Yellowstone July 30th & 31st

A trio of North American River Otters engage in some playful fighting along the shores of Trout Lake in Yellowstone National Park. Captured with a Canon 7D with 500/4.0L IS in manual mode at ISO800, f/4.5, and 1/400th of a second. The camera was mounted on a Gitzo 3540XLS and Induro GHB2 gimbal head.

PHOTOS ONLINE HERE

All of you who follow along with my trips on Facebook and Twitter know how great of a trip I had in Yellowstone. For those who are not following along, and are the kind of person who would enjoy the play by play during my trips... well it is simple to follow me on one of those social networks, and Google+ too.

With delays on the college's website I had a free weekend to run down to the park. I left dark and early and was driving up the Beartooth Pass as the sun rose. I was treated to a Mule Deer doe with her two fawns as the sun was breaking over the peaks. As I reached the top of the pass (11,000 feet) the Marmots were waking up to the nice warm sun. It was 41 degrees, but things warmed up quickly and as I drove down the pass and into the park it was quickly getting "too hot." I drove through the Lamar Valley, over Dunraven Pass, through Hayden Valley and all the way down to the Nez Perce Picnic Area where things are still very flooded along the Yellowstone River. On the return drive I stopped atop Dunraven Pass to photograph the small fire that was burning to the North.

The temperature had risen to 84 degrees and that is far too hot for me, but regardless I decided that I should hike up to Trout Lake and see if I could have any luck with the Otters (I have had great luck with them in the past). As I got to the lake two of the Otters were resting on a log to the East while a third Otter was enjoying a meal of Cutthroat Trout in the inlet. That part of the afternoon was quickly over, as the three Otters swam back across the lake to their den where they proceeded to rest for the next three hours and thirty minutes. As being raised a bow hunter I tend to be on the patient side of things and I put in the time. I was very happy when the Otters came back out and put on a show. They gave each other a quick peck, swam back across the lake to the inlet where the Cutthroat Trout spawn where it was time to feast.

At this point in the show I was happy with the shots I had captured and noticed that one of the seven folks who were still up at the lake (to see the show) was shooting a Canon Rebel with only an 18-55 lens, so I offered to let him use my 500/4.0L IS. I think, at first, he thought I was just kidding with him, but I offered again and he took me up on the offer. I put his 18-55 on my 7D and snapped a photo of the scene to see what he was able to see, I was reminded how much I love telephoto lenses. After the Otters finished their fish we switched back, and he said; "after two years of working in the park, I think those will be the best photographs I have taken." The shooting was not that good, but I can understand how going from 55mm to 500mm could make all the difference in the world to someone photographing wildlife.

The Otters finished dinner and then it was time to play. The play moved from the water to a log in the inlet, but then it was back to the water again. As the last bit of light was leaving the sky the Otters made a brief stop on a log along the East shore of the lake, but then it was time to head back to the den for the night. I hiked back down to my car and headed to camp for the night.

Sunday morning I was up hours before sunrise, but I don't know why. Bears and Wolves were out, but far too far for me to photograph them, so I headed up to Trout Lake again. I arrived as the sun was breaking the horizon and there was no sign of Otters being out of the den yet. I decided to do a bit of Yoga with some meditation to follow as I waited and enjoyed some solitary time on the shore of the beautiful mountain lake, but a deer decided to distract me. A family of Common Goldeneye also came near to visit before other visitors made the hike up to the lake. Beyond that the morning was a bust, and by the time the temperatures got hot enough to make me uncomfortable folks were starting to join me on the shores of Trout Lake. I head back to my car afternoon to realize that it was 86 degrees, so I drove back up the Beartooth Pass to cool down, but a storm chased me down the other side and back to Billings.

It was a really nice trip for the end of July. I drove 494.3 miles with a trip average of 28.5mpg.

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

Two Months...

Last year I spent the entire month of July photographing, bike touring, and backpacking the Northern Rockies from Glacier National Park through Jasper National Park, and it was amazing. I had planned to do it again this year from July 14th - August 14th, but delays at work forced me to cancel my trip. Most of you know that I am the staff photographer and also the web content manager for Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana; RMC is launching a new website and delays on the part of our design company and navigation consultant pushed us back by a few months, and my vacation was left to suffer. I needed to take a month off (150 hours) because we have a cap, but as I have been forced to abandon vacation I get to take it next year. Next year I'll have another four weeks that I "must" take, so that is two months of vacation and I really only have from the middle of June through the middle of August to use take the time off (this is two months paid vacation and after using two months I'll still have one month left over).

I know what you are thinking; "rub it in Dave... your life is so amazing..."
I am living the dream, or darn near it, but I do have a problem I can't decide what to do or where to go. The reason for this blog post is that I need your help deciding.

Let me start with some ground rules:

• Photography is king (Nature and Wildlife);
• Adventure is important;
• I do not like hot weather;
• I want to camp;
• I want my trips to be planned at the ideal time for my intended subject;
• I do not speak spanish;
• I need to keep costs relatively low, the next twelve months will be very expensive in terms of gear to buy (darn Canon's new super telephoto lenses and the new cameras that are coming out).

Some of my ideas:

• June 15th - July 7th camping on the coast of Katmai National Park followed by July 8th - July 15th camping in Brooks Camp;
• Repeat my trip to the Canadian Rockies from July 15th - August 15th;
• Find a girlfriend, who speaks Spanish (Chilean Spanish), and wants to spend two months backpacking in Torres del Paine National Park while acting as my translator (winter time);
• Drive the Dempster and/or Dalton highways for a month of birding (spring nesting season);
• Explore the Pacific Northwest and BC to see what I can find;
• Sit at home and edit my insane backlog of video and time lapse footage (that will be even worse by then);
• I wish I could take the end of August through September off and spend a month shoot fall from Denali through the Dalton Highway; but teaching/sports photography interferes with that plan.

I need you help with more ideas and thoughts on the ideas I have laid out here.

Thanks

p.s. Remember I am heading to Churchill to photograph Polar Bears in October this year, so...

p.s.s. Readers who are clients and editors... if you have some special place you need/want shot, let me know. I have already chatted with some of you about projects for next year, but if you come up with any others suggest away.

Ask Dave, July 23rd - Autofocus & TCs

I think this gets me all caught up on my weekly Ask Dave blog posts. Work has been extremely busy (we are launching a new website), so that is my excuse, I'll try to avoid falling behind again.

Ask Dave, July 23rd
I get tons of questions each week, I respond as quickly as possible, and I might just answer them here too. If you have questions you can email me at Learn@DaveShumway.com.

Question:
From... Debbie
So I hear these new TCs are great, but can I use them on my 100-400/5.6L IS?

Answer:
The new TCs are great, I assume you read my blog post about them a while ago.

Unfortunately they still don't work (AF) with an f/5.6 lens and a non 1 series camera. The 1.4TC III still slows your lens by one stop, and the 2.0TC III still slows your lens by two stops. What that means is if you have an f/2.8 lens and you place a 2.0TC III on it, the lens becomes an f/5.6 and a 7D can still autofocus that. Take a f/4.0 lens and place the same 2.0TC III on it it is then a f/8.0 lens and a 7D can not autofocus that, but a 1D IV can. Even as amazing as the 1D IV is, even it cannot autofocus a lens like the 100-400 with a 2.0TC III.

You can use some tricks to get a non 1 series camera to autofocus with a lens and TC combination that is f/8.0. By placing tape on the pins that communicate with the camera you can trick it to thinking there is no TC and it will still attempt to autofocus the combination (it is really slow). Unfortunately I have never seen anyone use a 2.0TC with the 100-400 and have any Canon camera autofocus the combination.

Remember that you can always manually focus your lens regardless of the lenses maximum aperture; but the darker the lens that harder it will be to see and manually focus your lens accurately.

p.s. from my experience all Canon cameras will attempt to autofocus any lens and TC combination (even at f/11) in liveView mode. It is slow and not really accurate, but it works (and usable for video).

Ask Dave, July 23rd - Photography Websites

Ask Dave, July 23rd
I get tons of questions each week, I respond as quickly as possible, and I might just answer them here too. If you have questions you can email me at Learn@DaveShumway.com.

Question:
From... Rob
I want to make a photo website; but the options confuse me. Do you have any suggestions?

Answer:
Typically I suggest that folks pay someone like SmugMug/LiveBooks/PhotoShelter to host their site and to help provide the technical end of the site. This takes most of the technical aspects out of making a photo site. If you go this route all you will need to do on the side is to find a domain registrar and choose the perfect domain name for you.

I'll address the three companies I have experience with and really the three best options available for photographers today.

I think that LiveBooks offers the best (most SEO friendly) portfolio site available (I love mine, and they do a great job).

SmugMug is the most affordable, and easiest to use option; but they have their limits, and they don't do a good job of handling stock image sales. (Their SEO is okay). They host unlimited images/videos for a very fair rate, and that is why I use them to host all of my trip images. Get their "Pro" account. (http://FragilePlaces.com)

I think the best all in one solution is PhotoShelter, and I am working with them to build my new stock sales site. The problem is that they are expensive, as you are forced to pay (big bucks) for data storage. They have solid SEO; but their "portfolio" / "blogs" are only okay compared to LiveBooks.

Whenever I finish my new stock site I will be using each of those companies for what they do best; but I don't really suggest that for most folks. (Choose the one that does what you really need/want)

If you don't plan to have a ton of images and want to print/ship yourself I think LiveBooks is your best bet.
If you want lots of images at a great rate, and are happy with the long list of services that SmugMug offers I think they are a great option.
If money is no object and you want lots of images with solid SEO and lots of printing options; but you don't mind if you sacrifice a bit on your portfolio then PhotoShelter is the way to go.

If you go the SmugMug route use this link to save both of us a bit ($5 I think):
https://secure.smugmug.com/signup.mg?Coupon=r9qtUffwT7wUY

I really like the look of what PhotoShelter is doing for a one stop solution; but they cost more if you have lots of images:
http://www.photoshelter.com/

LiveBooks sites are beautiful and have SEO dialed to perfection:
http://www.livebooks.com/
And I really like their mobile sites.

SEO = Search Engine Optimization, and it is a big deal.

Yellowstone June 30th & July 1st

Two bull Bison cross the flooded Lamar River as the sun rises above the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park. Captured with a Canon 5DII with 70-200/2.8L IS II in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of - 2/3 (+-1) at ISO200, f/11, and HDRM adjustments for a three shot image. The camera was mounted on an Induro CT214 and Acratech GP ball head.

PHOTOS ONLINE HERE

All of you who follow along with my trips on Facebook and Twitter know how great of a trip I had in Yellowstone. For those who are not following along, and are the kind of person who would enjoy the play by play during my trips... well it is simple to follow me on one of those social networks.

Early Thursday morning I was off to slip into the park via the Beartooth Pass; there is still tons of snow up there. I hiked up to Trout Lake to check on the Cutthroat Trout and Otters; but the flow was still a bit strong, and they were nowhere to be found. I continued through the Lamar Valley where the Bison were out in full force. I continued through the park checking on lots of nests including a stop at the Osprey nests around Tower Fall, one of them was still sitting on eggs. By afternoon there were a number of Bear jams; but none of them were really ideal for photography, the only one that really had some promise were two cinnamon Black Bears on the way up Dunraven; but the rangers would not let folks continue along the road, so Landis and I were left sitting and hoping that they would come our way; but they didn't. I drove over Dunraven Pass and all the way down to Sedge Bay and all that was going on was the Grizzly sow and her two cubs quite a ways out near Mary Mountain. On my way return trip North I decided to stop at the bear family; but I got distracted by four of the Canyon Wolves chasing a group of cow Elk. The Wolves made the kill; but it was behind the hill, so no photos of the take down. I was in the area until sunset and a storm was rolling in as I drove north for a nice night in camp.

Morning comes early in the summer, and most people sleep in too late; but not me. I was up around 4 am, so that I could be in the green Lamar Valley at sunrise. As happens frequently, mother nature rewarded me for my dedication and as the sun was rising a pair of bull Bison decided they needed to cross the Lamar River. The river was and is running fast, so the Bison ended up quite a ways downstream from their entry point; but they made it, and I think that is all that mattered to the pair. As I turned to walk back to my car a cinnamon Black Bear made its way out into the valley searching for birds nests to raid. As it moved off into the distance I took my long lens back to spend some time watching a nearby Osprey nest; the male was coming back and forth to his family of three often, and I got to photograph his return.

I drove out to Thunderer Trailhead where I have been filming time lapse driving sequences from. This time I could not help stopping to photograph a Barrows Goldeneye family on a seasonal pond, that is what I am doing as the time lapse sequence shows off ducklings, Bison, and clouds as they move around the Lamar Valley. I drove around waited for a decent show at a Dunraven Pass bear jam; but as the day drew to an end I was tiered of the crowds and heat. The forecast for the fast approaching holiday weekend was hot and sunny, so i decided to drive home rather than deal with more crowds and heat.

I drove just over 550 mile on the trip; but managed an average of over 29mpg.

I love Yellowstone National Park; but I do not love the crowds this summer.

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 July 30th & 31st

PHOTOS ONLINE HERE

After a long wait to finish editing my July trip to the Northern Rockies, online here, I have finally edited my July YNP trip. I know many of you were thinking that I had missed a month and my 4 year streak was broken... think again

The trip was a very quick two day visit to the park. I slipped in and out over the Beartooth Pass and went as far west as Gardiner and as far south as Canyon. Not much going on and as it was sunny and warm I did not have high hopes for the activity and subsequent images. I tried to spend as much time as possible between 8,000 and 11,000 feet simply to stay cool.

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.

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

Billings Area, July 30th

PHOTOS ONLINE

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

PHOTOS ONLINE

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.

Yellowstone, July 18th - 19th

PHOTOS & VIDEO ONLINE

This was another trip that I made because I was in the area for work. Rocky Mountain College sent me out to Virginia City again to shoot some theatre, those images can be found here.

The Yellowstone leg of the trip ended up with very few images captured. I did have a great two days with a friend of mine. Teaching photography in a great environment gave me a much needed chance to simply relax in Yellowstone. The conversations were well worth all of the miles driven.

I did not even snap one photograph of a mammal. I did see a Grizzly Bear and many Black Bears, Mule Deer, Elk, Bison, Antelope, and much more I just did not take out my camera. Very hot weather and blue sky days (except for the Sunday showers) left the wildlife activity boring and in poor light at best. I think this was also the first trip of the year where I did not see a Wolf, I did not go to areas to see them however.

I have two videos online. I would show it as one; but even after cutting it from 1080P to 720P the files were far larger than SmugMug allows (600MB max or 15 minutes). Simple footage of an Osprey spending time with its chicks. The audio was removed due to the excessive road noise. I was also forced to leave the image stabilization on because I was perched on the edge of the road. The IS makes the footage wonder a bit; but it did kill out the bad vibrations that came in as each car drove by.

Enjoy and I'll try to have more for you to look at next trip. :)

Glacier July 2nd - 6th

PHOTOS ONLINE

I finally made a trip up to Glacier National Park. It was well worth the extra 4 hours (each way) of driving compared to Yellowstone.

I have come to the conclusion that Yellowstone is the place for wildlife while Grand Teton and Glacier are the places to go for landscapes. I really enjoyed the 5DII and my 17-40/4.0L @ f/16 for landscapes. That said I was not all that pleased with the light that I was given to work with at sunrise and sunset.

I did have a nice encounter with a Fox den just outside of the park, Mountain Goats on Logan Pass, and with a young cinnamon Black Bear near Many Glacier.

In the 5 days (3 full days / 2 partial days) I put over 70 miles on my boots, which I believe is the best way to see Glacier.

If, like me, you have been putting off Glacier because Yellowstone is so amazing (and near), do not put it off anymore.

I would like to thank everyone who gave me advice on what to do and see in Glacier. I had a big list and got to check off many items on it during this trip. Fortunately while on the trip I added many, many, more points to the list, so YES I will be going back again (soon?).

The trip list includes everything from leaving my door in Billings to returning:

American Avocets
American Kestrel
American Robin
Bighorn Sheep
Brewers Black Bird
California Gull
Chipmunk
Cliff Swallow
Common Merganser
Douglas Squirrel
Dusky Blue Grouse
Elk
Great Blue Heron
Green-winged Teal
Horned Lark
Loon
Magpie
Mallard
Marmot
Mountain Goat
Mule Deer
Northern Harrier
Northern Pintail
Osprey
Pronghorn
Raven
Red tail
Red Winged Black Bird
Sandhill Crane
Snow Shoe Hair
Sort Eared Owl
Steller's Jay
Tree Swallow
Uinta Ground Squirrel
Western Meadow Lark
White Tailed Deer
(as always there are many that did not get on the list due to my poor ID skills and or memory)

I have the photos online and would love for all of you to take a look. There are about 25 HDRM images. There are also a few panoramas (8 images into one on the big ones). As always comments in my gallery are much appreciated as are thumbs up.

Enjoy

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