City Escapes Nature Photography: City Escapes Photography Newsletter

CITY ESCAPES

Nature Photography, LLC

Newsletter

September, 2010

Bears in Autumn – Preparing to Hibernate?

We all know that bears hibernate in the winter, and therefore must spend the summer and fall fattening up in preparation. Right?

Of the three species of North American bear – grizzly, black, and polar – this is true for two of them. Grizzly and black bears do, as a rule, spend the winters in a deep sleep in dens. (Despite the common parlance, they are not truly hibernating, as their body temperatures and metabolic rates drop only a small amount compared to true hibernators, whose body temperatures often hover only slightly above freezing during their winter snooze. Don’t be fooled by “hibernating” bears; they can definitely be awoken, even in the middle of winter – and chances are that they will be none too happy about it.) Thus, grizzlies and black bears do spend the summer, and especially the fall, gorging themselves in order to gain sufficient weight to carry them through a long winter without a meal.

They eat a wide variety of things, from insects, fish, and game animals to berries, sweet clover, and nuts. Despite their ferocious reputations, 80%-90% of these bears’ diet comes from plant sources, especially in the fall. Berries of all kinds ripen, providing the bears with calorie-dense, high-quality nutrients. Grizzlies use their long, powerful claws to dig up roots and tubers, and both species feast on whitebark pine nut stores stashed away by industrious squirrels. (One park warden told me how they were able to follow the movements of a nearby grizzly simply by listening to the chastising chattering of the squirrels in the trees. Apparently, the squirrels do not much appreciate the raiding of their hard-earned food stashes, and scold the bears as they walk by – even if the bear is not guilty of thievery.) During this time of year, the bears will eat upwards of 16 hours a day, consuming around 20,000 calories a day. No wonder the squirrels are mad – that’s a lot of pine nuts!

For polar bears, however, summer and fall are the lean months. Seals are the main food source for these bears, and in the summer and fall, the bears cannot get to the seals. Polar bears rely on sea ice to get them to where the seals are, and to provide specific hunting spots: the seals’ breathing holes. During the warmer months, the ice does not extend as far into the seals’ habitat, making them more difficult to catch. Also, the seals do not need to create as many breathing holes, as the more ice-free ocean provides them with ample space to surface. This means that predicting where the seals will surface becomes significantly more challenging for the hungry bear.

Does this result in woefully underweight polar bears going into their annual hibernation? No -- because most polar bears do not hibernate. Only female polar bears, and generally only pregnant females, hibernate. The rest wait for the sea ice to form, then spend the winter months fattening up in preparation for the lean summer months. What about the pregnant females? Polar bears have an interesting reproductive adaptation called delayed implantation, which means that a fertilized egg will wait up to four months for favorable conditions before it will implant itself in the mother bear’s uterus. Thus, if a pregnant female does not have sufficient fat stores to hibernate, she can continue to hunt until she does. This does not, of course, mean that she will successfully complete her hibernation. Other than man, polar bears have only one natural enemy: other polar bears. Large males have been known to dig hibernating females out of their dens – then eat them.

Home Photo Framing Basics, Part 1: The Importance of Breathing Space

This month we begin a four-part series on the fundamentals of home photo framing. Because most people do not make their own frames or cut their own mats, we will not go into those subjects, but rather will focus on things to consider when using store-bought frames, mats and glazing materials. First up: allowing the image a little room to breathe.

A common mistake among do-it-yourself framers -- and a surprising number of “professional” framing shops -- is to put the photo in direct contact with the frame’s glass. Many frames, in fact, especially the smaller-sized frames, are designed such that the photo is supposed to touch the glass. The backing board that comes with these frames serves to sandwich the image between itself and the glass, keeping the image flat. For photos that have no significant monetary or sentimental value, that can be easily replaced, or that are not expected to have a long life span, this is a fine arrangement. (Let’s be honest -- not all photos need the special care that we will be discussing in this series.) For photos that do not fall into one of the above categories, however, the first cardinal rule of framing should always be: Do not allow the photo to touch the glass.

Over time, photos that are in direct contact with glass run the risk of sticking to the glass. Condensation inside the frame will cause the emulsion of the photograph’s paper to glue itself to the glazing material. Often this will begin around the edges or corners of a photo, but if left for long periods of time, the adhesion can become extensive. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to “unstick” the photo from the glass; attempting to do so usually only results in separating the emulsion from the paper itself. This means that the white, underlying paper may come off, but the image will remain stuck to the glass. Even if the photo is left undisturbed and no attempts are made to remove it from the glass, the presentation of the photo is flawed by the adhesion. Furthermore, the glass can never be replaced without significantly damaging the image, or even destroying it completely. Any collector’s value the photo may have had is lost.

The solution to this annoying problem is quite simple: the photograph should never touch the glazing material. The most common method of achieving this goal is cleverly disguised as a decorative technique: including a mat in the framing package. In addition to adding depth, color, and endless decorative possibilities, mats ensure that there is air space between the photograph and the glass. They are readily available in a wide variety of colors and sizes, and if you don’t find one that suits your tastes for a particular photograph, any framing shop should be able to custom cut a mat for you. Custom mats can be personalized in an infinite number of ways, and have many more color and material options than off-the-shelf mats. They are also, however, much more expensive.

Mats are not the only method of achieving this all-important air space. If no mat is desired, a narrow strip of acrylic called a spacer can be used. Spacers are usually about 1/8” square by several feet long and have a strip of adhesive on one side. They are easily cut to desired lengths and come in white, black, and clear. They should be cut to the length of each side of the glass, then stuck to the outer edges of the glass using the adhesive side of the spacer. (Note: not the sides of the glass; the outer edges of the flat part.) Then simply frame the photograph as usual, ensuring that the spacer is in-between the glass and the photo. I have never found spacers on any store shelves, but again, any framing shop should have them. You just have to ask. Spacers are also inexpensive, usually costing around one dollar each.

A word of caution: if you decide to have a photograph or any other work of art framed professionally, and you choose not to use a mat, do not assume that the frame shop will use a spacer. Often they will not unless the customer specifically requests one. A woman I know, who did not know about spacers and therefore did not know to ask for them, spent several hundred dollars at a popular, national-chain framing shop to get a photograph of significant sentimental value framed without a mat. She trusted the framers to do what was necessary to properly frame her cherished photograph. I was with her when she picked up the finished package, and was astonished to see that the photograph was simply pressed against the glass. Especially given how much she paid for a professional framer, this was simply unacceptable. I refused to allow her to accept the package as it was, and insisted that a spacer be added. It took the frame shop no more than ten minutes to make the correction, and added five dollars in parts and labor to the price tag – well worth the many extra years of enjoyment that the woman could now expect to get out of her photograph. Bottom line: if someone else is framing your art behind glass for you, it is essential that you specifically request spacers if no mats will be used.

September’s Fun Facts

Can you name all eight bear species? They are: the American black bear, Asiatic black bear, giant panda, grizzly (brown) bear, polar bear, sloth bear, spectacled (Andean) bear, and sun bear. For many years, only seven bear species were recognized, as giant pandas proved problematic to classify. They were alternately thought to belong to the raccoon family, the bear family, or their own distinct family, possibly in combination with the red panda. Finally it was definitively determined that giant pandas were true bears, while red pandas were given their own family classification.