Guilherme Frainer ~ Photo

Photography

Frozen stories

These are some of the photos I most like, followed by a brief description of that moment and the circunstances I took it. The only adjustment I do is a bit of brightness and contrast. If you would like to have a photo in high resolution, please let me know!

A noivinha-de-Trindade

Trindade Island, Brazil.

The white tern, Gygis alba, is a seabird that inhabits oceanic islands in the Atlantic Ocean. During a scientific expedition to Trindade Island (Brazil) I had the opportunity to shoot this individual that, literally, showed off for me. It is possible to find these animals flying over our heads to try to put us off the way through their nests which are actually the flat surfaces of the rocks, without any protection: just an egg. The sun had already gone and it was the time to get back to the scientific station when this white tern decided to gifting me with its presence. I was exploring the environment with a macro lens just at that moment, and I just got the time to increase the speed of exposition to try to get that moment frozened. This photo, for me, does not only represent the beauty of this species but the pureness of nature in front of a scary situation, in this case, me.

I won a photography contest with this photo and text from the "Associação de Fotógrafos da Natureza do Brasil" (Association for Nature Photographers from Brazil) for the first place (fauna) at the I Contest for Nature Photography.

Heaviside's dolphin I

Saldanha Bay, Western Cape, South Africa.

Do you know when you simply know what is about to happen? When we launched the boat in Saldanha Bay that day I knew I was going to take one of those pictures that you can spend a time looking for all the details, and the next time you will see it there will be even more details. I am living in South Africa now for one and a half years and always wonder about shooting Heaviside’s dolphins (Cephalorhynchus heavisidii) in the air because I know they are very exhibitionists sometimes. There were some opportunities before while doing dedicated acoustics research with Sea Search Research and Conservation, but I would say on this day they were trying to reach the sky! There were so many jumps like this one (and the other one below) which made my job a bit easier. The higher the best? These aerial behaviors are strongly related with sexual and aggressive behaviors for the species in this genus, and the increased activity level suggests an indicative of high level of motivation (Slooten 1994). Dawson (1991) recorded high pulse-rate sounds, in which the repetition rate of ultrasonic clicks was audible as a “cry”, during aerial behaviors. Thus, the author suggested that these sounds are indicative of a highly emotional state. And you know what? I don’t know if this emotion can be transmitted to other species, but I and everyone on the boat definitely got the feeling that day!

Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross

Torres, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil.

Before starting my adventures at the sea, I always wanted to take shots of the Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross (Thalassarche chlororhynchos), and when I got the opportunity I did not save clicks. However, it took me some time to have a DSLR camera so all the photos I have taken of these guys are in what I call ‘old quality’. But no this one, which I have used a 400 mm lens from the Projeto Botos da Barra during a sea day trip to Torres-RS, Brazil. I will probably not replicate all the same photos I have shot in the past, but I will definitely try. As in the first time, I am always fascinated while taking pics of this species and other albatrosses. On this day, the wind was quite weak and they were not flying as fast as I had seen before. Lucky me!

Desejado peak

Trindade Island, Brasil.

This photo is part of some of the moments in my life I had witnessed and I don’t really want to forget. For me it represents the time I spent living in the scientific station at Trindade Island, a remote place in the Eastern portion of the Brazilian territory. It was four months investigating a potential resident population of bottlenose dolphins, but got the chance to make all the hikings in the island, getting even a certificate of ‘master hiking’ at the end of the stay by the Brazilian Navy. The Desejado peak is one of the highest spots in the island with approximately 520 m above the sea level. The only portion of the island that is inhabited are those small houses near the Portugueses’ and “Calheta” Beach. Living on a small island is having the shorebreak filling the soundscape all the time, like being at the beach and listening to the waves forever. As you start climbing the hill, the soundscape starts changing slowly until the complete silence of the clouds. The pressure changes in the altitude. The sun appears sometimes between the clouds and heats the skin, which is fighting against the very cold wind up there. Suddenly a rainstorm, the ‘pirajá’. Humpback whales are tiny dots in the ocean. If I close my eyes I can fly along the hiking till the top as I was actually there. ‘Desejado’ means desired in Portuguese and it makes a lot of sense to me why.