Glacier & Waterton National Parks, June 10th - 13th, 2011

A Red Fox yawns as the sun sets on Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta Canada. Captured with a Canon 7D with 500/4.0L IS + 1.4TC III in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of 0 at ISO200, f/7.1, and 1/125th of a second. The camera was resting on a bean bag.

PHOTOS NOW ONLINE

I used a couple of friends wedding as an excuse to make a four day trip up to Glacier National Park, and I am glad that I did. The wedding was in Kalispell, MT on Saturday night, so I raced up to St. Mary (East Glacier) the first chance I got on Friday. I got to the park later than I wanted to; but I made it in time to shoot as the sun was setting and the moon was rising at Wild Goose Island. The light was not ideal; but I was able to make something out of the scene with some HDR processing (not really in line with my usual look; but it is something to show the scene that night). I actually made it early enough to do a bit of scouting for the following morning's sunrise (and second sunrise) before it was time to attempt to photograph sunset.

I camped in the Rising Sun campground, where I came to the realization that I am spending far more money than I should to be in a campground from 11:10p - 4:15a ($20 is a lot of money for a bare batch of ground, cold water, and dirty bathrooms... oh well) I was out early on Saturday morning to wait for first light at Wild Goose Island; but it was a bit of a bust, so I was off to my "second sunrise" spot. "Second sunrise" is a place where the sun takes a little longer to get around/over the mountains before illuminating the scene. This spot just happened to require 1,000 vertical feet of hiking/climbing to reach, and I was up against the clock (good thing all the cycling I have been doing has me in decent shape). The view back towards Wild Goose Island (from more than 1,000 feet above) was beautiful, as were the waterfalls that I had hiked up to photograph. When I was scouting the evening before I told myself that there was a chance that the top fall might be positioned to give me a rainbow when the sun hit it... and I was right. I was rewarded with this view of the seasonal waterfall, a rainbow in the fall, and Goat Mountain in the background, all with decent light. A few lapse to the road closed sign, some time watching a few different Black Bears, and I was off to Kalispell, MT to check into my hotel, shower, and dress nice enough for the wedding (that is why I was on the trip).

The wedding, despite the rain, was beautiful, and I am so happy for the two of them. They are going to have an amazing life together, even if they have to start it by moving from Whitefish to Kansas :(

Sunday morning I was up and on my way back to the park as soon as possible. I had no plans of heading to Canada; but every time I go to Glacier I bring my Passport/Passport Card, just in case. It was a good thing I did, because I decided that I wanted to head to Waterton Lakes National Park, so North I went. Upon arriving I was treated with some time around a beautiful Cinnamon Black Bear boar, who even stood up to attempt to pull down a birds nest from a small aspen tree. Into the park, using my Parks Canada pass from my July trip last year it was time to set up camp and shoot a time lapse sequence or two. I added lunch and some yoga to the afternoon agenda before heading off to see what I could find. I love Red Fox, I think they are some of the most beautiful creatures in North America, and I was lucky enough to spend the next three or four hours with one. It moved through the grass, rested, stalked Uinta ground squirrels, yawned a few times, posed in front of Middle Waterton Lake, caught a Uinta ground squirrel, ate it, and then came near to say goodbye.

The Fox left just in time for me to make my way over to Middle Waterton Lake to set up a time lapse of what I hoped would be the moon rising as the sun was setting (I needed the clouds to cooperate). The clouds did not fully cooperate; but I managed a few decent photographs of the scene, and I have yet to look at the time lapse sequence.

The next morning I was up early, yet again, to drive and hike to a favorite spot to photograph Cameron Lake and Forum Peak in the pleasing pink light of sunrise. Cameron Lake was still frozen and covered with snow (in fact I walked from the parking lot on a plowed path that was more than six feet under the snow). Heavy clouds rolled in and made the rest of the morning perfect for photographing waterfalls, Red Rocks Canyon, and even more waterfalls. Soon it was time to start heading south. On my way out of the park I stoped to photograph a pair of Sandhill Cranes that were being pestered by a half dozen Red-wigged Blackbirds, and then headed over to a favorite birding spot to watch some Western Wood-pewee feast on insects that were taking advantage of the ample supply of flood waters.

I had a great chat with the boarder patrol, seems he is a huge fan of photography and we spent a half hour chatting about Canon cameras and lenses and shooting locations around the western US :)

I went in to Many Glacier; but it was raining hard (as it seems to always be), so I looked at the sheep and goats and continued towards home. The rain followed me all the way home; but around Lavina, MT the sun was setting and the clouds broke just enough at the horizon to grant me a few shots of the flooded area with a double rainbow all in the magical light of sunset.

It was a great little four day trip.

I have a few videos and time lapse sequences still to edit; but I wanted to get photos online before I race off to Yellowstone national park this weekend.

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

Big Sky Journal - Cover

For those, like me, who always want to see the full image it looks a little something like this.

On the forth of July, 2009 I had found this seasonal stream and had a feeling that it could make a great foreground element for a landscape shot at sunset. The clouds looked promising, so I raced out to se what I could make. On the way I stopped to take this image, which some of you might remember from a few spreads in the 'New Yorker' or from busses/trains/billboards across the country. When the shot I took on my way to my planned scene started bringing in significant sums of money/attention I started to question how I could have felt that this scene, with the stream, could have been better. Thankfully now that it has graced the cover of this beautiful magazine it is starting to make me feel a little be better.

I think that 07/04/09 might just have been the best forth of July of my life (2 significant images). I know for a fact that the sunset that night was the best firework show I have even seen. If memory serves me correctly, way back to my school days, I think that I had my first kiss on a forth of July, I don't know if that is really any real competition :)

Ask Dave, March 17th

A question brought up in ART347 today from a reading assignment... Can you shoot entire rainbows with a panoramic camera or lens, and what is it with never seeing rainbows at sunrise.

Answer... Yes it can be done, it does happen, and I have photographic evidence. The above image is a 5 image panoramic image captured in Glacier National Park at sunrise during my July 2010 trip. The images shot with a Canon 5D II and 24/3.5L T/S lens manually exposed at f/13, ISO100, and 1.3 seconds. The images were taken with 2° of tilt and were taken in succession with 12mm of shift at 90° angles to capture all of the scene. The image was later cropped to 7500X4800 pixels from the 7600 pixel square image that was created in a stichless panorama. It shows a sunrise rainbow, and the use of a panoramic lens, technique, to capture all of the scene.

Now for some explanation, sometime both ends of the rainbow can be captured with a now wide angle lens, other times not. My 17mm lens fell just shy of being able to capture all of this scene. One reason we don't see sunrise rainbows is that typically North American storms tend not to break at sunrise, they tend to break after sunrise. Also how many sunrises do we all watch compared to sunsets? It does happen, I don't even consider it to be overly rare (as far as rainbows go); but the author of the papers we were reading does :)

One thing to be careful of when attempting to photograph a rainbow using panoramic techniques is that things move quickly and you need to get from shot to shot quickly; but without making a mistake. I fired off this five image set, and went to start another, and it was gone. The few other folks present that morning did not notice the rainbow in time to get reset to shoot it before it was gone. Light is fleeting, especially those really magical moments (i.e., rainbows).

Sunrise the next morning brought better light; but no rainbow. You can check out the next days sunrise at the same location and the rest of the trips photos here (notice the added field of view from shooting a panorama).

Oddly, this image is something I just edited just the other night. I had forgotten about it when I did my main edit after the trip; because of its size it took a long time for Photoshop CS5 to put it together, and after it failed the first time I did not try again. My new machine did a much quicker job and even though it took a few attempts my new machine was 3-4Xs faster, so I was able to be patient, and I am very glad I was.

(if you click on the photo you can view a larger version)

Northern Rockies, July 1st - 20th

PHOTOS NOW ONLINE

After over one month I have finally finished editing all of the images from my trip to the Northern Rockies. There are 400 images online, and there might be one or two more to come. The gallery is packed full of landscape and wildlife images from Glacier NP, Waterton Lakes NP, Kootenay NP, Banff NP, Yoho NP, Jasper NP, White Goat Range Provincial Park, and Kananaskis Country.

I had a great time on the trip, I hiked and biked hundreds of miles, I visited some of the best ski towns in North America, visited old friends, made new friends, soaked in amazing hot springs, and camped in some of the best places around. My bird list hit 90 species, and if I were a better birder it could have been over 100. I drove a total of 4047.1 miles in my Subaru Outback averaging some 26 MPG and change. I taste tested a dozen or so pizza places, finally ate at a Tim Hortons; but I did not have any coffee. The temperature ranged from too hot to snow removal required. I created almost 50 GPS waypoints for future trips, and filled multiple maps and books with notes. Although I was supposed to be away from work, every few days I would get an internet connection and put in a few hours, sorry to disappoint I am a little over committed to my job.

As those who followed along via Facebook/Twitter know; a cold spring and a freak July snow storm left me with very few flowers. This put great pressure on the sky to come through with great sunrises/sunsets to help me create dynamic images. Unfortunately lots of rain and clouds prevented that from happening. I came home from the trip feeling like I had returned with only a few good images; but when I began to edit I realized that I had been able to capture beauty beyond my expectations. I am truly pleased with many of these images I captured. I hope that you can enjoy viewing them, and if only for a few minutes, that you can experience the amazing creation that fills the Northern Rockies. Let your monitor be a window to a spectacular place.

Please take the time to go through the online gallery, I ask that you leave comments/criticism or at least give your favorites a thumbs up. You can even enjoy the images as a HD slideshow.

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

Enjoy

The New Yorker

In the April 19, 2010 issue of 'The New Yorker' you will find the above page. Montana Office of Tourism took out a 4 page Advertorial in the magazine and used the same image of mine that is plastered in and on busses and trains around the country.

Not a huge deal; but something fun that I thought I would share.

I captured the image in Glacier National Park from above Logan pass on July 4th, 2009 at sunset. You can see the image and others from the trip here.

The image is a High Dynamic Range Merge.

Enjoy

Advertising for the "Last Best Place"

Many of you have seen or heard about this already; but I figured I would share these photos with everyone.

An image of mine is having quite a run around the country advertising the "Last Best Place." The Montana Office of Tourism is using an image I captured in Glacier National Park from above Logan pass on July 4th, 2009 at sunset. You can see the image and others from the trip here.

The image is a High Dynamic Range Merge.

The advertising campaign is fairly extensive in Chicago and Seattle, with about 100 bus kings (signs on the outside of busses), the Double Decker Bus wrap, and even more signs in and around busses and trains.

Before more folks ask... no the ads do not have my name or web site; but yes I was paid quite well for the rights managed use of my image.

This part of the ad campaign is running March 1 - May 31.

I did not take the photos of the busses, the ad agency provided them to me. If you live in Chicago or Seattle and see these ads I would love for you to snap photos and send them my way. (even cell phone snaps would be cool :)

Wrapped Double Decker Bus in Chicago, IL


Bus Kings in Seattle, WA

Glacier NP late June - July

Hello all, I need your help. You can email me at Dave_M_Shumway@yahoo.com or leave a comment here.

So I find it hard to drive up to Glacier with Yellowstone so very near.
That said I am going to take some time a visit glacier in the next few weeks.

The entire road is open this Thursday.

I was thinking about YNP this Saturday/Sunday (Trout), then Glacier for 5-7 days one of the next two weekends.

Is the traffic crazy over July 4th?

I would love any advice you have to share. We all know that I am all about photography. Landscapes with the new 5DII is one goal. Mountain Goats with Kids is my other must. Then the usual stuff falls inline.

I will camp.
I am more than willing to hike.
I have 9 weeks of vacation that I must burn over the next year so time is not a big issue.
I am leaving out of Billings, MT so I am only 5h30m from Browning, MT.

Any tips, thoughts, places to camp, places to hike, places to shoot critters, places/times to shoot landscapes, about anything would be greatly appreciated.

I have a few friends who have sent me some info and a few birding books and maps on the area but that really is it.

I feel a bit silly being such a tourist when it comes to Glacier, heck I know a ton more about the Canadian parks to the north than Glacier.

Thanks all