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David Malcolm Photography

Name: David Malcolm Photography
Address: 750 Channel View Drive, Port Aransas, TX, 78373, US
Telephone: +19045358506

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David Malcolm Photography

Young Photography Professional based in Port Aransas, Texas.

Experienced in Event, Wildlife, and Street Photography with a passion for storytelling through imagery

09/27/2023

Komodo Dragon Walking

Komodo Dragons are the largest and heaviest lizards alive on Earth today. They are native to the tropical savannas of Indonesia, surprisingly dry environments that remind me of the same environments in New Mexico where I studied Geology. My students and I had the pleasure of stepping ashore Rinca Island within Indonesia's Komodo National Park to take a tour with a group of rangers.

The rangers, carrying Y-shaped sticks to push off intrigued (yet ultimately lazy) dragons, led us to a small clearing where I found this dragon beginning to walk. They walk in a really interesting gait, undulating their long bodies as if they were snakes, slithering through the air atop their stocky limbs. I was glad this picture was a le to capture their forked tongue in focus. Much like snakes and other lizards, Komodo dragons smell through the use of a Jacobson's Organ in the back of their throat, where they deposit the scent particles they pick up on their forked tongues to smell. The use of this organ gives them a distinctly powerful sense of smell, which they use to full effect in hunting.

09/10/2023

The Monsoon Passes Kuta

This week, the S/Y Vela finds herself anchored off Pantai Mertasari, along the southeastern coast of Bali. As we prepare for students to arrive for our voyage across the Indian, the crew and I were able to take a Saturday off and tour some spots around the island ourselves. In that tour, we ended up finding ourselves with this incredible view of the coast along the town of Kuta.

We arrived in Bali at the tail end of the southeastern monsoon, marking the year's strongest easterly winds across the southern coast. Those easterly winds bring, along with intense rainstorms, a current system that spurs upwelling, bringing cold, nutrient-rich water from the deep ocean up to the surface. This deepwater, in turn, invigorates the marine ecosystem, ramping up primary production and resulting in some of the most plentiful fisheries in the year.

Ultimately, this sort of relationship is what I want to teach to my students: that the ocean, like all environmenta on Earth, is a powerful, interconnected system that must be viewed from multiple perspectives to appreciate. The physicist recognizes the dynamics of upwelling, but only the biologist knows how that upwelling drives fishery production, as the geologist understands that all of this upwelling is drive by the morphology of the coast. A good oceanographer must be, in part, all three and more. Once you are, you get to appreciate the magnitude of interactions that contribute to the environment we depend upon.

08/20/2023

Sights yet to See

Here's hoping everyone had a wonderful ! Yesterday had me reflecting on my photographic practice, and thinking about how this pursuit has shaped my life up to this point. It wouldn't be unreasonable to say that I would have never taken the time to see many of the things I have seen had I never found joy in producing photography. I likely never would have driven an hour out of my way to search for wild horses on Assateague Island. Never would have ventured off on my own to find Al Marmoum Camel Racetrack. Definitely would not have found myself braving the frigid winter winds of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore before the sun, days after a Nor'Easter storm, hunting a snowy sunrise.

And yet, through my drive to photograph these places, subjects, and moments, I've seen such beautiful sights that I share with so few people. Being alone on this lakeshore, as the winds bit at my fingers and the breath condensed in my throat, photographing the only other person I had seen that day in the distance, I was truly happy; happy in the feeling that I was experiencing a moment of life that was truly authentic and real. A moment that had been there all along, yet that, whether by the discomfort or inconvenience of reaching it, I had only now presented myself to witness.

It's these experiences recognizing the understated yet breathtaking angles of the everyday world we occupy that drive me to look out my window more often, and step into the unknown just a little bit more. And I know, the more I do it, the more reasons I will find that I, the growing group of folks I know as my people, and our entire global community, live on a truly fascinating planet, that has raised up a truly fascinating example of life.

08/20/2023

Sights yet to See

Here's hoping everyone had a wonderful ! Yesterday had me reflecting on my photographic practice, and thinking about how this pursuit has shaped my life up to this point. It wouldn't be unreasonable to say that I would never have taken the time to see many of the things I have seen, had I never found joy in producing photography. I likely never would have gone an hour out of my way to search for wild horses on Assateague Island. Never would have ventured off on my own to find the Al Marmoum Camel Racetrack. Definitely would not have found myself braving the frigid winds of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore before the sun rose days after a Noreaster storm, searching for a snowy sunrise.

And yet through my drive to photograph these places and subjects, I've been able to see such beautiful moments that so few people take the time to see. Being alone on this lakeshore, as the winds bit at my fingers and my breath seemed to condense in my throat, I was truly happy. Happy in the feeling that I was experiencing a moment of life that was truly authentic and real. A moment that had been there all along, yet that, whether by the discomfort or inconvenience of reaching it, I had never before presented myself to witness.

It's these experiences, recognizing the understated yet breathtaking angles of the everyday world we occupy, that drive me to look out my window more often, and appreciate that I, my people, and our entire global community, live on a truly fascinating planet, that has raised a truly fascinating example of life.

08/07/2023

Golden Silk Orb Weaver

Creeping up in the eaves of the Ranger Station in Congaree National Park, I found common sight around the American South that has a complex, and potentially unfounded, reputation for fear, annoyance, and some of the most elaborate webs I've yet seen. This is the golden silk orb weaver (Trichonephila clavipes) or, more commonly, the banana spider.

The golden silk orb weaver is the only species of its genus in the western hemisphere and ranges only as north as North Carolina and as far south as Argentina. Females of this species (seen here) are among the largest non-tarantula spiders in the world, ranging from 24-40mm in length.

Their name comes from the magnificent orbicular webs they spin, averaging 1-2 meters in diameter. These crafty arachnids spin their webs just above the height of the tallest bushes on a forest floor, at the perfect height to exploit insect flight paths and, unintentionally, the faces of unaware hikers. Which is really unfortunate for the spiders, because research suggests that the banana spider web is semipermanent: orb weavers prefer to build one web and repair it when sections break, rather than build new ones regularly from scratch. So, when you find one of these arachnid aerialists on your hikes, remember that it'll mean a whole lot to them if you can leave their webs be!

08/02/2023

Maypop

Down an unmarked path in the Great Smoky Mountains, following the advice of a local photographer I met at the Ranger's Station, I found myself walking through the tall grass of a bright, sunny pasture set within the gap between two ridges. I was there photo hunting the elk I shared last week, but in this field, I was only able to find a small flock of wild turkeys and an abundance of these beautiful passionflowers

Passionflowers (Passiflora incarnata) are a drought tolerant and highly specialized flowering vine native to North Carolina and Tennessee. The vines grow rapidly and this variety is recognized as one of the hardiest by NC State extension officers. The plant is also referred to as Maypop, due to the loud popping sounds made by stepping on their fruits, which fall in the early summertime around May. These beautiful flowers can quickly grow to cover large areas, but be careful not to plant them too near to your home, as the vine masses they create are extremely flammable.

07/31/2023

Summer Velvet

In the Great Smoky Mountains, male elk use the summers to eat and prepare for the fall breeding season. September to October each year, the mating season (or rut) brings a chorus of resounding bugle calls and clashing antlers as male elk fill the forested mountains with the sounds of combat. This male was found tagging along with a group of females (a fairly rare occurrence outside breeding season, as females regularly drive off lone males) grazing a gap meadow as his antlers grow under the thin, blood-rich velvet tissue that he produces.

It's been a second since I've been able to share with yall! I hope it hasn't been too long, but I needed a good break after successfully graduating with my master's degree in Marine Science. I'll be looking to catch up on missed stories, so stay tuned!

06/26/2023

Solar-Powered Sea Slugs

Diving off the coast of Dominica with my friends at , we had a fun time hanging out with this little slimy fella. Much to the chagrin of our teacher Simon (who insisted later that he had something much cooler to show us), my fellow students and I couldn't stop taking photos of this opalescent-looking lettuce sea slug. He just kept posing for us!

The little guy's scientific name is Elysia crispata, and they're from a species of cool slugs called Sarcoglossans! Sarcoglossan sea slugs are soft-bodied marine gastropod molluscs, meaning that, at the least, their bodies consist of a long muscular foot (this guy's belly) and that they once had a shell (like nudibranchs, sarcoglossans shed theirs as they mature into adulthood). Sarcoglossans live in warm shallow reefs worldwide, and spend their days sucking up algae off the reef. What's really cool about them is what they end up doing with that algae.

Instead of digesting all of their meals, sarcoglossans have been observed to incorporate chloroplasts (the photosynthetic organelles on algae cells) into their own cells, making these animals, in a roundabout way, photosynthetic. The stolen chloroplasts stay within the slug's tissues and provide them with extra sugars as they bask in the sun, contributing both to the slug's nutrition, and its light green color. This process is known as 'kleptoplasty' derived from the Greek Kleptes, which means 'to steal'. Sarcoglossans are some of the only animals known to engage in kleptoplasty, so this little thieving lettuce turns out to be pretty cool after all!

(Simon probably still saw something cooler)

06/21/2023

Making a Stage on Plaza Mayor

One afternoon, while walking through Madrid, I was able to stop for a few minutes and watch this troupe of breakdancers perform in the center of Plaza Mayor. The dancers hailed from all across Latin America, and had traveled to Spain to build careers dancing. I was able to capture this shot of two of the troupe performing an acrobatic move before the police broke up the unauthorized performance. I wasnt able to get the names of these dancers, but I hope they're still hyping up crowds and making a living doing what they love in Madrid.

I hope you all have been enjoying my work so far this year! I've taken a few weeks off posting as I've been finishing up my master's research in marine ecology. I may have to take a few more breaks in the next couple weeks, but I'm going to try and keep my resolution for 52 photos this year, so keep a look out for the next story!

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750 Channel View Drive
Port Aransas, TX
78373

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+19045358506

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