Wildlife2020-02
Brown Pelican flying over water at sunrise
Nikon D5001440x1023
26 VERIFIED PLATES · LIGHT-TABLE ACTIVE
Field optics across tide, desert, and smoke.
Wildfire ridges, Atlantic Piping Plovers, Mojave horizons, and optical darkroom notes curated under MierCat Design System v1.
26
Curated Plates
3 Bodies
D850 · D500 · A7RV
500mm
Prime Telephoto Reach
Optical Contact Sheet
Click any plate to launch the full-screen EXIF & tonal inspector.
Field Notes & Post-Processing
Observations on avian distances, extreme twilight scattering, and dual-exposure alignment.
FIELD PHILOSOPHY2020
The Healing Power of Nature
Patient waiting along tidal bluffs and Sierra cedar groves restores perceptual bandwidth that screens erase.
John Muir wrote that everybody needs beauty as well as bread — places where nature may heal and cheer, and give strength to body and soul alike. Every frame in this archive begins before civil twilight: reading wind direction across dunes, tracking tidal windows, and waiting silently until wildlife resumes its ordinary rhythm.
CONSERVATION SERIES2020
Cape Cod Piping Plovers on the Tideline
Four intimate frames documenting threatened Atlantic Piping Plover parents sheltering cotton-ball chicks behind beach wrack.
Piping Plovers nest directly on open Atlantic sand just above high-tide swash. Shot prone from well outside symbolic fencing at 500mm on the Nikon D850, this four-plate study follows both parents alternating warmth shifts as salt fog rolls off the shoals.
ATMOSPHERIC OPTICS2020
Wildfire Smoke Pronghorn & Salton Dusk
Heavy particulate scattering turns high-desert dusk into narrowband amber illumination across silhouette ridges.
When wildfire smoke drifts miles downwind over sagebrush ridges, short-wavelength blue light attenuates rapidly, leaving deep vermilion and gold backgrounds behind alert Pronghorn and Salton Sea Burrowing Owls. Exposing strictly for highlights preserves clean silhouettes and subtle horn geometry.
COMPUTATIONAL POST2024
Dual-Exposure Starry-Night & Field Calibration
Decoupling sky noise reduction from foreground shadow recovery preserves micro-contrast without plastic smoothing.
Across astro and twilight plates, sky frames are exposed for pinpoint star alignment while foreground plates capture low-ISO terrain detail. Blending luminescence masks and matching white balance kelvin targets yields faithful dynamic range across both coastal night skies and mobile edits.
Optical Rig & Support Matrix
FULL-FRAME FLAGSHIP
Nikon D850
45.7 MP BSI FX sensor for landscape dynamic range & wildlife cropping latitude.
HIGH-SPEED TELEPHOTO
Nikon D500
20.9 MP DX 1.5x crop factor at 10 fps — reaches 750mm equivalent with the 200-500mm.
AI MIRRORLESS STUDIO
Sony ILCE-7RM5
61 MP Exmor R sensor with AI subject recognition paired with FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II.
SUPER-TELEPHOTO OPTIC
NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED
Constant aperture f/5.6 VR lens responsible for the Cape Cod plover & Salton Sea bird plates.
CARBON FIELD SUPPORT
Gitzo GT2545T + RRS BH-55
Series 2 carbon traveler legs paired with Really Right Stuff BH-55 ball head for coastal wind stability.
BOTANICAL & TRAVEL ZOOM
FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II
Modern edge-to-edge sharpness used in coastal botanical macro & architectural daylight studies.
Archive Reference
Visual & EXIF verification across every archived plate
Every plate published on photo.mier.cat is visually inspected for wildlife ethics, tonal fidelity, and strict privacy compliance, accompanied by verified camera body and optical metadata.