Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: wolfnowl on October 13, 2009, 02:48:07 am

Title: Kokanee
Post by: wolfnowl on October 13, 2009, 02:48:07 am

The kokanee salmon run has about finished for another year, but I was near there the other day and thought I'd stop in.  Didn't have much in the way of equipment with me at the time, but that's never a good excuse for anything...

Mike.

[attachment=17168:DSCF5525.jpg] [attachment=17169:DSCF5514.jpg]
[attachment=17170:DSCF5509.jpg] [attachment=17171:DSCF5507.jpg]
[attachment=17172:DSCF5503.jpg] [attachment=17173:DSCF5501.jpg]
[attachment=17174:DSCF5500.jpg] [attachment=17175:DSCF5494.jpg]
[attachment=17176:DSCF5488.jpg] [attachment=17177:DSCF5486.jpg]
[attachment=17178:DSCF5484.jpg]

and something a little different...
[attachment=17179:DSCF5475.jpg]

Title: Kokanee
Post by: AndrewKulin on October 13, 2009, 07:41:25 am

Beautiful (their red colour) but sad (the end result).

And I see the beer cans were also spawning this year (no beauty there, just sad)

Andrew

Title: Kokanee
Post by: wolfnowl on October 13, 2009, 10:09:18 am

Quote from: AndrewKulin

Beautiful (their red colour) but sad (the end result).

And I see the beer cans were also spawning this year (no beauty there, just sad)

Andrew

Andrew:  What fascinates me the most with this is what's been dubbed the 'salmon forest'.  It was only discovered late in the last century (and doesn't that sound like a long time ago?)  Basically, the various pacific salmon are born in streams, migrate downstream and live four to seven years or so in the ocean before returning to fresh water to spawn and die.  On their way upstream they provide food for bears, wolves, humans, eagles, crows, ravens, magpies and a host of other species of animals.  Many of the fish are eaten 'on site', but many more are dragged away, up to 20 metres or so from the stream, and when the salmon run is high, often only the most choice bits are eaten and the rest discarded.  Now the interesting part is that when the salmon are in the ocean they absorb a specific type of nitrogen and carbon that's not available inland.  Imagine the scientists' surprise when they found those same compounds in the trees and other plants surrounding the salmon streams.  As the bodies of the salmon decay, they provide fertilizer for the plants, literally keeping the forest alive.

Mike.

P.S.  And yes, the one with the beer can I called, 'What We Give...'

Title: Kokanee
Post by: Justan on October 13, 2009, 11:30:38 am

Nice photos!

Title: Kokanee
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on October 13, 2009, 06:03:55 pm

Very arresting, sad, and beautiful.

Eric

Title: Kokanee
Post by: John R on October 13, 2009, 07:39:13 pm

Hey Mike, you really know your stuff. You ought to do a book and pepper it with your photos as examples of what you are talking about. In fact, if it weren't for people like you making us concious of ecology factors, I know I would likely have thrown film boxes all over the forest before someone stopped me. So thanks for the photos and the insight.

JMR

Title: Kokanee
Post by: BernardLanguillier on October 13, 2009, 09:46:43 pm

Hi MIke,

Thanks for sharing, some of these images have an abstract quality to them that I like a lot.

Cheers,
Bernard

Title: Kokanee
Post by: wolfnowl on October 14, 2009, 02:48:23 am

Thanks, folks! John, the paper film boxes would deteriorate in about a year in the forest.  Still, I hate finding litter in the woods.  The plastic film containers, however...  

BTW, did you know the half-life of glass is estimated at about 1 million years?

Mike.