Sebastian 'Seabass' Kennerknecht's Blog

It’s been too long since I have posted some digital SLR camera trap shots so I figured I’d get my butt moving and show you what has been walking through the woods as of late.

I have had the first picture in my mind for years, I wanted to get a deer jumping over a big log. I set the camera up over a year ago but kept only getting deer butts instead of them jumping at the camera. Patience finally paid off as this buck jumped our way.

Mule Deer buck jumping over log, Santa Cruz, California

Some animals prefer to take the easier way apparently:

Juvenile Bobcat on log at night, Santa Cruz, California

A little bit further down the path I set up another camera trap set-up. The first thing to come by was the ever reliable Mule Deer (or Black-tailed Deer, which ever name you prefer):

Mule Deer buck in forest, Santa Cruz, California

…and then, my first Coyote image using camera traps. I know, I know, for my fellow camera trappers this is not a big deal, but when you can add another species to your camera trapping list you are jumping up and down, running down the street (it leads to some awkward and perplexed stares from the neighbors).

Coyote in forest, Santa Cruz, California

That’s it for now, but hopefully more coming soon!

It’s almost time for Open Studios again!

Quick Facts
Santa Cruz Open Studios
Artist #106   (South County)
Location: 1174 Brommer Circle, Santa Cruz, CA 95062
Dates and Times: October 6th and 7th from 11am until 5pm each day.

There are a few changes this year. One, I will only be open the first weekend of Open Studios which is the 6th and the 7th of October. The Open Studios calendar states that I am open on encore weekend which is not actually the case due to a film project in which I am participating, so please note that in fact the above dates are the only times I will be available. The doors will be open from 11am to 5pm each day.

Secondly, I will be doing open studios at a new address:
1174 Brommer Circle, Santa Cruz, CA 95062

The 2013 calendars will be released, we have some new greeting cards this year, and of course new fine prints. I also decided to re-implement my offer for a 40% discount on your whole order for anyone donating $50 to the Foundation for the Protection of the Arabian Leopard in Yemen (cash only please, cashing checks in Yemen bears tremendous bank charges). It was a huge surprise to the foundation when I handed in all the donations last year and being there personally I saw the increased conservation opportunities for the people who are working hard to create the change needed to protect the Arabian Leopard. I will have a donation box at Open Studios for this purpose.

As usual there are a few friends of mine whose work I would recommend seeing as well:
Stacy Frank (North County, open the 13th–14th, 21st–22nd) – etchings, lithographs and monoprints of natural scenes
Gero Heine (South County, open the 6th–7th, 21st–22nd) – nature photographs, mostly from Africa and India

If you are unable to attend, you always have a chance to order online.

I hope to see you on the sixth or seventh of October!

Finally, as a heads up….no Bavarian pretzels this year; the pretzel baker (aka my dad) has moved back to Germany.

Finally, finally the Santa Cruz Open Studios are organized by the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County. They do an amazing job each year and all participating artists are better off due to all their hard work. Please check them out at http://www.ccscc.org/

Brown Pelican in breeding plumage, San Diego, California

This Endangered Neighbor was taken off the US endangered species list in 2009 due to their population rising to what authorities consider to be large enough numbers. As we all know, this doesn’t mean they are in the clear, but so long as we make sure we don’t repeat history, Brown Pelicans should have a stable future. To do this, we need to look at that history to see how we got Brown Pelicans in trouble in the first place.

Chemical Pollution

Brown Pelican 'reading' contaminated water sign, Santa Cruz, California

DDT was one of many contaminates released into the environment after world war II. The problem with DDT was (and still is) that it causes thin egg shells. Brown Pelicans incubate their eggs by standing on them. Because of the thin egg shells caused by the pesticide, pelicans were literally crushing their own eggs. In 1969 only 12 of 300 nests contained whole eggs on West Anacapa Island (the only breeding colony in California), the rest were crushed. In fact, the nearshore waters of southern California have experienced the highest levels of environmental contamination by DDT anywhere in the world. This was not only caused by local agriculture, but by the Montrose Chemical Company which was discharging hundreds of pounds of DDT directly into the southern California oceans.

In 1972 the use of pesticides like DDT was banned in the US (though we are still the number one producer of DDT, now shipping it abroad), which was probably the biggest historical factor in bringing Brown Pelicans back.

As you can see from the image above, chemical pollution is still a problem, not from DDT, but from agricultural and industrial run-off.

Plastic Pollution

Brown Pelican carrying Plastic Spoon, Santa Cruz, California

Brown Pelican about to catch plastic spoon in mouth, Santa Cruz, California

Plastic pollution is a constantly increasing modern threat since pelicans often consume them, thinking it is food. Save our Shores reports that they pick up 60 lbs of trash per beach clean up. That is nuts!!! Not only that, but they average around 385 lbs of garbage per river clean up, so you can imagine how much trash gets swept into the ocean that we simply don’t even know about.

The Solution

The nice part about this step, is that in reality, it is relatively easy. There are a few different easy steps you can take to help Brown Pelicans survive.

- Eat organic foods (therefore eliminating agricultural run-off)
- Buy re-usable bottles and bags, eliminating plastic bags and bottles.
- Throw your trash away in proper containers, but re-use as much as possible.
-Volunteer with Save our Shores (check out their calendar for their frequent clean up days)

…. see, all those steps are super easy!

If we all take these small steps we can ensure to be graced by the beauty of Brown Pelicans for years to come! To see more Brown Pelican images, besides the images below, visit the Brown Pelican Portfolio!

Adult and juvenile Brown Pelican in flight, Santa Cruz, California

Brown Pelican peeking around rock, Santa Cruz, California

Brown Pelican in Flight, San Diego, California

The may nature photography workshops were great fun so I wanted to schedule more for the summer. If you are looking for things to do, for your kids to do, or for you and your kids to do together these may be interesting to you! Both workshops are very limited in terms of number of participants since I want to ensure everyone gets the individualized attention they deserve. This also means though that they fill up really quickly.

July 20th-21st, 2012 – Taking Your Images to the Next Level

This workshop is designed to get you to make pictures not just take them. We will cover a range of topics and will stress the importance of making conscious decisions about what picture you are trying to achieve and changing your camera settings to get those results. This workshop is appropriate for people who know basic camera functions but are looking to improve their picture quality. Limited to 8 participants. Full Details

As always, feel free to message me back if neither of these workshops suits you and why. If I get enough of a response with common interests/needs that are different from the above I will try to arrange a workshop that fits those requests. Also, check back since I will be scheduling more workshops in the future (or email me to suggest a date).

May 11th and 12th, 2012 – Taking Your Images to the Next Level

This workshop is designed to get you to make pictures not just take them. We will cover a range of topics and will stress the importance of making conscious decisions about what picture you are trying to achieve and changing your camera settings to get those results. This workshop is appropriate for people who know basic camera functions but are looking to improve their picture quality. Limited to 8 participants. Full Details

Finally, feel free to message me back if neither of these workshops suits you and why. If I get enough of a response with common interests/needs that are different from the above I will try to arrange a workshop that fits those requests. Also, check back since I will be scheduling more workshops in the future.

Photo Workshop Group, Santa Cruz, California

It was my honor to teach a workshop through the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History a week ago. Thanks to the twelve participants it was sold out and we had a blast talking about photography. Friday night was a lecture that covered concepts including exposure, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, perspectives, and creating a story. On Saturday we got to implement these concepts starting bright (well, actually it was completely dark) and early at 5:00am. I loved though how everyone was upbeat and excited to start photographing even though it had meant that they had only gotten a few hours of sleep.

Here are a couple examples of pictures taken by workshop participant Allison Garcia:

Copyright: Allison Garcia

Copyright: Allison Garcia

Close the end of the workshop, around 9:30 I did an example walk through of how I approach a scene both mentally and physically to get (hopefully) that wow shot!

Working a Scene

Sometimes that means having to get into the water….

Me in Tidepool, Copyright: Allison Garcia

We concluded the workshop at 10:00 and I was really happy to have taught this group since I felt like I started with students and left with friends.

If you are ever interested in participating in a workshop, check for news here on the blog or visit the Lessons and Workshop Page on the regular website for the most up-to-date information.

In a sentence, lots and lots and lots of work, but really fun work at that!

Endangered Neighbors

The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History and I have been working on the Endangered Neighbors exhibition for the last four years. I approached them with the idea of having an exhibit about the threatened and endangered wildlife of the central coast with information about why they are endangered, what people are doing to protect them, and what easy steps we can all take to ensure their survival. They loved the idea so I started to photograph for it while also fundraising for the project.

The photography was probably the easiest part of it all, plus it meant I was doing what I really loved. The great thing about having such concrete goals about what images you are trying to capture means you concentrate your efforts on getting those pictures which I truly believe leads to better photographs in the end. It is almost like having your own magazine assignment were there is a deadline and a shot list comprised of must have images. I can only highly recommend coming up with your own photographic project, I can assure you that your images will be better than if you just photograph things aimlessly.

In terms of the fundraising, let me tell you, trying to get people to give you money is not an easy thing. In total the museum and I wrote over 40 grant applications but got rejected every single time (well that is if you are lucky enough to get any kind of response)….I do think this speaks for my lack of ability to write a proper grant proposal as well though. Then, a year ago we signed the project up with kickstarter which turned everything around. Kickstarter is a site where people can safely make donations towards a project and depending on how much money they donated they get a reward that you have pre-determined. Over 50 people donated a total of over $6000. I will never be able to thank all of those people enough!

So at this point we have the digital images and the money, sounds like all the bases are covered, right? Man is that wrong. Now it’s time to choose the images, create metal prints, create marketing material, thank you lists, products to be sold in conjunction with the exhibit, interactive materials, and labels that are very readable, brief, yet informative. All of this takes about another six months with five people working on it. Thank you to the museum staff!

Finally, the time has come, the exhibit opens up in a little over two weeks and I can’t wait!

In conjunction, the museum is also offering a few programs to go along with the exhibit, including a Nature Photography Class, Gallery Walk, and Panel Discussion. To get more information on these you can visit: http://www.santacruzmuseums.org/education/public/index.htm

I hope you get a chance to visit the museum between June 11th and September 10th to see the Endangered Neighbors exhibit!

This is one of those cases where I realize how little I know and how little experience I have in regards to Mountain Lions. I am sure an experienced puma biologists could look at the picture below and say, duh, that’s a male, or duh, that’s a female…well even after doing some more research I once again have no clue.

Mountain Lion Rear View

Mountain Lion Rear View Close Up

From Ken Logan and Linda Sweanor’s 2001 “Determining the Sex of Treed Cougars“:

“Male adult and subadult cats have a conspicuous black spot of hair, about 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter surrounding the opening to the penis sheath behind the hind legs and about 4 inches (10 cm) below the anus. The anus is usually hidden by the base of the tail. In between the anus and black spot is the scrotum, which is covered with light to dark brown hair and will usually appear as another dark spot.”

“Female adult and subadult cats do not have this conspicuous black spot of hair. The area is entirely covered in white hair. The anus is directly below the base of the tail and the vulva is directly underneath the anus. Both the anus and the vulva will usually be hidden by the base of the tail.”

So my guess would be female, but then there is that little amount of dark hair just to the left of the tail, but is that too close to the anus. What do you think?

Note: This image was taken two weeks (almost down to the minute) after the second image from the Aptos Mountain Lion Characters Post

As many of you have noticed I am completely and utterly fascinated by mountain lions, pumas, cougars, catamounts, or what ever you like to call them (did the webpage url and logo give that away???). It has always been my fascination getting pictures of them and seeing them in the wild. Though i have been able to get images, I have never seen one in nature (how is that possible you ask — camera traps!).

As anyone with any obsession, I can’t get enough information about them. Absolutely everything interests me about them including home range size, territoriality, density, prey species, den sites, when cubs leave their mother’s home range, and the list just keeps going on. I am telling you this as a forewarning for future posts under the Project Puma heading that will have anything and everything to do with mountain lions whether that is information or pictures just in case there is someone else as interested in this beautiful cat as I am.

This post is also supposed to serve as an introduction to the cat(s) of the area I camera trap in Aptos near Santa Cruz in the Monterey Bay area. As of right now there are two camera traps out there and I have gotten mountain lion pictures on three different occasions. I am not completely sure whether it is the same cat or different cats so I figured I’d ask you guys. Here are the three pictures followed by close-ups in the same order.

Taken on June 8th, 2010 at 4:35am

Taken December 25, 2010 at 9:31pm

Taken March 5th, 2011 at 6:32am

Is it all the same cat, I really don’t know. In other cat species researchers use the spotting pattern which is unique to each cat to identify them. For Puma concolor (the scientific name of the mountain lion meaning cat of one color) this isn’t really an option. What I was looking at is the black marking around the mouth, the black whisker markings, and the shape of the ears. Nothing leads me to say that its the same cat or different cats (in the second image, that is a tick in the ear, sadly not something to identify the cat by) — do you see something I am not? One thing for sure is that the second cat is much bulkier than the first, but the images were also captured months apart.

An interesting thing to note are the few faint slightly darker spots on the back leg of the first image, which could give us some clues of its age. Puma kittens are completely spotted loosing these marks as they become older. By ten months, the markings are difficult to see except on the hindquarters. The eyes turn from a light blue as kittens to yellow brown as adults (this change is complete by sixteen months). Young pumas are independent around 15 months (with a range of 10 to 18 months) leaving their mother’s territory and searching for their own. Based on the fact that I had not captured an image of a puma before this individual (for a period of 8 months) and its morphology it leads me to believe that this must be a juvenile looking for its own territory. If the second and third image are of the same cat, then I am glad to know its doing well in its new home!

Botanical Gardens and Arboretums are amazing places to not only visit but also to photograph. It is always fascinating to me to see plants from all around the world in such a small area. How amazing is it to wander from South Africa to Australia in just a few yards. From Proteas to Pincushions. It doesn’t even matter at what time of year you go, something will be in bloom.

Living in Santa Cruz provides the amazing opportunity of visiting the UCSC Arboretum, a deeply under-appreciated place. It contains the largest concentration of southern hemisphere plants in the northern hemisphere. When I photograph in these floral collections I tend to shoot in a macro-style, concentrating on single plants, often on single flowers. This is mainly to eliminate distracting backgrounds and since the plants are not in their native habitat showing the landscape in the background is not beneficial most times.

Here are a few examples of the types of pictures I am talking about:

Pincushion (Leucospermum sp), UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

Pincushion (Leucospermum sp), UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

Pincushion (Leucospermum sp), UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

Still unknown plant to me...., UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

Spiral Aloe (Aloe polyphylla), UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

Then you always have the option of getting more abstract pictures. This is the advantage of plants over animals, they don’t move too far. The picture below was taken at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden. I loved how the light was coming through the fern fronds. I first took images that were in focus but I really liked the shape of the leaves so I decided to manually put them out of focus, having nothing in the image be sharp. It’s different, but I like it.

Fern fronds out of focus, Berkeley Botanical Garden, Berkeley, California

Finally, all the plants attract wildlife as well, so keep an eye out for movement. Hummingbirds are frequent visitors to gardens so they are attracted to these ’super gardens’ in even higher numbers. This male Allen’s Hummingbird was photographed in Santa Cruz. He would continuously land on this perch and then chase off any other males intruding into his space. Every time he was off chasing a rival I crept closer, stopping when he would arrive back at his perch. I wanted to still include some of the amazingly colorful background created by all the plants so I stopped when I was about 10 feet away. It is one of my earliest photographs, but I still love it.

Allen's Hummingbird calling, UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, California

So go out and find your local botanical paradise, you will be amazed by what you find!