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Hi! I'm Mark J. Harlow
H a r l o w. I'm a professional nature
photographer from Breezy Point. When did I realize I was a photographer?
Before I had a camera. I would go out with my father who
was an avid outdoorsman. Took me out hunting and fishing
and trapping and I would see things
even at a young age that would often repeat back to my Dad. Did you see that?
or look at this. I was very observant as a child.
Once I got into high school and took photography in high school.
I really got into it. I really really liked photography.
The image you are looking at here is called Guardian.
The reason I'm smiling is cause it's such a special image. This is a very powerful image.
Very spiritual to me anyway.
And what I went through to get it.
It was painstaking. I had saw this eagle sitting down by the river.
in the winter. Very very large eagle.
So I hiked down to the river. Of course PPthey don't call them eagle eyesppfor nothing.
So she saw me coming in but I went down and
all my snow cameo on and laid behind this old big downed
cottonwood timber area.
And just hung out there. I'll give it a half hourand see if she'll take off.
And if she'll fly towards me. So six and
half hours later. I was starving, shivering
and running out of light and
during the day it would snow then the sun would peek out. It was kind of a
magical day in itself. Even though I didn't think I was going to get the good photo.
But right towards the end of the day,
I was watching two juvenile eagles hoppingPParound on the ice chasing eachppother.
And just got a little glimpse in my right eye and turned and looked
and here she came. She was flying right at me.
and she would look to her left, look to her left glide. She was probably
about a 1/4 mile away. She was quite a ways away.
So I had time to get ready. And then as she was getting closer and closer
She had locked her wings.
The wind had tipped her. All I did was pop up over the log
like this to take a picture and she swung and looked at me
and I got the picture and she took off. PPIt's just the power that I feltppwhen she turned
and looked at me. It busted me that quick
How she saw me I just don't know. It was a pretty amazing thing.
I learned from the ground level and continued on
after high school with shooting nature mainly.
Mainly outdoor scenes, black and white as well.
And that was back in the old film days. I don't know if you remember those or not.
I love film still to this day.
One of the things that may set me aside from other photographers is my
adamant, stubborn
technique about how I photograph. I shoot single mode photography exclusively.
One click. I do not speed shot anything ever.
And the main is reason is
I consider myself a traditionalist
and a minimalist with my photography. I like the challenge
of taking one click, one frame,
of capturing that image as is
with the right light, right composition in
one click. I don't hold the button down and speed shot five
or seven or eight frames in one second. To me that's
borderline videoing. Well this is one of my top five
favorite grizzly bear photos of all time. ppI have many but
this image was taken in Alaska. It's called Alaskan Thunder.
And as you can see there's water
spray going everywhere. And this bear was a little close. She was
about 30 yards from me less than 100 feet.
I saw her dive and miss a salmon and shake. And I wasn't prepared.
So I missed the photo. And then she came closer and closer.
She was actually so close I could smell her. Bear have a musky scent.
And I sat up high so she knew where I was.
And she got use to me after a little while andPPcame closer and closer toppwhere I was.
And finally she dove for the salmon and missed again.
Cocked her head. All this while I had time to slow my shutter
down. Because, I had envisioned this shot that I had missed earlier.
Getting a neat action shot with the water
actually slurred and rotating. So I actually had time to slow my shutter down
and get ready in case she did shake again.
Again it worked out perfectly. She looked right at me cocked her head
and I knew she was going to shake. And she shook and click. One click.
That's the image. Well as a professional photographer.
You have a lot of equipment, a lot of favorites. Today
I'm using one of my favorites. That would be my Nikon
30028 lens with auto focus. It's a very fast autofocus on it.
I shoot this particular body is Nikon B300.
I also shoot D700 as well.
I have 3 D300 and 1 B700. But I still shoot
Great optics are critical to great photographs.
Especially when you are doing wildlife and subject matters
that is far away. I use a tripod as a last resort not a first choice
Well if I had to describe my
image editing process. It would be
very simple, very minimal. I really strive to get
as close as I can to what the scene is showing to me.
With a lot of work and studying and technique
you can get very very close to what the human eye sees.
There is a minor amount of editing that's required and then you have to go in
and prepare a high res image for print.
I build a template with the title of the image. Copyright information
and size it to the size that I want.
And then whether I'm going to print a paper print or a canvas.
It's two different substrates same process.
And the time it takes me to print one thirty inch print. Just one
If I had that same image on a traditional lithopress for art prints
at a minimum I could print 4,000 art prints.
In the time that I can just print one. So my prints are
4 1/2 times the resolution of a traditional art print. And much wider color gamut.
Because my photos stay in RGB color field.
It's not that I'm gaining anything or gaining that much more. It's that I'm losing less.
Behind me are two pretty special images
of true wild mustangs. When I say true wild mustangs
both the Dakotas have wild mustangs one's on a private ranch
one at Teddy Roosevelt Park. Both fairly
confined small areas. First time I'd been
physically shaken, scared was with his majesty.
The wild stallion that came up from behind me
while I was sitting on a 50 foot drop off PPlooking at another group ofpphorses.
On this particular morning this gentleman and
seven others came up behind and I didn'tPPknow they were coming. And allppI heard
loud snort and the hairs on my back and neck stood up and I turned around
my camera in my face and that's what I saw. From about 30 feet away.
and he was not happy that I was there.ppSo thankfully I
got out of there without being injured or worse.
In October 2009, Lakeshore Dreams did a feature article
on my nature photography. And in this article is His Majesty Mustang
amongst others. It's a really neat story on
the road that kind of got me here. And if you want to learn more about that
article. The path to where I am today.
That article is on the website under the news section.
What is a retro recycle program? Well I've spent most of my adult life
in the printing industry. And
What I've found because I publish all my own work is that I can
now retro fit any of my prints
into an existing print. That way you don't have to
worry about spending money on framing right now in these tough times.
And you can give your living room, bedroom, or business a great makeover.
One of the things I like the audience to do
is if you go hiking in the woods. One of the little tips that I do and encourage others to do
is carry little grocery bags with you that you
get from the grocery store. Because unfortunately too many people litter.
I take a lot of pride in doing truly wild wildlife
truly authentic nature work. Meaning it's the best of the best
as far as where I'm at what I'm doing. Well hopefully you've enjoyed looking at
some of my work. I have said many times I take zero credit for the beauty
of the work that I do. I give that glory to God.
I'm just fortunate enough that He puts me inPPthose positions and situationsppto capture
and represent all the beauty that's out there in nature.
I've been a perfectionist my entire life and I refuse
to use lower end methods for the work thatPPI've tried and worked so hardppto capture
I take an extreme amount of pride in capturingppall these magnificent images.
In just one frame.