Yellowstone, April 21 & 22, 2012

The Canyon Pack Alpha Female, Wolf, drinks from the Gardiner River after snacking on an Elk carcass in the China Garden of Yellowstone National Park. Captured with a Canon 5D III and 500/4.0L IS + 1.4TC III in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of + 1 at ISO800, f/7.1, and 1/250th of a second. The camera was mounted on a Gitzo 3540XLS and Induro GHB2 gimbal head with a custom long lens support.

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Warmest opening weekend I have ever experienced, the snow is MIA, but the wildlife activity made up for it all. One friend said; "best opening weekend ever," and he might be right. I had multiple, prolonged, close encounters with wolves. I spent a few hours nearby a grizzly bear, and that was all in the first morning.

Friday night I drove down to the park, so I could get an early start to opening weekend in the park. After a great night sleeping out under the stars I was ready to see what I could find in the park. I expected to have to drive quite a ways South before the shooting would heat up, but I only made it to the China Garden before I had to stop and watch an "unknown" grey wolf feeding on a carcass well within 100m of the road. At first it was only myself and a friend to sit an enjoy the time with a wolf that near, but soon the crowds grew and the wolf moved about 100m up a hill looking down on us all. A bald eagle also decided to give us a fly by at the same time.

I decided to head South and try my luck at finding a grizzly or two, but first I got to see the Canyon Pack head towards the unknown wolf and their hard earned meal. Lots of debate followed as to who the "unknown" wolf was...Limper, limper's son, the missing grey yearling, a member of the Eight Mile Pack, etc. I will say this...the wolf was older (had an old man's walk), he had a dark pack and looked very similar to Limper (one of my favorite wolves); if the wolf was Limper...great, but I would be easily convinced that it was a potential offspring of his from the Eight Mile Pack (from his many hiatuses from the Canyon pack). Later that day the Canyon Alpha female was seen following the "unknown" grey miles away from her pack and the carcass.

I drove South to find a group of photographers with a grizzly around dynamite curve; I spent the next few hours moving along with the bear. The photographic opportunities were not great, but it was a tolerant bear at close range...how could I not stay and click off some photos.

I decided to drive all the way to Old Faithful looking for bears, but I had no luck. Returning North I spent some time chatting with some friends about our plans for the evening I suggested; "we should head back and check on the Canyons then head out to Blacktail Lakes to see if anything has pulled that bison carcass out of the water." I did just that, while they went straight to Blacktail lakes. I was rewarded with the Canyon Alpha Female snacking on the carcass then drinking from the Gardiner River less than 50m from me, while they had a young wolf running around with a bone and some sandhill cranes come up and try to walk in their car (I'm not sure who won ;)

As the Alpha Female left the photographers around me commented; "my heart is racing," others said; "that was a once in a lifetime experience." I was reminded that I am extremely spoiled in that my heart was beating like normal and I had witnessed very similar events multiple times before. I mentioned that what we had encountered was something that happened a few times each year for the last few years...little did I know that less than 12 hours later I would be photographing it again.

I followed the Alpha Female a short while later only to catch her after she crossed the road to make her way back to the South again, the same area that others had seen and heard her pack in around the same time. I got a few shots as she walked along a ridge in the late afternoon light, but the conditions were producing heavy atmospheric distortion.

I headed out to where I was spending the night and planing on setting a camera for an attempt at shooting the nights meteor showers. I love to sleep out under the stars, open bivy, and it was another great night for that. Around midnight I awoke to start shooting the meteor shower, but a haze quickly rolled in and killed any hope I had of capturing the showers. Had I gone somewhere else I might have been able to see and photograph the showers, but I settled for a good nights sleep under the stars.

In the morning I told myself that there was no way that I would be lucky enough to find a wolf in the China Garden again, and I was right...I found five of the Canyon Wolves in the China Garden. With clear sky the dawn was bright enough that when pared with my Canon 5D III's great quality at high ISO I was able to photograph the Canyon Alpha Female eating and drinking again (two days in a row). The pack then let out a good morning howl, celebrated the new morning with hugs and kisses for all and began heading up and away from the crowd of photographers.

Before sunrise I had already gotten enough shots to keep me happy for a day, but I was greedy, so I headed South to see if I could find that grizzly again. I searched for about an hour, but decided that I should get some miles on my feet. During my search I stopped to snap a few shots of the sun rising over Roaring Mountain with the trees casting shadows in the steam.

I headed up above tower (emphasis on above) and ended up with over a dozen miles under my feet, lots of bird sightings, a few nest locations, and a very near encounter with a feeding cinnamon black bear, but no photos. I should explain the "near" and "no photos" with the bear. I was hiking back (not on a "people" trail) and as the game trail turned to go down hill I found the bear about 10m below me heading up the same game trail. I got to see the bear before he realized I was there, so as I stepped off the trail, removed my bear spray, and got my camera out of the way he spooked and ran off the other way...exactly what I wanted to happen. The velcro on my bear spray and a stick cracking was just enough to startle the young black bear. I took a different trail back towards my car and I am sure he had a lovely evening :)

I made a few stops to check around the park and on my way out I spotted a distant cinnamon black bear on the opposite side of a valley, but I decided that I would continue on towards home.

It was a really good trip in terms of photographs made, miles hiked, conversations had and weather enjoyed.

Make the jump to go through the online gallery, I ask that you leave comments/criticism or at least give your favorites a thumbs up...Thanks!

If you have questions, ask. I published the camera information with each image and have added full keywords to share just about anything you would want to know about the images.

Happy shooting

p.s. somehow my 7D was set an hour behind my 5DII and 5DIII, so some of the images are out of order...sorry.

Yellowstone, March 30 - April 1, 2012

A grizzly wonders along a hillside near Silver Gate, Montana. Captured with a Canon 7D and 500/4.0L IS in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of + 1 at ISO400, f/7.1, and 1/500th of a second. The camera was resting on a beanbag.

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Spring has sprung...or it's trying to at least. The bears are out, wolves are still running around and things are greening up. After a crazy month of March I had only two days remaining to make a trip to Yellowstone.

Friday was pretty much a bust, but it was a great day to get in some hiking and camping. Saturday brought with it nice soft light and after some searching and plenty of miles hiked I happened upon a grizzly bear just outside of the park near Silver Gate, MT. I spent much of the afternoon playing with my new 5D III and a very cooperative grizzly bear, I left before the bear did. It was then time for a nap, I awoke from my nap to clouds racing overhead...it was beautiful, I should have shot a timelapse of it, but I decided that I could be the only one to enjoy it (sorry).

As I returned to camp I came across a gentleman who was watching a fox nestled into the rocks. He did not find the fox, but the foxes finder had given up watching. I spent the rest of the daylight with the fox as it napped, stretched, yawned and then repeated the process. The scene was interesting and the weather was beautiful, so I was happy to sit and watch for the entire remainder of the day.

After a great night sleep I was off for another day to see what I could find to photograph in the Park. I stopped at the Lamar Canyon great horned owls nest to snap a photo for the record. The nest is so far away and inaccessible, so I am okay encouraging people to bring their spotting scope and watching from across the canyon :)

I decided to hike up above Tower Falls again to see if I could find a bear or two, but had no luck. Making my way out to check on the Silver Gate Grizzly the wolf wathcers had some dots way to the South...I decided to move on. No luck in Silver Gate, so I made my way back through Lamar Valley and through to Specimen Ridge where a couple had just heard some howling to the North while others had seen three wolves to the South.

I picked a spot and started to wait and watch. The usual wolf crowds built up to the East and West of me, but I was left alone. All of the sudden a grey wolf made its way about 50m away from me he ran at first then slowed to a walk as he crossed the road and made his way up the hill to the South...now other cars came racing down to the pullout I was in. About that time wolf 471F (or so I was told later) came out on a ridge about 100m away from me and started howling. She spent the next 10-15 minutes pacing and howling, part of me is convinced that she would have crossed had I not been joined by others, and had a few people not decided to park on the road. There was nothing I could do about it, so I kept shooting the beautiful collared wolf as she howled. After a while she made her way to the West where she crossed the road just out of site from the masses.

I decided to hike up to Tower Falls again, still no luck with bears, but I did find a ruffed grouse foraging in the grass. After spending some time with the grouse I decided it was time to head back to Billings after a quick final lap through the park. Things were slow so I started my drive back to Billings, but with my new truck I decided to take the old Yellowstone trail all the way back to Tom Miner Road...first time and it was a blast.

Make the jump to go through the online gallery, I ask that you leave comments/criticism or at least give your favorites a thumbs up...Thanks!

If you have questions, ask. I published the camera information with each image and have added full keywords to share just about anything you would want to know about the images.

Happy shooting

Yellowstone April 30th - May 2nd

A female Three-toed Woodpecker does what woodpeckers do just before sunset in the Roosevelt Junction area on the last day of April. I had the privlage of spending a few hours with him while he consumed all of the green grass that he could find. Captured with a Canon 7D with 500/4.0L IS in aperture priority mode set to +2/3 at ISO400, f/4.0, and 1/200th of a second. The camera was mounted on a Gitzo 3540XLS and Induro GHB2 gimbal head with custom long lens support.

PHOTOS & VIDEO NOW ONLINE

For those of you who follow along with my trips on Facebook and Twitter you know all of this, and even got to see some of it live (thanks to my Verizon iPhone).

I love to make a trip in the first few days of May. It is typically a reunion of many of my "Yellowstone Friends." There is a good group of "regulars" who always find their way to the park by the start of May, and we have a few weeks where it seems that the park is still not crowded; but full of friends. The activity levels are not at their summer high; but still provide ample good shooting, and chances for "luck" to show its face. When that fails we can fill the hours with great conversations about gear, other trips, and the blessings of years past. It really is a great time in Yellowstone.

This year it was colder and there was much more snow than years past; but we all know how to put a hat and gloves on and make-due.

I feel a little bad about how picky I am starting to get. I had a few different chances to photograph Grizzly Bears; but did not take a single shot. I had my excuses... too much atmospheric distortion, too sunny, etc. (I had the same issue with Wolves; but they were a bit too far for my liking, and I did not get lucky enough to get a road crossing).

I camped in the park once again and each night it got down into the high teens or twenties; but during the days it got into the 40s/50s/61. On the trip Mother Nature gave us wind, rain, snow, and clear blue sky.

For those that do not know... there is still lots of snow, and it keeps snowing more; but spring and summer will happen eventually. Things are ready to green up, and for most of us photographers it cannot happen soon enough.

The image descriptions tell the story fairly well; but I'll add a few details: (p.s. I added images discription to about a dozen images in the gallery)

• I was photographing a few Sage Thrashers when an American Badger popped out and put on a little show, the sun and atmospheric conditions made the distortion bad (even at 50 meters).
• I found another badger while I was looking for the Lamar Canyon Pack; but unfortunately the den is in a "Wolf Management Area."
• I spent lots of time photographing birds, sorry if you don't like them, I enjoy the images and really enjoy the time spent photographing birds.
• I made the mostly snow covered walk up to Tower Fall (I have put a "S" on its name for far too long). There are lots of fallen rocks on the road and two fairly major slides (one is pictured below). I will be surprised if the park is able to get the road open on time, as it appears that the road was actually damaged by the slides.
• While hopping to catch Wolves coming back to the "China Garden" kill I was fortunate to get lots of Osprey in flight shots.
• Two Wolves did come in to the carcass about 2 hours after sunset, I was on my way to get gas and stopped to watch (it was DARK).
• Birds of all kinds are back in the park, and the Great Horned Owl, appears to be on her usual "Mammoth" nest. (I'll share this nest and the "Tower Fall" Osprey nest, because they are beyond common knowledge already).
• I filled each day with great conversations with friends.

Monday I am back to the park for a while again, so hopefully I'll have more images to share from May in Yellowstone.

Make the jump to go through the online gallery, I ask that you leave comments/criticism or at least give your favorites a thumbs up... THANKS!

If you have questions, ask... I published the camera information with each image and have added full keywords to share just about anything you would want to know about the images.

Happy shooting, MAY IS HERE :)

p.s. I have some video footage that still needs editing, it might take me a while to find time to edit it though

Sage-Grouse Lek, April 23rd & 24th

Created from 584 images each image shot with a Canon 5DII and 17-40/4.0L set manually to f/4.0, ISO1600, and 30 seconds. The RAW files were processed in Lightroom 3 then using action scripts they were stacked together in Photoshop CS5 to make this final image.

PHOTOS NOW ONLINE

I made the trip down to shoot these star trails and time lapses; but really so that the next morning I could photograph displaying Sage-Grouse on a massive Lek on some remote BLM land.

It was calm with perfectly clear sky. The half moon rose during the night and was straight overhead around sunrise, creating good condition (as far as solar/lunar phases go).

Before this trip I took time to record my answer to this weeks 'Ask Dave' and that blog post and video can be found here.

To the left: A male Sage-Grouse displays on a remote Lek near the MT/WY boarder. Captured with a Canon 7D and 500/4.0L IS + 1.4TC III set in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of +2/3 at f/7.1, ISO400, and 1/640th of a second. Mounted on a Gitzo 3540XLS and Induro GHB2 with custom long lens support. Photographed from within a ground blind.

My main point for shooting the star trails and time lapses was to test out some software and action scripts. YOU WANT TO CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO


Two male Sage-Grouse fight on a remote Lek near the MT/WY boarder. Captured with a Canon 7D and 500/4.0L IS + 1.4TC III set in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of +2/3 at f/7.1, ISO400, and 1/320th of a second. Mounted on a Gitzo 3540XLS and Induro GHB2 with custom long lens support. Photographed from within a ground blind.

Yellowstone April 16th - 18th

PHOTOS NOW ONLINE

For the record I believe this was my slowest photographic trip to Yellowstone to date.

I have placed 17 photos online, and I have made none of them available for sale. I truly do not believe that I took a single photo that is good for more than documenting a trip. Don't get me wrong; I had a great trip. "Opening Weekend" is always fun. I saw 5 grizzly bears, a wolf, 35+ birds, new born Bison, and all the usual park wildlife.

Mild temperatures; but lots of rain (down south) made for difficult shooting. Add to the weather that much of the wildlife I encountered was quite distant, and I came home with less than 200 photos.

I had friends visit the park at the same time and have much better "luck." It is obvious that I just made the wrong decisions and missed out photographically; but I still had a good three day weekend in Yellowstone, so no complaining from me.

Bird list -35- Osprey, Red-tailed hawk, Turkey Vulture, Canada Goose, Magpie, Raven, Western Meadowlark, Brown Headed Cowbird, European Starling, Ring-necked Pheasant, American Robin, Barrow's Goldeneye, Great Blue Heron, Trumpeter Swan, Bald Eagle, American Crow, Sandhill Crane, Golden Eagle, American Coot, Northern Flicker, Snow Goose, Red-winged Blackbird, Northern Pintail, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Clarks Nutcracker, American Kestrel, Tree swallow, and Ferruginous Hawk.

Keynote speaking at the PIY Expo

Just a repost that I am going to be judging, presenting, and keynoting the PIY expo this year.

ALL THE INFORMATION IS ONLINE

For those who do not know, PIY is the Photographic Institute of the Yellowstone... a great resource for photographers in Montana and Wyoming.

I will be judging the photo competition and then presenting photos and information about my December 2009 birding trip to New Mexico on Friday evening. On Saturday I will be presenting "Digital Workflow: From Shot to Print."

If you are in the area you should consider attending.

Phil Bell is the other presenter this year, he is a wealth of knowledge and his presentation, "The Art of Photography," will be excellent.

Presenting at this year's PIY Expo

ALL THE INFORMATION IS ONLINE

For those who do not know, PIY is the Photographic Institute of the Yellowstone... a great resource for photographers in Montana and Wyoming.

I will be judging the photo competition and then presenting photos and information about my December 2009 birding trip to New Mexico on Friday evening. On Saturday I will be presenting the "Digital Workflow: From Shot to Print."

If you are in the area you should consider attending and possibly even entering a photograph or two into the show.

Phil Bell is a wealth of knowledge and his presentation, "The Art of Photography," will be excellent too.

Billings Area, April 25th

PHOTOS ONLINE

I decided not to make another two day trip down to the park, lots of work and felt a cold coming on.

Instead I went out shooting around Billings from 5:00am - 10:00am and from 4:30pm to 8:00 pm.

And am I glad I did, the off the top of my head list for the day includes:
Skunk
Raccoon
Pronghorn Antelope
Mule Deer
White tail Deer
Prairie Dog
Hair
Great Blue Heron
Sandhill Crane
Short Earned Owl
Long Billed Curlew
American Avocet
Mallard
Common Merganser
Northern Pintail
Northern Shoveler
Golden Eagle
Ring Necked Pheasant
Horned Lark
Western Meadow Lark
Ring-billed Gull
American White Pelican
Red-Tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Northern Harrier
Merlin
Osprey
Canadian Geese
American Robin
Mountain bluebird
Bald Eagle
Sharp Tailed Grouse
Wild Turkey
Red Winged Black Bird
And a few others that I have not yet made an ID on.
And many more that were too quick to get a good photo to make an ID.

A great day of birding for a non birder :)

I have leads on a few more species and may just make my goal of 100 photographed & ID's birds before the end of May.

I still have a few birds that I need help making an ID of:
http://www.shumwayphotography.com/gallery/3568122_dMJdd
Thanks

Enjoy

Yellowstone, April 18th - 19th

PHOTOS ONLINE

With opening weekend I had to make a run at the park.

I had an good start to the trip and then everything by comparison was a downhill slide.

Spring has fully sprung in YNP and with the 60 degree days they are predicting for this week I am sure that things will begin the greening process soon.

Due to life I was only able to make a quick two day trip. (left Billings at 3:30am Saturday and was home at 5:00pm on Sunday)

We all know how I dislike blue sky days, and we had a pair of them. I passed by many things that others would scold me for skipping, sorry. The shooting ended up feeling quite slow after how I started the first day. The warm beautiful spring days were nice to enjoy. And my new car handled great.

Osprey and Eagles are both on nests in some of the usual places.

Most places are loosing snow fast, others already lost it, and a few still have tons.

I still have some landscapes to edit and get online, I'll add them when I get some time.

Thanks for looking, visiting my site, giving your favorites a thumbs up, and leaving 5 star comments here and on my site.

Enjoy

Yellowstone, April 18th - 19th

A quick two day trip.

A very quick version of the two day list is:
Wolf
Fox
Coyote
Pronghorn Antelope
Elk
Mule Deer
Bison
Bighorn Sheep
Bald Eagle
Osprey
Red Tailed Hawk
Canadian Geese
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Common Merganser
Common Goldeneye
Trumpeter Swan
American White Pelican
American Robin
Mountain Bluebird
Sandhill Crane
Great Blue Heron
And many more bird species.

That is right it was a three dog weekend, well day, well actually handfull of hours.

We all know how I dislike blue sky days, and we had a pair of them. The shooting ended up a bit slow after the first few hours; but the warm beautiful spring days were nice. And my new car handled great.

More to come when I get through the photos. Trust me I'll have more to post.

Billings Area, April 13th

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I found out that I had Monday off very last minute. The timing did not leave me enough time change plans and head to YNP. So I spent most all of the day out and about in the Billings Area. I ended up with a few decent images and leads and permission to shoot in some areas that could be very rewarding. Saw my first Northern Harrier, photographed many Western Meadow and Horned Larks. A quick list from the day includes:
Pronghorn Antelope
Mule Deer
White Tale Deer
Hybrid Deer
Great Blue Heron
Northern Flicker
European Starling
Hairy Woodpecker
Greater Sage Grouse
Sharp Tailed Grouse
Pheasant
Prairie Dog
Black Tailed Prairie Dog
Wester Meadow Lark
Horned Lark
Uinta Ground Squirrel
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
and a few other critters that I can not remember right this moment.

Not a bad list for my own "backyard."

There was great cloud cover much of the day, it was warm and had a bit of a heavy breeze.

Thanks for looking

Enjoy

Billings Area, April 6th (PM)

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I love the winter; but I also love the changes that come with winters end. And birds returning to the open areas all around me are one of those special things that help me to come with the end of ski season. On the sixth I went out shooting at both ends of the day. And in the evening I had the chance to observe many birds practicing that age old ritual of attracting a mate. None seemed overly successful; but that did not keep them from trying.

Enjoy.

Billings Area, April 6th (AM)

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Shout the good news... Western Meadow Larks once again fill the sage fields at sunrise.

Went out again trying to pinpoint this allusive Sage Grouse Lek, looks like another dud, and came home with photos of Larks, Flickers, and White Tail Deer. Oh well I was outdoors, in Nature with a camera. The morning started off brisk, 20's, but quickly made its way to the 40's. The light was interesting and I am happy with a number of the images I captured.

Enjoy

Billings Area, April 5th

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Well it was another semi productive afternoon of shooting. I find that getting a few images and spending time in a relaxing environment is almost always time well spent. The birding is starting to pick up and things should be greening up any day now.

Enjoy