For those curious enough to wonder, this page answers a number of questions:

WHO is the Grumpy Badger?

WHAT is Grumpy Badger Photography?

HOW is it done?

WHY photography?

Read on down or click on the question for the answers!
WHO the hell is the "Grumpy Badger"?

Well, I guess that's me.

Sitting down to ponder one day, trying to come up with a not-too-serious name for a non-existant, but kinda fun to putter with "enterprise", I ruminated and cogitated on what would best sum up the person behind the camera. Born and raised in the Badger State, with a couple pieces o' parchment that say I was eddy-cated as a Badger is how I figure I'm a Badger. And I guess I'm just a titch awn'ry like a badger. Some might say cantankerous, or crusty.

And there it was: an attitude like a badger, and a coincidental history of being a Badger. But cantankerous, crusty, and awn'ry didn't ring just right for a name. But "grumpy" did.  SO... "Grumpy Badger Photography" was born... with sole proprietorship and contributor being, not coincidentally, THE Grumpy Badger.

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The Grumpy Badger

(on a good day in the mountains)
WHAT is Grumpy Badger Photography?

Grumpy Badger Photography is my silly way of giving my photography a pseudo-direction. Everybody else has some more serious or even fancy name for their fledgling, hobby-based photography business, so I thought I should take a stab at coming up with something, even though I'm not in business.

Besides, one has to have SOMETHING on a "business" card to hand people one meets (and you can put them in the "weekly drawing" jars for free food at restaurants!).

Not being a particularly serious person all the time, I settled on a somewhat entertaining, yet distinctive (and some might say "descriptive") name for my addiction.

And who knows? Perhaps some day it will turn "real", and I'll need something to put on the sign on my shop... and I'm betting that not too many "serious" folks would want to be saddled with such a silly, frivolous moniker... so I shouldn't have too much trouble with trademark infringement!

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(my spiffy logo)
HOW do I go about it?

I'll address the "HOW?" in three parts:

  1. Philosophy and Ethics
  2. Vision
  3. Equipment

All three pieces are part of a whole way of approaching photography, including ethics in the field and at the computer, seeing the subjects in the field, producing the images, and playing with the toys.
Philosophy:

In the field: I minimize my impact on the subject - be it alpine tundra, biotic desert, or wildlife. I try to be cognizant of disturbance of wildlife, and try to use best hiker's practices in more sensitive terrain. My truck stays on the roads, and I leave as little trace of my passing as I can.

Production: I will not misrepresent images. Circumstances such as drastic digital manipulation effects (i.e. merging of picture elements from different images, replacing skies, etc.), or use of controlled conditions for subject imagery (i.e. zoos, captive animals, etc.) will be disclaimed. ALL of my images have SOME digital manipulation in the form of adjustments in brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness, and general touching up of blemishes, etc.

 Vision:

What is my idea of "vision"? Well... it's pre-visualizing, seeing, and recognizing a shot. Call it "the eye". I won't claim I'm necessarily stellar at this, but I'm getting better, and try to improve every time out.

Sometimes I go out with specific shots in mind. Sometimes I simply wing it. Sometimes I study an intriguing subject for the span of a beer or two to try to find that "just-right" angle or piece of the thing that might make a good shot. Depends on the place and time and weather, etc., etc., etc.  Sometimes scouting trips are necessary, with a more deliberate shoot at a later time.

Mostly, I simply open my eyes and try to see the details that we pass by every normal day. I LOOK for things - and slow down when there's lots of potential around me.
Equipment:

I've changed equipment over the years, starting with a film point and shoot, through three 35mm film Single Lens Reflex (SLR) bodies, a 6cm x 7cm SLR film camera system, and finally into digital SLRs.

Currently, my gear (pictured at right) includes:

Bodies:

  • Nikon D2X, 12.4 Mpix digital SLR
  • Nikon D1X, 5.4 Mpix digital SLR

Lenses:

  • Nikkor 20-35mm, f/2.8D zoom
  • Nikkor 28-70mm, f/2.8 AFS zoom
  • Nikkor 80-200mm, f/2.8 AFS zoom
  • Micro-Nikkor 105mm, f/2.8D macro
  • Nikkor 500mm, f/4 AFS super-telephoto
  • Nikkor TC14E, 1.4 teleconverter

Tripod & Heads:

  • Gitzo G345 Inter-pro Studex
  • Arca-Swiss Monoball (ball head)
  • Wimberley Head (gimbal head)

Packs and Bags:

  • Lowepro Pro-Trekker AW
  • Lowepro Lens-Trekker 600
  • Lowepro Street & Field Specialist 85 AW
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WHY photography?

(The Tale of Steve-o: Geek Nature Photographer)

WHY NOT!?

Everyone needs something to think about at work that has nothing whatsoever to do with what they're supposed to be doing.

As for how I got into photography... well... that's a bit of a tale...

It all started in the early 19th century when a couple of French dudes had a vision of giving non-artistic engineering geeks a way to satisfy artistic whimsy through use of technical gadgets and hazardous chemicals. Musicians already had a lock on their gadgets - and most of those required talent to play. Painting (of any worth, that is) required tremendous talent to do well. Opera and ballet... well, the less said the better with regard to engineering geeks.

That didn't leave a whole lot for the geeks to do except work.

Enter: the camera. A device to capture moments of time - including images of such outstanding, breathtaking beauty that only a real snappy painter (with lots of artistic talent) could ever produce before. A geek, with his/her innate ability to putz with gadgets could work one of those!

So... at last... geeks everywhere had something to do. Of course, they diverged a bit when the internal combustion engine hit the scene, but that's another tale...

Some 140-odd years later a particular geek was born, grew up (well, got older, anyway), and trotted happily off to college to chase a degree, beer, and other... ummm... interesting things. One day the geek bought a snappy little point and shoot film camera with auto wind so that he could take silly drunk shots at parties. That was a major purchase for the geek, since it was probably worth a month or two of beer money at the time (or a couple text books that he really didn't need to waste money on and could skate by without...).

As you may have surmised, that geek was me.

That little point-and-shoot documented a pile of parties and other silliness, but met its demise after two knuckleheads couldn't keep a canoe upright.

We won't postulate on who that may have involved.

The inkling to try my hand at more serious photography first came on when I moved into the Pacific Northwest and realized how awesome the wilderness is.  I coughed up a few hundred bucks and got a whiz-bang, 35mm Canon EOS and some lenses - and promptly began to shoot lots of garbage.

But it was fun.

Enough fun that when opportunity knocked (read: big pay raise), I was persuaded to get serious and dumped a couple grand into decent Nikon 35mm equipment - and the shooting and money drain hasn't stopped since!  Fortunately, I think my "eye" has gotten considerably better with the coaching of a couple friends more serious (and far more experienced) than me.  I guess I'll leave it up to you to decide if I've achieved anything!

Lens upgrades, camera upgrades, medium format, dark room... I went through it all.  Now I have settled into the 21st century with a couple of really-whiz-bang Nikon digital SLRs and a web site.  At least I've eliminated the film developing costs.

The saga of Steve-o: Geek Nature Photographer continues as often as I can get away with it.  Though I have a tremendous back-log of un-printed images, I find getting out and shooting to be the most fun.  So, the collection grows and gets archived... but at least some of my work might be seen here...

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