring waters, these amphibians breed later in April and on the mainland. There is a good chance of meeting the fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) in the wet mountain forests in the North Hungarian Mountains and the „Alpokalja” (Feet of the Alps) at the western border of Hungary. The dark colour and the shiny, slimy skin – the latter applies to all of the amphibians – makes it really hard to photograph them due to the glitter. However, it is worth to try in shadowy or sunless areas and periods. Frogs form the most populous group which can be divided into two subgroups. The life cycle of „water frogs” (Greenfrogs, Bombinas) is attached to the water all year round, while „mainland frogs” (Moor Frogs, Common Frogs, Tree Frogs, Toads, Common Spadefoots) spend only their breeding season in water. The latter ones migrate in great numbers to their mating places, there are plenty of chances so for nature photographers to take pictures of them there. Males might develop coloration for a few days during the mating season, the most spectacular are the Moor Frogs and their close relatives the Common Frogs. The mating season takes place so early in the spring that the surface of the waters or puddles are often covered with cat ice. They mate on warm, sunny days, unfortunately lights are not the best at that time. Little light is no good too as the water ripples from their motion so the pictures might be blurred. Moor Frogs have the most beautiful mating, but these amphibians live in protected moors so have to ask for admittance and follow the strict rules. During the mating season, Common Frogs look for waters at a higher altitude, normally above 400-500 meters. It is good that we do not need special equipment for amphibian photography, a simplier camera and a lens for general purposes with tele/ macro switch will do, perhaps completed with an extension tube. Of course, using a macro lens is even better. It is worth to choose lenses with longer focal length for several reasons.

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Canon EOS3, EF180mm f/3.5L Macro USM

1/125 f/5.6 ISO 200

On the one hand amphibians are very cautious animals as they have a lot of enemies - besides wading birds and birds of prey, mammals like otters regard them as preys – so we might disturb them less if we stand a bit farther. Their environment is normally full of reeds and sedges, quite chaotic so using a lens with longer focal length can result in a calmer background. (Of course, we should choose an aperture setting only to an extent which necessarily needed for the sharpness of the main theme.) We have already mentioned that we should avoid glitters if possible so we should not use flash for the same reason. We should not photograph them from the high, we should rather go down to their level. It does no harm to bring a plastic bag on which we can kneel or lie. The low viewpoint is also good because the background (reeds, sedges, lakeside leaves) can reflect in the water in a favourable way. Slow motion or being still is very important, otherwise they can be scared away and disappear in the water. Patience is an important virtue for photographer of amphibians as the alarmed animals will take the risk to come back again after a time and continue where they were interrupted. It is worth to build some hide in front of us, for instance cover two sticks with a camouflage net or just with our coat the way we could see above it with our lens. A tripod and beanbag can also do a good service. An egg string twisting under the water, which is laid by the female toad, can be an interesting theme, or the egg piles in which, if you look close, the surrounding world reflects in an interesting way. If we could manage to get really close to one or other calmer frog, we can admire the beautiful pattern of their eyes and photograph them. All these things provide exciting and beautiful photo themes from early spring till early summer, for which we wish nice lights!

Text and pictures: László Suhayda – Árpád Krivánszky © Árpád Krivánszky Canon EOS 30D, 2,8L/80-200 mm + közgyűrű f/8 1/20 s ISO 160

Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL, EF500mm f/4L IS USM

extract from Bence Máté’s book quick photo trip in finland

Interesting places

BLACK GROUSE ADVENTURE IN FINLAND Meanwhile, while working out the logistics for the Romania trip I arrived in Finland via Sweden and met up with another friend, Markus Varesvuo, who had planned for me to spend four days photographing Black Grouse at a lek (a gathering of male grouse for the purposes of competitive mating display). For some reason Markus was no longer interested in this idea so I went alone to the well known lek of Arto Juvonen. At first Arto did not want to come to the site with me, just giving me his GPS and saying I should get there at dawn without him. I managed to persuade him to take me to see the hide during the day. The hide looked more like an octopus that had had been hit on the head rather than a tent, and was in a rather un-idyllic environment right in the centre of a clover field. We fixed it up a little while Arlo explained that the grouse would show up as soon as it got light. I wondered why the grouse had chosen to gather in this spot as there were plenty of similar places with similar conditions in the ten-hectare valley. Indeed, no one knows. Even the grouse may not know the answer!

I woke up at 3am the next morning, I quickly threw on a few clothes and, to stock up on calories, I swallowed a tin of tripe that Arlo had brought as a gift to his wife from Hungary two years earlier. Before the photo session, in my early morning drowsiness, I staggered in the dim light like a drunk who already tastes the cheap wine in his mouth on his way to the pub. My co-ordination probably matched my tired brain since I tripped on the doorstep and dropped the GPS, the SIM card slipped out and I could not for the life of me find it. Now my envisaged successful photo session with the grouse was in real danger. I was 26 winding kilometres away from the lek, and I did not want to wake my hosts, so I had no option but

to set off. Stepping outside I noticed the clear, starlit sky which made me even more nervous. I guessed that there was a good chance of a rather bright sunrise, which is as rare in Finland as a blue diamond. I prayed a little and attempted to get my mind in order. It seemed I needed to take about twenty turns on route and on five of those I guessed which way to go with a fifty-fifty chance of being right. I was lucky four times. The fifth decision was wrong and it meant a ten-kilometre detour. Everywhere I looked there were the same pine trees and similar junctions. Dawn was fast approaching, and due to the cloudless sky it would arrive even earlier than usual. After a nerve-wracking search which took an entire hour

I finally found the valley. It was now really getting light and two female grouse, also known as â&#x20AC;&#x153;greyhensâ&#x20AC;?, were already bickering in front of the hide. I parked the car at the speed of lightning and jumped into the hide. I placed the lens right at the bottom of the tent so that the foreground would not include the mown clover stalks. I had waited no longer than half an hour when, ten minutes before the sun came up, the first blackcock appeared. Then another two. My camera was clicking and everything worked like in a dream! The air was still and it began to get really cold, biting cold, even the breath of the birds could be seen in the glow of the rising sun. I soon realised, however, that the hide was facing in completely the wrong direction. To get

the best of these subjects a rich, contrasting backlight would have been preferred. This was all more than enough for a first visit, especially as before this morning I had only ever seen Black Grouse in books. When the display had ended, I moved the tent some thirty metres and hoped that I would be lucky with the weather the next day too, and that the sun would rise behind the birds again. As it turned out, I was lucky and the spectacle would be repeated twice more, and I was able to take pictures in superb conditions. I photographed right up to the very last moments of the last morning and in the evening of that same day I busily selected the best shots on my computer in my farmhouse home. Continued with the Pelicans article

People-cities-cultures China (3rd Part) – Great journey to the land of Uyghurs

the previous parts we frequently mentioned that the Uyghurs live in Wester China in the vast Xinjiang Region, along the ancient Silk Road where Europe, Asia and Russia meets. Namely in autonomy. For six thousand years. They regard the Huns as their ancestors. The practised shamanism. And to annoy certain scholars even more, tulip formed patterns can be found on their coats. One of their favourite dish is the dapanji which is unforgettable once you have tasted it. It is a kind of transition between goulash and chicken with paprika. Its ingredients include chicken, onion, garlic, sweet green peppers, chilli peppers, potato, ground cumin, ground Sechuan peppers, cooking oil, soya sauce and – yes – beer, although most Uyghurs are muslim. The Uyghurs call their homeland East Turkestan. Their language belongs to the Turkish language family.The culture of this hospitable, family-centred people is full of music and dance. They famous for their love of traditions. Today about 20 million Uyghur live all over the world. Out of them about 8 million stayed in their country. The Chinese did and do everything for the forceful assimilation of the region.

Uyghur girl

Kaiud river - Bayanbulak, Swan Lake

Lunch in the jurta - Balikun

Carvings (Kangjiashimenzi, Xinjiang)

Jurta - Balik

kun

After the fall of their empire, one of the tribes of Uyghurs settled down in East Turkestan. This area was an important commercial centre even in the ancient times, thanks to the famous Silk Road. The Uyghurs have practised several religions. In the beginning their were Buddhists, this justified by the still existing Buddhist temples and monasteries. In the 10th century, mainly by Turkish influence, they converted to the Islam faith. According to Chinese sources the Uyghurs were famous healers even at that time, acupuncture was their invention too. They were skilled in architecture, arts and music. They had a high level of literacy, even men with the most simple occupation could write and read. The Uyghurs knew the printing of books well before Gutenberg. Out of the nomad people, they regarded only the Hungarians as their relatives. The Uyghurs originally lived in Mongolia so their ancestors might have been in the alliance of tribes led by the Huns. This is proved by the local people who list words common with Hungarian one after the other.

Kashgar

East Turkestan had been a free country for more than a thousand years. Now on the side of China, then as its enemy but Turkestan managed to keep its independence through bloody battles. In 1876, the Chinese emperial army occupied the region. According to Uyghur sources during the invasion the Chinese slaughtered one million natives. However, the Uyghurs did not surrender theirselves that easy. Since 1884, when the land of Uyghurs officially became the part of Xinjiang Region, they organised armed uprising against the Chinese occupation 42 times in a period of 65 years. They even achieved their independence two times. In 1933 they established the East Turkestan Islam Republic and in 1944 they announced the Second East Turkestan Republic. The former existed for three years, the latter for five years. (Source: ujgur.hu)

Freedom to the wild pigeon Nurmuhemmet Yasin Uyghur writer was given a sentence of ten years in prison for a sad but wonderful story in which the hero is a wild pigeon who went away to get to know the world but finally it can choose between the cage of the human or the voluntary death.

Ancient fortress - Balikun

On the way home - Balikun, Xinjiang

Huy forest

Girl - Hami King

Hami, Uygur Kings Mausoleums

The Chinese authorities interpreted his writing as a criticism of their oppression against the Uyghur minority which is native to Xinjiang and has Central-Asian Turkish roots. Many people worry about the life of Nurmuhemmet Yasin . Since the writer’s 2005 arrest the Uyghur PEN and other organisations have received reports that he was tortured and beaten, and sadly it also can happen that he might die in prison. “Freedom to the wild pigeon” is an organised campaign aiming at the release of writer Nurmuhemmet Yasin, the author of the short story „Wild pigeon”.

Nurmuhemmet is not alone. Neither in a sense of being forgotten or the tragic fate. The Uyghur literary men – writers, poets, journalists and academicians – have to fight censorship everyday being on a razor’s edge. Political or apolitical writings equally can be accused for „undermining the power of the state”. Any criticism of the government’s politics can result in the stigmatization of the author as the „enemy of the people” or separatism and terrorism. (Source: Ákos Bődi)

AThe poplar – the symbol of th Uyghur man It can stand the blazing sun, the cold, the drought, brave the wind and the sand (symbolically: the power and the oppression). It can equally survive on the sodic soil of high salinity and on the waterside areas. A forest of 180,000 hectars which consists of species of the Euphrates Poplar (Populus euphratica) in the Tarim Basin is the 24 % of China’s woodland. It is also called the biigest poplar forest of the world which is characterised by an organic ecosystem and studied by scientists from all over the world. The Uyghur people call

the poplar the soul of the desert (and the symbol of peaceful coexistence and patience) since - with sixty different plants (including the red willow, the silverberry, and the cannabis) – is able to bear the most extreme weather conditions. As we already know, the Tarim Basin is a continental desert of the temperate zone with a hot summer (July 28 °C) and cold winter (January -10 °C). The absolute annual temperature difference is more than 70 °C. The annual rainfall is less than 100 mm; on the majority of the region less than 10 mm. Dust storms are frequent. The typical orographic evolve because of the remoteness of the sea and the closed feature of basins.

Text and pictures: János Eifert

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s make a diaporama! EXE export

wings platinum 4 / IV Export Hopefully, everybody has made his first or maybe more diaporama. Surely some of you has already tried out the different export options. Now we are going to review these options and give some advice on them and draw your attention to some of the pitfalls. We cannot move our ready project as one file until we have not export it; to move and present our presentations in a project form is quite difficult. We can find the different export options in the Output menu of Wings Platinum 4.

Unfortunately, in the Wings Platinum 4 BASIC version quite a few format are inactive. However, two out of the most important formats are available for the users of the free BASIC version as well. These two are the export to MPEG-1/2 and EXE formats. The MPEG-1/2 option creates a video sequence. The MPEG1 or the MPEG2 compression are not the most efficient, but unfortunately the Windows Media is not available for us. It is important to know that our pictures will be compressed in every case. Although the extent of the compression can be set but unfortunately is inevitable. However, in case of EXE presentation we have the opportunity to choose the uncompressed version. We have to know that the EXE presentation is actually an application

MPEG-1/2 video export

can be run in Ms Windows environment and does not require any player programme or video codec. A better quality can be achieved by using it, but it requires a stronger computer, especially if we apply frequent and quick slides. In the video sequence frequent and quick sliding requires extra resources only to a lesser degree. There are three active options int he Output menu, altough we have only mentioned two. The reason for that is that the Video DVD menu point is actually closely connected to the MPEG1/2 option. By the Video DVD function we can write a completed video sequence onto a DVD disc in a format which can be played on a desktop DVD player. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s look over how we can make an EXE presentation and a video sequence.

We can make a video sequence in three steps. After we had clicked ont he MPEG-1/2 menu point, in the pop-up window we have to choose whether the video should start at the first object or the 0,00 second. If we want to make a few seconds of pause at the beginning of the video, then we should select the former option. We also have to determine the place of saving in the bottom section of the window, then click on the Next button. On the next page we can set the parameters of our video manually or we can choose from the Presets. We suggest presets, particularly PAL DVD for beginners in Europe or NTSC DVD int he United States. By clicking on the Next button we get to the final page where we can set what should happen after the video have been completed.

Output menu

Vid

deo DVD output

By clicking ont he Finish button our video sequnece is done. In case of making an EXE presentation we have to set everything in a dialogue window We can set the starting point in the „Timeline position” part. The „Settings for picture display data” field is for the compressions and setting the optimal picture size, while we can determine the saving destination in the „Save exe file as” field. We can also build in safety functions in our EXE presentation. We can set a time limit in the „Allow presentation only until” menu point, and through the „Password” menu point we can protect our presentation from an unauthorised view. In the case of making a Video DVD disc, we can also conduct all the necessary settings in one simple window. On the „Autoplay” field we can select the video we want to write on the DVD disc. In the „Output options” field we can choose whether we make an ISO image file saving the Video DVD files in one folder or we write the DVD disc by Wings Platinum straight away. Now as we are aware of the different steps of export, it is important to look over the aspect ratios of the images. The 3:2 aspect ratio which is produced by most of the cameras is not fit to any typical aspect ratio of display. The majority of projectors have 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio, while the aspect ratio of LCD TVs and large monitors are normally 16:9. Basically, it is recommended to adjust our diaporama to the aspect ratio of the chosen display. If we want to do this subsequently, then we should open the preview window by the F10 button, then click on it with the right mouse button and select the „Properties” option. A dialogue window will open in which we can set the aspect ratio of our project. Be careful and check the position of the pictures in the new aspect ratio.

Text: László Szilágyi

extract from Bence Máté’s book

Dalmatian pelicans In the winter of 2006 some members of the Dalmatian Pelican Life Project asked me to design a hide for them. They had seen the hides I had made using the semipermeable one way privacy glass technique on the internet and wanted a similar one from which they could observe pelicans. We agreed that payment would be that I could use the hide to photograph the pelicans. I did not need any further persuasion and quickly got to work. The pelicans in question breed on an island of the size of a tennis court a few kilometres from the seashore in eastern Romania. Man rarely sets foot here. I gathered all the information I could find on the project from the internet and from the local field workers. On February 8th 2007, together with my friend Csaba Barkóczi, we set off from Hungary in my 23 year-old red Lada, known as the “Monster of the Taiga”, on a 1200 km journey to the Black Sea. We carefully wrapped up the glass and strapped it to the roof of the “Monster” in Szeged in Hungary but decided to buy the timber we would need in Vadu, the closest settlement to the pelican colony. We had agreed that the hide would be ready by February 15th in case the pelicans returned from their winter feeding grounds in late February as they sometimes did. We had not taken the true unpredictability of nature into account and the first birds were already on the island by the time we arrived. Since Dalmatian Pelicans are particularly sensitive to disturbance we first thought that it would best to postpone the project. Later it was decided that we were early enough and that a short visit would do no harm.

was necessary to simplify the hide in order to be able to quickly erect it on site. In three days we managed to design a simple, rectangular observation platform made of MDF sheets and pine-wood planks, so that only the prefabricated walls needed to be screwed together when on the island. Now we had to get the materials and ourselves to the island. We lashed together a small motorboat and a canoe and set off through thick fog on a three kilometre voyage to the island. Visibility was at times down to just

50 metres making navigation a challenge to say the least. As we chugged along I began to enthuse about the construction work ahead of us when, about half-way through our journey, I noticed that the rope holding the two vessels together was working its way loose. Suddenly, before anything could be done, our craft split and our load of glass and timber crashed into the water. Fortunately the stacks of wood and reed floated on the water surface. I managed to rescue the four panes of glass before they sank. The remaining one kilometre

stretch of our passage meant crossing choppy open water and so the warden, project manager, and I had to hold on tight to the materials and tools. When we finally got to the island, events gained momentum and we were on a race against time. A few pelicans were already there and we reckoned that we could spend an hour at most on the island. An immediate and unforeseen problem was that we could not get our bearings and tell which way was north, which was crucial to positioning the hide. As usual, I had forgotten to bring my

compass with me, and the place was completely unfamiliar to me since I had only seen a few poor quality photos of the colony. Once here, the island looked nothing like it was portrayed on the two year-old satellite map downloaded from Google! In addition, there was no time to do the normal half-day surveying for the exact location and positioning that I always did when erecting a new hide. There was no option other than to throw everything down right where we had landed and start to put up the hide there. We could only fix the

walls together loosely since the battery of our electric screwdriver unexpectedly died on us and very cleverly we had only charged one of the two available spare batteries during the night. Nevertheless, we inserted the windows, covered the whole thing with plastic sheeting, put a thick layer of reeds on top, and left the island. It was two months before I heard anything more about our pelican hide and I had already pictured the whole structure being blown into the sea like a paper kite by the first storm. In retrospect it would have been wiser to have

somehow fixed it to the ground properly since we had only been able to push the metre-long iron stakes we had used as posts into loose, shell debris, which was about as solid as a sack of corn. On top of all of that, the hide was placed in a totally exposed and wind-swept place. The project researchers first visited the island on April 4th, where, remarkably, they found the hide in operational condition. They spent a day and a half at this new observation station, during which they recorded and filmed many interesting things.

I was pleased to hear the positive feedback and so began to prepare for a trip to Romania for some pelican photography. In the meantime Csaba had obtained all the necessary permits for the flight from Hungary to eastern Romania and it now seemed that nothing could get in our way of our trip to the Danube Delta. The flight was scheduled for the 20th so I thought I would go quickly to Soltvadkert to a drinking fountain I had set up there for birds, just to keep myself in shape. Two of my friends and I fired away with our cameras in steaming heat capturing twenty-two species on film. I was at home by sunset and I started to prepare for the next day’s early morning flight. It was well after midnight by the time I had charged all the batteries and cleaned all the lenses. I retired for the night and I went over in my mind what we were going to do, in what sequence and what items we should definitely not leave at home. I had hardly snatched enough sleep when Csaba’s call woke me up. He only said “I’m in the air, check-in is in half an hour at Pusztaszer!’ And off we went. We landed at eight in Szeged to fill up with fuel, had our passports stamped and then it was off again towards the east and the Delta. Everything was going smoothly until we were informed in mid-flight that the Romanian air-force were practising in the air-space in front of us, so we were obliged to make a detour to the south. We did not mind this at all since it took us over the summits of the impressive Făgăras¸ Mountains seeing scenery that will stay in our minds for a lifetime. We finally landed near the Delta in Tulcea where, after negotiating our way through some red-tape caused by us having so much photographic gear, we were finally permitted into the country. RETURN TO PELICAN ISLAND What a surprise! Our boat was the very same craft that had taken me to the pelican island and from which we had almost lost the glass for the hide windows some two months ago. This time we landed without incident and quickly packed ourselves and our bags into the hide. We washed the windows and prepared for Act Three to begin! As the boat left us, the first pelicans had already started to fly back into the colony. The pelicans were in various stages of breeding, some sitting on eggs. In contrast to previous years the birds were nesting on an artificial floating island rather than on the sandbank itself. This structure was made of plastic pipes and fencing panels and was not a pretty sight and the closest birds were nesting around thirty metres from us. After a series of early success we then began to sense some uncertainty in the air as hours passed by without us managing to take a single noteworthy picture. Finally as evening approached, a bird in full, beautiful breeding plumage landed just ten metres from us and began to preen. Since its huge beak was not fit for such subtle cosmetic work, it took about two hours for the bird to preen all of its plumage. This was a real bonus for us and saved the day. For the next three days we stayed here taking photos from three different hides. Unknown to us at the time, the best was yet to come. By dawn the island was crammed with Dalmatian Pelicans. These rare birds have a wingspan of 3.5 metres which is the widest of any bird in Europe. The hectic life of the colony began to unravel right before our eyes and it was clear that Dalmatian Pelicans are not good neighbours. They displayed their dominance by inflating the skin sacs below their beaks and often stole nesting material from one another. Bloody fights were frequent with birds stabbing and grabbing each other with their giant pointed beaks.

We saw one bird with a hole in its throat pouch, the wound almost certainly inflicted by a rival, and we wondered how the poor fellow would now be able to catch smaller fish. The pelicans entirely surrounded our hide and were were unable to relax or fall asleep amidst the riot. I was taking pictures with two camera bodies alternately, with a borrowed 300mm - 800mm lens and a 300mm f2.8 lens. It was hard to predict at what distance the next piece of action would occur so I continuously changed the focal length and took advantage of my zoom lens as never before. I grabbed the fixed 300mm lens only when I needed its fast autofocus system such as when a pelican flew right in my direction. The activity of the birds required full on, full time vigilance. It occurred to me that the experience was similar to when I had photographed fishing herons back in February 2005. These pelicans were at least as photogenic as those herons but the islandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s remote location, and the fact that the closest settlement was so far away that the sound of noon church bells only reached us at two in the afternoon, made everything much more exciting! By the second day I was already realising that this was the biggest photo adventure of my life so far! In the afternoon the pelicans had come so close that I was getting the best results with the 14mm f2.8 lens which, until then, had been waiting for action in my bag. At the western and southern corners of the hide, barely a metre away, two Caspian Gulls were sitting on their nests. They were visibly afraid of the approaching pelicans and, as became clear later, this was for very good reason. A young pelican began to aim blows at one of the sitting gulls and finally this harassment, by a bird some twenty times heavier, forced the gull to abandon its nest. The poor gull pair tried to defend their nest from the air and even started a faeces bombing attack in an attempt to rescue their clutch but it was all in vain as the pelican picked up one the exposed eggs in its bill and swallowed it whole. I was following every event through the view-finder of the camera so when I momentarily glanced through the window with my naked eyes it was a real surprise to see that one of the pelicans was so close to the hide that I had to turn my head in order to see the bird from the tip of its bill to its tail. Meanwhile, the gulls were still trying to defend their nest in vain. The pelican loitered at the nest for another minute or so and then, just as the gulls both turned away, lifted up the other egg and tossed it in the air from where it fell to earth and smashed. This all happened so quickly that I almost missed it even though I had been expecting it to occur. At the very moment that I clicked the camera button I knew I had managed to photograph something unique, something that surpassed all that I had done before. I could hardly wait for the camera to display the photo on the screen! Sharp! Sharp! Sharp! Perfect composition! I tried to enjoy the happiness of the moment with a whispered shout. I returned to my previous position in the hide and saw another four birds join the young pelican who had eaten the egg. Together they set about ruthlessly attacking the other gulls nests nearby. In reply all the gulls of the island allied their forces in an attempt to divert the danger, launching a serious guano storm at the attacking pelicans.

Again, it was all to no avail. One of the pelicans swatted an incubating gull (which seemed to have decided to resist to the bitter end) from its nest before scooping up the entire nest and then incorporating it into its own one. Unfortunately, this event took place to my extreme left so I could not photograph it from an ideal angle. When the pelicans spotted their reflections in the windows of the hide they pecked at them with their beaks. This left scratches on the glass and it sometimes seemed as if the windows would crack. All in all they made quite a mess but somehow our hide stayed intact. We divided the interior of the hide into two, with curtains placed in X-shapes, so that the birds outside would not be able to see our silhouettes through two different windows. Csaba watching in one of the sections, while I worked in the other. There was no time for any elaborate communication between us. For hours on end all we could hear of each other was “click, click, click, click” and “Oooh” and sometimes “Oh f***!” Exhausted groans were common from behind the curtain, when one of us was poised in one of those uncomfortable positions that are sometimes necessary just before taking a shot. When the sound turned into a “cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-chacha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-chacha-cha-cha-chatt-ah” and sounded like an AK-47 we would pull up the curtain excitedly to see what the other was photographing. We were so totally occupied with our work that we did not eat a morsel of food, although there was also another reason for this. Csaba, who was in charge of our food supplies had underestimated things a bit, so we merged breakfast, lunch and supper into one meal, which in the end, was composed of our last three bread rolls and two small tins of beef liver pâté. Three times as much grub would have been needed to satisfy our hunger but as there was nothing left we feasted instead on the sight of our downloaded pictures, which for me totalled around 1800 shots per day. The birds made such a noise during the first part of the night that we could hardly get to sleep, though things usually settled down at around 11pm. When I looked out through the window after that, I could clearly see in the moonlight that there were in fact no birds left on the island. Rain turned to drizzle and the birds disappeared without a trace. We could not understand this since the eggs would surely chill but we presumed that the parents must have known what they were doing. I managed to keep my eyes open for another half an hour but no bird returned during this time. The most plausible explanation was that as the pelicans had to defend their nests during the day, with very few birds leaving the island, and that they had to go fishing during night when they did not need to be in fear of nest predation from crows and gulls.

Dawn was breaking as I awoke. Just as on the previous day the island was loaded with birds. On top of all that a large flock of White Pelicans joined us in front of the hide beautifully lit by the pre-sunrise light. The starting aperture was f2.8. The third day had just begun! Csaba woke to the sound of my camera but he was not willing to get out of his sleeping bag until the sun came up. Today all our expectations would be exceeded. The weather was beautiful, it was still, the morning sky was clear blue tinted with the orange rays of the sun. However, our time was running out fast. We had agreed that the motorboat pilot would arrive at eleven and Csaba had arranged everything for the return flight after that. Of course, the pelicans knew nothing about this as they kept themselves busy meticulously pulling the reed stalks that were used to camouflage the hide out of the walls. On top of all this, one bird had found that this activity was more successful when done from on top of the hide, as we learnt when we heard it land with a heavy thump on the thin roof. The first bird was soon followed by a number of others and we feared that the roof, which was already caving in, would soon collapse. At times I had to hold the roof with the pelicans jumping around upon it, with one hand, whilst taking pictures of birds flying up to the roof, with the other. Six pelicans were dancing on the hide when Csaba dug out a thin pole that had been left over from the construction and propped up the roof with it. Now we could again fully concentrate on photography. Amidst the excitement we began to pay less and less attention to keeping quiet, and I can say that towards the end there was no noise that we could make that would frighten the birds. We and our cameras had begun to blend in with them and we began to feel like we were pelicans too. Our island was inhabited by 60 Dalmatian Pelicans, 20 White Pelicans, 40 Common Cormorants, 40 gulls and a Pheasant! We Christened the latter “Robinson Crusoe” as the closest dry land was some three kilometres away and, if he had not had not landed on the island, he would have needed to fly another 500 kilometres to the next nearest shoreline. For a Pheasant a three kilometre flight over water is a real success! I was starting to use my last battery when we witnessed another unique scene. Two of the pelicans were playing a game where they bit each other on the beak. I could only squeeze this into my 105 mm lens. “You do not often use this type of lens for action photography” I told myself as the sound of the approaching motorboat became evident. We rapidly packed our gear and within ten minutes we were once again in the noisy boat. Then we were in the air again taking with us some unforgettable memories. On our way home again where the spring bird photo season was just about to begin…

Text and pictures: Máté Bence Order the book here: www.matebence.hu

digital image editing

image size and resolution

In this video tutorial Martin Perhiniak shows how to resize, crop and frame images with Adobe Photoshop CS5

In this issue we are going to learn about a very important topic, which is essential to get good quality in print and on the web: it is the resolution of digital images. With Adobe Photoshop we can easily resize our photographs, but we need to be aware of the fact that digital photos are pixel-based images, which means that every time we resize them we loose from the original quality. It is called destructive editing. I show a non-destructive way to resize images in the video by using Smart objects instead of normal pixel layers. The Smart object function is also practical for cropping images completely non-destructively and to have the option to be able to change the crop whenever we want using he whole original image stored in the source of the smart object.

Framing images is also a usual task, which can be done by several different techniques, but in this video I will show probably the most practical and effective way to do it. If we use the Stroke Layer style for framing we will have the option to easily change the colour and the size of the frame whenever we want. Last but not least I also show in the video how to batch resize images with the sidecar application Adobe Bridge CS5. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to buy this product separately for it is automatically installed on the machine with Photoshop. It is a file management application, but can be used for lots of practical things like creating Flash web galleries and PDF contact sheets.

Text and video: Martin Perhiniak

editorial Editor in Chief : Tamás Imre Tamás Imre

Anikó Imre

János Szekeres

Béla Szabó

Árpád Krivánszky

László Suhayda

Adrien Imre

Iván Éder

tamas.imre@naturephotomagazine.com

Editors: Anikó Imre Árpád Krivánszky Béla Szabó János Szekeres László Suhayda Associate Editors: Adrien Imre Ágnes Kiss Bence Máté Dániel Selmeczi Iván Éder János Eifert Martin Perhiniak Copy Editor: Árpád Krivánszky Art Director: Anikó Imre Graphical Design: Martin Perhiniak Web Design: FX designport Web Product: Thomas Picture Translators: Péter Pál Tóth Advertising: Anikó Imre aniko.imre@naturephotomagazine.com

Nature Photo Magazine www.naturephotomagazine.com info@naturephotomagazine.com Publisher:

Bence Máté

Ágnes Kiss

Thomas Picture Publisher Ltd. Address: Hungary Budapest 1576 Pf. 3 All rights reserved © 2011 Thomas Picture Publisher Ltd. The Nature Photo Magazine assumes no responsibility for solicited or unsolicited contributions and materials.

Martin Perhiniak

Dániel Selmeczi

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May 31, 2011