Beartooth Pass & Fiddler Creek, June 18th

A male Calliope Hummingbird (Stellula calliope) hovers between feedings on the spring bounty of the Absaroka Range, about 15 air miles from the North East Entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Captured with a Canon 7D with 500/4.0L IS + 1.4 TC III in manual mode at ISO400, f/6.3, and 1/320th of a second. The camera was mounted on a Gitzo 3540XLS and Induro GHB2 gimbal head with custom long lens support.

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I was planing on slipping over the pass into Yellowstone for the weekend. The pass was closed the day before, so I called to check and see that it would be open and I was told it would be open "first thing in the AM." I was up the pass shortly after sunrise and it was still closed, and there were a number of others who were waiting to get in so they could ski. I spent some time on the snow took photos of the American pipit and White-crowned Sparrows that were foraging in the few places where the earth showed through the snow; but then it was time to head down. I have a friend who lives about 15 air miles from the park's North East Entrance and he is always talking about his hummingbirds, so I made the trip that way (I was just not feeling good about the long drive around to get into the park).

On the way to his place I stopped to shoot a few Mule Deer does with their fawns; but was set to get to the hummingbirds. I spent the next nine hours shooting around 1,500 photographs of hummingbirds.

I had a great time, and am quite happy with the shots I got. I did not get shots of the birds actually at the flowers, as the background near the flowers did not work; but the perched and in flight shots made me happy.

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

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.

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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.

Lightroom 3, Re-edit...

As I am finally getting some work done towards my new portfolio site I am finding myself continually amazed at the quality increase in the output file from LR3 as compared to LR2. I am changing very few settings, more often I am only changing my Sharpening and Noise Reduction settings (because LR3 handles those edits much better/differently). The only downside is that it becomes obvious that I need to re-edit all of my images with LR3 :)

If you have not made the upgrade to LR3 you really need to spend the money and upgrade ASAP.

Todays example comes from one of my most popular Great Grey Owl images to date.

LR3:

LARGER FILE IS HERE
Canon 7D and 500/4.0L IS set in Manual exposure mode at f/4.0, ISO1000, and 1/800th of a second w/o supplementary flash.

LR2:

LARGER FILE IS HERE
Canon 7D and 500/4.0L IS set in Manual exposure mode at f/4.0, ISO1000, and 1/800th of a second w/o supplementary flash.

Sage Grouse Lek, April 21st

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I left Billings at 3:35 am so that I could get out to the lek and get set up before the birds arrived.

This particular lek has upwards of 60 displaying males at a time. The morning of the 21st was beautiful; but because of my blind position I was only able to count 39 displaying males; but I could hear more.

A long lens, ground blind, and lots of patience is required to make a go at photographing grouse leks.

I'll keep making more trips this spring, so look for more photos to come soon.

Check out the photos and play the videos too (audio and all).

Sage Grouse Lek, April 14th

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I left Billings at 4am so that I could get out to the lek and get set up before the birds arrived at the lek.

This particular lek has upwards of 60 displaying males at a time. On the morning of the 14th the wind was very strong so there were less birds than usual and my count was only 47 displaying males.

A long lens, ground blind, and lots of patience is required to make a go at photographing grouse leks.

I'll make more trips this spring, so look for more photos to come soon.

Golden Eagle - Billings South Rims, March 6th

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Just a few shots of a Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) crusing above a Prairie Dog town. I needed an afternoon drive and I most always take a camera.

Enjoy

Prairie Merlin on Campus, February 25th

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I think I photographed a pair of Prairie Merlin (Falco columbarius) this afternoon on the campus of Rocky Mountain College.

The two birds seemed to be putting on a show for each other and appear to have attempted to mate a few times. As I am leaving in the AM for Yellowstone I have not look to verify what the birds are so I can only guess as to what they were doing.

Always look in the trees, as you never know what might fly into your backyard.

2010 Great Backyard Bird Count

NEWS RELEASE

February 12-15, 2010

Bird watchers coast to coast are invited to take part in the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, Friday, February 12, through Monday, February 15, 2010. Participants in the free event will join tens of thousands of volunteers counting birds in their own backyards, local parks or wildlife refuges.

I'll be taking part and you should too. If you will be in the Billings area and want to tag along for some birding just let me know, as I would love the company.

Billings Area, November 14th

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I have 5 unedited local trips sitting on my computer, so what do I do? I go out to take a few more photographs. To be honest work took me to Riverfront Park where interesting light and lots of gulls made me want to play a bit, really just practice for Bosque del Apache. ;)

I may have gotten a little creative for some of you, if you don't like the abstract blurs just appreciate the tack sharp bird in flight shots that I open the gallery with.

Enjoy

Billings Area, September 9th

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09-09-09
Just out for a short test of the minty 500/4.0L IS.
Spot on it appears.

There were some kids playing down by the river, who seemed to be keeping both the Osprey a bit nervous; but the one pass that I got provided a decent chance to play with the 500 and check its AF tracking with the 50D.

Enjoy
Now I am off to the Tetons... I think :)

Billings Area, July 30th

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Another morning trip north of Billings to the Molt area.

To be truthful I only went out to try to shoot Common Nighthawks; but due to the cold (37 degree) temps the bugs were not out, and neither were they.

So I kept driving and did my usual route when the sun rose.

Enjoy

Billings Area, July 26th

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This morning seemed like a great morning to head out north of Billings and see what I could find to photograph. The lunar and solar phases were decent this AM so I figured that I would be able to get lucky. I think I did. In a few hours I was able to produce 90+ images to put online.

Take a look. I hope you enjoy.

Billings Area, May 18th

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I took the morning and headed Northwest of Billings to see what birds I could get onto my list, and to enjoy the weather.

The area around Molt, MT is a great place to drive or bike and just enjoy the solitude. Wildlife is abundant while people are not. There are also many places that could make some ideal landscapes and or scenes, more of those to come in the future, I hope.

Rim Country, May 17th

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Sorry for the delay on getting this posted. I spent a ton of time out shooting and that means a ton of time editing.

I spent the better part of the afternoon hiking in the Rim Country area. It was a day for the birds, pun intended. I was able to add a few birds, and got to put in some pleasant miles on an overly warm afternoon.

Billings Area, May 16th

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Well due to some extenuating services I was not able to make my trip to the park. I did however get a chance to spend a large amount of time shooting in the Billings area. With the end of May fast approaching I need to get through my 100 birds quick, and this weekend sure helped with that.

The list from today was so long that I will not even begin to try to publish it.

There are over 200 images online, so take a look and see what I was able to see.

Enjoy

Billings Area, May 14th

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I got a tip that there was a Great Egret out West of Billings. So the first chance I got, I was driving West. Upon arrival I saw three real birders (Yellowstone Valley Audubon). The Egret was right where my tipster had suggested it was, scope distance.

The three real birders were nice enough to let me use their scope, saving me some time, THANKS.

The birds position was not great for a positive ID, other than white Egret/Heron.

I made a quick loop around some of my favorite shooting spots, figure why not check them out while I was in area.

Made my way back for one more look and to try to snap a few distant images.

Well after stacking a 2X and a 1.4X on the 300/2.8L IS and adding a 50D to the back of it (1344mm), I was ready to try for a few images of the "Great Egret."

High wind and bright sun did not make for the best quality images, and add to that the great distance that I had to cope with and I was just praying that I could make a crop that would work for a positive ID.

I set up the tripod low to the ground, weighted the lens and tripod down, and used my body to block all the wind I could. I used Live View to manually focus and then shot some 250 images. I knew that I would be lucky to get a handful that would work for ID's, the atmospheric distortion was bad.

I have the ID images online and the bird turned out to be a Snowy Egret, a rare migrator through Montana, and not a bird that was on my list previously.

Thanks tipster and thank you stacked TC's.

Enjoy

Billings Area, May 13th

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You never know when something will jump out at you. Today as I was walking back from a brief photo shot across campus I noticed that the cold wind that had me bundled deep in my Arc'teryx jacket was also ravaging the flowering trees on campus. The dark clouds, ISO 100, and f/13 let me make these often photographed flowers come to new life.

I hope you enjoy something a little different from me.

Enjoy

Billings Area, May 4th

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A fun morning with a few additions to my list of photographed birds.

The mornings list:
Red-winged Blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird
American Coot
Mallard
Osprey
Canadian Geese
Muskrat
Downy Woodpecker
Mourning Dove
Hairy Woodpecker
Ring-necked Pheasant
And others...

If you are in the Billings area get out and at least watch the spring unfold, shoot it if you are inclined to do so.

Enjoy

Billings Area, May 3rd

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Went out this afternoon to check on some of my favorite spots.

Great list of birds but I can not find my notes, so I will say the stand out was a Belted Kingfisher (no photos).

Enjoy

Billings Area, May 1st

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So the other day as I was walking home from shooting the RMC football teams "Strong Man Competition" and just had to stop and shoot some flowers.

This is shot with a 300/2.8 and a monopod, not the ideal for this type of shooting (great for sports).
No reflectors, flash, etc.
Really just snapping photos.
I say that to encourage you to get out and shoot some flowers this spring.

Enjoy