Photographers Information Statement - Updated February 2007 ------------------- I have always felt a strong connection and appreciation of the natural beauty that can be found everywhere we go. I remember even as a small child, a determined fascination and respect of nature's beauty and all creatures. My attraction to nature and wildlife has allowed me to study and care for many different types of animals over the years. I have developed a goal and passion to capture the real life essence of nature's beauty through photography. I am a perfectionist at heart when it comes to trying to capture what an animal or flower looked like to me. For that reason, I am only happy with the greatest of detail. When a person scans the woods for wildlife or looks at a flower they are looking for a close encounter, if possible with that subject. We have all heard a similar phase “it was so close, I could see its whiskers”. That is what made the experience even more exciting for that person. This is what I hope to present, as close as possible in a photograph. My goal is to provide images of nature's beauty in real life close encounters. Many of the photos have well over 8 hours of my time in their creation. Some pictures take 30 to 100 or more shots before getting that one pose that works. Wildlife has a tendency to move a lot and low light, distance, and environmental conditions create many difficulties for the nature photographer. A majority of the photos were taken in my own backyard. I have three ponds and natural landscaping around them. This provides me with many natural photographic backgrounds. Most of the frogs that have been photographed can be hand fed. One of the black squirrels in the photos is named “Ashes”. She came to me as a baby in 2001. She raised many babies through the years and I still occasionally see one of her babies playing in the neighborhood. Note: Photos that I have taken of animals in captivity (usually a rehabilitation center) have the bars or gloved hand (most raptors photos) removed that show them as held captive. This was done to provide the best viewing of what they would look like if free in nature or as I prefer to call it "Setting the Photo Spirit Free". Please feel free to ask for details on any of the photos, some do have a background story to them. Thank you for your interest, Carol Ely