May and Beyond...

Sorry for the extended silence...May was a crazy month.

Here are galleries from some of my May trips to Yellowstone National Park:

• May 08-15, 2012
• May 19 & 20, 2012

And here are galleries from some of my local climbing trips:

• Gregory Hills
• Phipps Park

I also spent some time in Chicago and photographed my little sisters wedding (no I do not shoot weddings, so don't ask).

Today I spent the day today on the Beartooth Pass and in Yellowstone with a friend and we had a great little day trip.

Tomorrow morning I am off to Alaska and the Canadian Rockies for the next couple of months. I plan to check in via Facebook and Twitter daily (thanks SPOT CONNECT), and I will try to post photos online when I can (no promise as to how many or often).

p.s. I do have posts about photography in Yellowstone from April and May that should go live each week while I am gone...check that out on YellowstonePark.com.

Yellowstone May 25th - 30th

A mother Grizzly Bear enjoys a vole while her "Cub of the Year" sits safely on her back near Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone National Park. Captured with a Canon 7D with 500/4.0L IS in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of + 1 2/3 at ISO400, f/5.0, and 1/160th of a second. The camera was mounted on a Gitzo 3540XLS and Induro GHB2 gimbal head with custom long lens support.

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.

IT WAS A GREAT TRIP!

This was one of the trips that spoils me and makes most of my other trips seem a little slow. I spent a large amount of time near Grizzly Bears each day of the trip. If you count cubs I had nine or ten Grizzly Bears near me (and in my cameras viewfinder) over the course of the six day trip.

The activity was great; but the weather was not equally great (for most people). I personally LOVE snow, so I found the cool temperatures and ample snowfall to be pleasant, especially as it kept the tourists down over what could have been an insanely busy weekend. The snow did wreak havoc on the roads, and I found myself clearing trees, helping folks back onto the road, and even leading a caravan of scarred tourists out of the park. A few mornings I found myself making first tracks on the road from Norris to Canyon, and that was a bit scary on the 8% grade climb; but my Subaru did a good job, and I had no problems, other than needing to clear a tree out of the road to make a path for travel.

I arrived later on Wednesday than I wanted to; but I still managed some nice birding in Swan Lake Flats and that lead to the creation of this image of a Cinnamon Teal Drake.

I camped in Mammoth and was out very early on Thursday morning. Racing down to Yellowstone Lake with hopes of finding a bear or two, and I was in luck. I got to Mary Bay and found a Grizzly Bear to my left and a North American River Otter to my right; but snow filled the sky everywhere in between. The Grizzly was a bit too far (with all of the snow), so I photographed the Otter and waited for the snow to let up before photographing the second Grizzly Bear of the day at Sedge Bay. The Grizzly made his was across Sedge Creek on some logs and made a nice leap for a snow bank. Those of us in the area raced down the road with hopes that the Grizzly would emerge in the trees; but he turned around and actually ended up back where he had started. By that time I was preoccupied with birds and ignored the frantic waiving of my friends to alert me to the Grizzly's reappearance. I had an even rarer treat, a Short-tailed Weasel had poked its head out with a large vole in its mouth. I kept waiting, with the hope of another Weasel show; but all I got was some birds including this nice Dark-eyed Junco. I went back and photographed the Grizzly a bit more; but the light and scene were far from spectacular, and I had my Weasel shots (I was set for the trip ;) Little did I know that when I turned and drove back towards Fishing Bridge I was making the right choice. The Bear Jam was already underway, and I had heard that there was a spring cub in the area, so I found a place to park and watch this beautiful sow and cub Grizzly Bear. I found a spot that allowed me to shoot from the comfort of my car, and with the snow falling and blowing hard I was happy to be in the car. The pair started to leave, and so did the crowds; but that just gave me a chance to move my car into an even better spot in time for the pair to come near once again. I shot plenty of video, and really assumed that the best was over; but they were moving up the road and there was no parking, so I got out the tripod and walked down the road with a few others in the heavy snow. As we did this more followed, and others simply parked on the road near where we were heading. The sow and cub proceeded to come very near us (and the road) and start digging through the deep snow to find a vole. To our surprise the cub climbed onto mom's back as the snow quit, the clouds began to break and the late afternoon light began to pour in. Then the magical moment happened. Sow and cub looking up (and at us) with nice light, and a vole hanging out of mom's mouth. Those of us in the area had out camera's shutter banging off frames as quickly as we could. I'll admit that by this time my fingers were frozen and when I told them to adjust my exposure they failed to do so, leaving my shots over exposed more than I wanted; but because I shoot RAW I was able to turn out a pleasing image. The cub begged for the vole, and let out a little yell when mom ate the vole; but I think the cub just wanted a toy :) That basically ended the day, how could anything top that.

I drove back to Mammoth in heavy snow, I stopped to help a ranger clear a small tree limb from the road, helped get a couple of cars back onto the road, and then was asked to lead a caravan of tourists out of the park, as they were "too afraid to drive out." The next morning with visions of the bad road from Mammoth to Norris still in my mind I dedided to sleep in 25 minutes and head to Lamar. I took my time, hoping/waiting for some nice light to illuminate the clean snow covered scenes; but the light did not cooperate. I kept taking my time all the way to the Lamar confluence where I found out I was just a little late to experience the Lamar Canyon Wolves take down a Mule Deer Doe near the road. Oh well... I stuck around because I had seen a Grizzly Bear in the area and I had hopes that it would rush in and challange the Wolves for the carcass (and it did). The Grizzly won and the alpha male of the pack was left to just teasing and howling; but when no other Wolves came to his aid he gave up and let the bear eat in peace (except for the pesky Ravens that the Bear had to keep chasing off). The storm clouds caused a late sunrise in the valley; but they treated me to a nice landscape. The Bear eventually left and had a brief staring contest with a Coyote before crossing the creek and heading off. I spent over 14 hours on the carcass and only photographed for the first 3-4 hours; but I filled the day with great conversations and I only used 3 gallons of gas.

Back to Mammoth for the night and out early the following morning, so early that I was making first tracks from Norris to Canyon (and that is a scary drive in deep snow). I turned toward Hayden and thought that the it would be smooth sailing the rest of the way, because there was less snow on the ground. As I began to enter Hayden Valley I was greeted by a tree in the road. I cleared the snow out from around my tiers and inspected the tree, an off duty park employee shortly approached from the other direction and when we called in the tree we were told it could be a while before they could get out to clear it, so I decided to take action. The tree had started to crack when it hit the ground, so I figured a tow strap and my Subaru Outback might be able to get the job done. I was successful, all I had left to do was use my hatchet to clear a few limbs and I had a lane open for traffic, by that time I had an audience watching me work. I went through and found the driving easy through the Hayden Valley, especially after a plow came through going the other way. Unfortunately the road was closed at Pelican Creek, so I made a nice breakfast (instant oatmeal), and took the time to photograph the pair of Bald Eagles that were flying around. The day seemed uneventful after the hectic start and the great shooting from the day before; but I did make some nice images of a Grizzly at Marry Bay, some birds along Sedge Bay, the Hayden Sow with two, second year, cubs put on a nice show in bad light, an Eagle gave folks a nice look on a near perch, then the sunset looked great on a Morning Dove along Sedge Bay; but I had no idea how great the sunset would look over the snow and ice along Mary Bay. I had a friend get me a camping spot down by the lake, so I would have a shorter drive. (I still owe them money, as they disappeared the next day not to be seen the rest of my trip)

The next day was snowy, yet again; but those of us who braved the weather were treated with a tense meeting of two Grizzly Bears near Steamboat Point. The two Bears put on a show, whispered sweet nothings, and even played around. That was about it for the day, I went back to Mammoth to look around and try to get a message to a friend who was trapped in the Tower Campground thanks to the rock slide near Blacktail Drive.

I headed South early the next morning and the new coating of snow was lovely on the trees that burnt two years before. None of the Bears were out, and the Otter was way out on the lake, so I raced back at the report of a Black Wolf at Mary Bay. The Wolf was way out and it was snowing hard; but I had nothing better to do, so I waited. Everyone left, and I kept waiting... I decided to make a quick drive down along the trees, and was rewarded with this classic view of a black Wolf staring at me from the trees in heavy snowfall. "WOW! What luck," everyone said; but I was frustrated with that darn collar ruining what could have been a nice shot; but my editing ethic is against cloning things like that out, so it stays (I battled that one long and hard). I continued down Steamboat Point where I came across another Grizzly Bear; but the snow/fog/steam rolled in and made the bear almost invisible. As we had cell coverage I stayed in place and some friends headed back to Mary Bay to keep watch for the bear to reappear or the Wolf to show up. After and hour I decided I should make a lap to check and see if the Bear had dropped down in between; but it had not. When I returned to my post the Bear came down in front of me, so I made the call and they raced back to Steamboat Point; but now we had two bears in the heavy snow. The one Bear moved towards the thermal features as the weather broke, so we all positioned to photograph it, then unbeknownst to us the second Bear came very, very, near, so we needed to move to a more safe place. The Bear in the thermal feature kept posing, so we kept shooting until the ranger decided it was time to scare him back across the road (that was fun). The Bears played hide and seek (I don't think they were even trying). The weather closed in again, this time with corn snow then hail, so I decided to head north. The Ewes and Lambs were out in Gardiner Canyon, so I did a little shooting before driving back home to Billings.

It really was a great trip.

I took 4530 images, plus lots of video and a few time lapse sequences, and I was able to cut the images down to about 400 shots, they are online in the gallery. 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!

I made it easy on those of you who don't want to see all 400 images... the first 55 images or so are the "selects," looking through those will give you a great sense of how great the trip was.

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. I have some video footage and time lapse sequences that still needs editing, it will take me a while to find time to edit it.

Ask Dave, May 29th - Stay in Yellowstone

Ask Dave, May 29th
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... Yellowstone (A question I get asked multiple times a day, every day that I am in the park)
Where do you sleep when you are in the park?

Answer:
I stay in many different places.
My preference is to camp, as I am then free to change locations in the park without a major inconvenience. I don't mind camping in cold weather, so even winter camping is not out of the question. The only thing I don't like about camping is eventually you want/need a shower and sometimes it is nice to have power and TV on those long winter nights.
I will stay in hotels occasionally, typically when the nights are very long and cold, and the hotel rates are cheep. My hotel of choice is the Super 8 in Gardiner as they have fair (ish) rates, a breakfast that is early enough for photographers, and faster internet.
I also have a number of friends who live in Gardiner, and will sporadically stay with them, when they offer.
Lastly I will sleep in my car if I can't get a campsite or other option, typically I reserve car sleeping for when I need a little middle of the day siesta. (I do not overnight in my car inside the park, I head outside the park to designated areas for such things)

Ask Dave, May 22nd - Focus Calibration

Ask Dave, May 22nd
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... Karl
Are you use one of the products available through B&H (as well as other sources), or a different method to micro adjust your gear?

Answer:
I was going to try and make a video of me doing a micro-focus adjust; but I have been a little short on time over the last month.  When the heat of summer gets here maybe I'll find the time to make a video; but this will have to do for now.

Originally I had all of my gear physically calibrated by Canon Professional Services and they did a great job; but they don't do that anymore. In the past I used a homemade solution to test, and later to micro adjust my own gear.  Now I  have and use the Lens Align Mark II.  I am not 100% sure that it is worth the $79.95; but it is better than my old, cheap, solution.  

It is very important that you know how your gear performs and that you use every means available to dial things as near to perfection as possible. Find a way to correct front/back focusing problems, these days with most Canon and Nikon cameras offering micro-adjustment or AF fine tuning there is no excuse not to.

It is also a good way to see the sharpness of a lens. I was checking the micro adjust on my 5DII with my 500/4.0L IS a week ago and a friend was using a rental 500/4.5L, so we put that lens through the test too, and boy was it far off and soft. We dialed the lens in for his camera; but there was noting we could do about the softness :(

Yellowstone May 9th - 13th

A sow Grizzly Bear uses a log bridge to cross over the water on a warm May morning near Grizzly Lake trailhead in Yellowstone National Park. Captured with a Canon 7D with 500/4.0L IS in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of +1/3 at ISO200, f/7.1, and 1/400th 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). If you are the kind of person who would enjoy the play by play during my trips you should follow me on one of those social networks.

The spring semester at Rocky Mountain College is over, graduation has come and gone, and I managed to get all of the photos edited and online before Monday (my birthday). What does all of that mean? I was free to head to the park for the entire week. I left Billings before 4am on Monday morning and was inside the park just minutes after sunrise, well the time the sun rose, I could not see the sun as Monday and Tuesday were days filled with rain and snow. On the bright side, actually very cloudy side, the rain made for goos shooting light all day long. Unfortunately things in the park were hit or miss, and I seemed to be missing everything by a minute or two.

With luck not going my way I decided that I should make my own luck, and I spent the next few days focusing on birds, and I came home with over a thousand images of birds to edit. The park is filled with its spring/summer birds and they are in their finest plumage, making them spectacular to photograph. Generally I suggest photographing birds in the mid day when the light is far too harsh to photograph almost everything else in the park, and that is what I did (even on the cloudy/rainy days). Mountain Bluebirds, American Kestrel, Eared Grebe, and Harlequin Ducks spent the most time in front of my lens; but a Hairy Woodpecker, Common Merganser, Red-tailed Hawk, and Golden Eagle ended up making the cut too. Lots of other birds back in the park; but I found that many of the others were not in the most pleasing of environments to make images.

If you want to photograph the Harlequin Ducks head to LeHardy Rapids south of the Hayden Valley. There is lots of snow over the walkway, and the park service might close the area soon (for your safety): but in the meantime the birds are in close, and the rapids are running at a very pleasing pace. Take your longest lens and if you have a polarizer for it try to use it, a low ISO, and a narrow aperture to make some long exposure photographs of the birds when they are sitting still (1/2 - 1/15th of a second should work well). You will need a tripod, cable release, and cooperative birds; but if it all comes together you can make some nice images of the birds in the rapids with the water "blurring" by them. I would encourage you to also try some faster shots of the ducks as they fly back up the rapids. For the "flight" shots you will need a shutter speed of 1/800th (ish) or faster to stop the birds motion. You will also need to have your camera in continual (predictive) auto focus mode (AI SERVO in Canon AF-C for most other brands). Have fun and let your creativity run wild as the light/water/birds do what they will to present you with unique opportunities for images.

The Lamar Canyon Wolves were all around and making the occasional road crossing, and for those that were fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time I am sure they presented the opportunity for nice images, I was not fortunate this trip to catch a crossing; but I did see them numerous times over the five days.

The Lamar Valley and the area around Specimen Ridge has more bears around than I have ever seen in that area in the past. I was seeing 3-6 bears in the area each day, and at times up to three bear in an area at once, and then down the road a sow with her 2/3 year old cub feeding on the hillside. For those, like me, trying to photograph bears the area did not provide ample opportunities to photograph the Grizzly Bears at a pleasing distance. Other than the occasional crossing, normally happened very quickly, the bears were too far away to make pleasing images, especially later in the week when the blue sky and harsh midday sunlight created situations with high atmospheric distortion robbing images of their clarity/sharpness.

The Tower Junction area has always been "the place" for seeing and photographing Black Bears inside of Yellowstone, and this year is no exception; but the road to Tower Fall is still not open, so most folks choose not to explore the area. As I reported from my last trip the road had a number of "big" slides come down between Calcite Springs Overlook and Tower Fall. The Park Services cleared those slides and repaired the road; but the rain from Sunday/Monday/Tuesday caused more slides to come through and the road was not able to be opened on Friday as planned. I and a few others chose to hike the road and many of us were rewarded with the chance to photograph a few different Black Bear in the area, I also spent some time at Rainy Lake photographing an Eared Grebe in the green waters of the lake.

Wednesday morning promised a break in the storms sometime in the morning, so I was out early with high hopes that the breaking storm might provide a dramatic sunrise, and it delivered. The ponds the fill the area north of Specimen Ridge make for great reflecting pools of the Absoraka Mountains to the Northeast, and the sun also rises from behind those very same mountains. As I ran around trying to find that perfect spot to capture the sunrise car after car drove right by on their quest to see bears and wolves in the Lamar Valley... their loss. If there is a chance of a break before or after a storm, and you have any desire to create landscape images, make sure that you go out to see what kind of magical light you might be able to find.

With May comes more visitors to the park, and early May tends to bring out the "usual" crowd of photographer, and most of us have become friends over the years, so breaks between shooting have a tendency to get filled with lots of great conversations. Occasionally those conversations will yield information that leads us to our next subject to photograph. I was lead to the Madison Campground with the promise of pine martin. I knew that a pine martin had been feed by guides in one of the warming huts over the long snowy winter; but I had assumed it would have left the area when those that were (illegally and inappropriately) feeding it quit. With reports of "recent" sighting I spent an evening and a morning in the area with the hope of getting lucky enough to cross the Pine Martin off of my list of subject that I still need to photograph in the park. I had no luck, and all the first had reports I could track down had the pine matins out the area a weak before. Oh well, some other time.

Where does the bear photograph that is at the top of this report come in? Hold your horses... I am getting there. A few days in a row a bear had been putting on a show near the road, and even crossing a few times each day. Most of the "regular" visitors believe that the bear is a 5/6 year old sow know as the Porcupine Grizzly. She got the name after she spent a number of days in view with a number of porcupine quills in her, not last year; but the year before. From the markings on the bear most of us are "sure" that it is her, sadly many of us expected that she would have cubs this year; but she did not. The first two days I only spent a small amount of time with the sow, as her surrounding were less than ideal and the light was down right bad; but on the third day things looked more promising. I spent probably 5 hours with her, and plenty of other park visitors, as she put on a clinic on how to dig out ground squirrels. During the process she worked around in good light and scenes, and near the end of here public show she crossed the water on a log bridge, and gave me the opportunity for the above image. It was myself and four friends who were still around to see her use the "bridge."

My next trip will come soon; but never soon enough. If I had not had a pair of presentations to make in Billings for the Photographic Institute of the Yellowstone's annual EXPO on Saturday I would still be in the park; but maybe I'll even be able to slip away as soon as 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

p.s. I have some video footage that still needs editing, it will take me a while to find time to edit it. (Honestly I need an editor/friend who wants an editing project to go to town with two plus years of 1080P video footage from YNP)

Ask Dave, May 6th - Backcountry Photography

Ask Dave, May 15th
'Ask Dave' week Thirteen… I get tons of questions each week, I respond as quickly as possible, and this is week number thirteen of answering them here too. If you have questions you can email me at Learn@DaveShumway.com.

Question:
From... Sorry I can't remember your name.
How many of your "real good" images from Yellowstone come from "backcountry" spots.

Answer:
My answer was not a good one; but here is what I had to say:
"I would guess that a normal trip has 10-20 real 'select' or 'keeper' images, lots of other fine images that I can use for stock; but 10-20 'real keepers.' Of those 10-20 less than one is typically from a backcountry camping trip. When I am really in the backcountry I am there for the experience, less emphasis is on photography for those trips; but I still always bring a camera. That said many consider 'backcountry' to be anytime that one leaves the roads or developed areas by more than 100-250 yards and I would say that 5-10 of the 10-20 'keeper' images come from more than 100 yards from the roads (in some months it is more like 15 of 20)."

I felt bad about my answer; but luckily for me I had a chance to ask a real expert on Yellowstone/Photography/Backcountry (Tom Murphy) the same question. I presented for the Photographic Institute of the Yellowstone on Saturday and Tom Murphy was the keynote speaker, so I took the chance to ask him the same question, and his answer was very similar to mine. "Well... my overnight trips really are more about getting from place to place and I don't get to spend the time needed to shoot really good images (he gave some examples); but most of my images come from more than 100 yards from the roads. I would say 75-90% of the images in those books (referring to his YNP books) were made away from the road; but not from overnight trips." (That is my best summary of his response, I did not record it)

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

Ask Dave, May 6th - PIY EXPO

Ask Dave, May 6th
'Ask Dave' week twelve… I get tons of questions each week, I respond as quickly as possible, and this is week number twelve of answering them here too. If you have questions you can email me at Learn@DaveShumway.com.

Question:
From Mike... (A plug for PIY)
What should I do next weekend? (May 13th - 15th, 2011)

Answer:
Everyone should head to Billings for the annual EXPO hosted by the Photographic Institute of the Yellowstone.
All of the details are on their site.

I'll be in attendance Saturday, not only because I am leading a pair of the breakouts; but also because you can't miss a chance to listen to Tom Murphy speak about his 30 year career.

p.s. this year's EXPO will be held on the Rocky Mountain College Campus, I wonder how that happened ;)

p.s.s. before and after the EXPO folks should spend all the time they can in Yellowstone National Park (I know I will)

Yellowstone & Grand Teton May 12th & 13th, 2007

Canon 20D with 70-200/4.0L at 70mm, set in aperture priority mode at f/8.0, ISO400, and 1/125th of a second. Exposure bias of -1/3, shot from a cheep tripod.
PHOTOS NOW ONLINE (again)

As I continue the process of editing all of my images again I am continually amazed at what a difference 4 years makes in the world of photo editing. I also keep reminding myself how foolish I was to ever shoot JPG images, luckily by this point I was smart enough to shoot my landscapes in RAW. My suggestion to you is to always shoot RAW, and take a second (or third) look at your older images.

Happy shooting

Yellowstone May 22nd - 28th

PHOTOS NOW ONLINE

I spent the bulk of my weeklong trip to Yellowstone with the "new Rosie" and her cub of the year.

I also spent 10-15 hours waiting fruitlessly watching for weasels and another 10 hours or so scouting out Badger dens (with no real luck).

I kept the play by play going via my Twitter & Facebook, so I won't repeat it all here.

The photos really do a great job of telling the story. Add to it 55 different species of birds lots of rain, snow, sleet, and countless hours with friends.

I should be heading back to the park in a few days to play with my brand new 24mm T/S.

I am working on adding some video of the epic battle that I was fortunate enough to witness between the "new Rosie," here cub of the year, and a local boar who wanted to kill the cub. The events did not yield any good photos or even any good video; but I think it may be worth sharing.

Enjoy

Yellowstone May 11th - 13th

PHOTOS ONLINE

My month of May was originally planed to be spent in the park; but a trip to Colorado interrupted that original plan.

The 11th was mostly a bust; other than lost of birds.
The 12th was spent entirely devoted to a beautiful sow Grizzly with two adorable cubs of the year.
The 13th was spent with last years "Porcupine Grizzly" and waiting for a Long Tailed Weasel and the same sow with cubs of the year from the day before.

Then I was off to Colorado for a few days.

I hope to get back to the park for a week or so, as soon as I can get out of town.

Video will be added to the gallery as soon as I find time to edit it.

Yellowstone May 1st - 3rd

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A great way to kick off the month of May.

After my last trip; I really needed a good trip to Yellowstone. The wind was too severe in Billings to stay in town and spend the weekend biking and trying to photograph birds so I drove to the park Saturday morning. The weather was far from great with wind, rain, sleet, snow, corn snow, and more wind; but I knew that the overcast light would give me usable light all day long.

Saturday started with an uneventful drive from Billings to Mammoth to Old Faithful. Just before arriving I noticed something out in the field near Biscuit Basin the snow was coming down to hard to be sure; but I thought Wolf. Upon my return there were cars stopped and sure enough it was a collared grey colored Wolf. The light was harsh and backlighting the Wolf so I only took a few photos then just watched. The Wolf moved on and the snow started coming down again so I continued north. Around the Twin Lakes I came across two large Wolves (Quadrants I believe), a collared black and a beautiful un-collared grey. They provided me ample opportunity to photograph them as close distances (from my vehicle - properly parked). I moved ahead to let them move on in peace; but I went ahead and waited with the hope of more photographs as they continued on to me. By the time they reached me a train of cars moving and stopping on the road were with them; but I managed a few nice images when the Wolves left the road to escape the train of cars. I continued ahead waited and had a few more, very similar, encounters. The day ended with a Bear jam, caused by a park bus that decided to park on the road above Mammoth. Of to my sleeping bag for some sleep.

Sunday was very similar to Saturday as far as weather was concerned. I went out toward Cooke City for sunrise, and returned to Tower with no luck (I did snap a shot of a Bull Moose near Petrified). I then did the hike up the "closed to cars" road all they way above tower, nothing other than some birds. I headed out to Gardiner to gas up and buy some sandwich fixings. On my way back in to tower I spent some time with a Black bear near Phantom. Shot the Flicker nesting process, then at tower it was time for a nap. Rested it was time to hike up above Tower Falls and back again. On my return I was rewarded with a Black Bear who I spent the next 3 hours with. The time was special as I was the only one there and the Bear was quite relaxed, content simply eating grass. Headed down and off to camp at sunset.

Monday morning I was up and driving early with hope for a great last day. Not much going on all the way out to Cooke and back only a few Coyote shots to show for the drive. Near tower I ran into some friends and spent an hour chatting. Drove to Gibbons; but the road conditions were quickly deteriorating so I turned north again. Stopped in Swan Lake Flats to photograph some Sandhill Cranes. As things were slow I decided I should head home, that was until I came to the China Garden and noticed a handful of the regulars stopped on a kill... score the Canyons must be near, and they were. I spent the next 6+ hours photographing two of the Canyons and 4 Bald Eagles (two mature, one third year, and one second year).

I had a great time, and this trip erased the bitter taste from my last few slow trips :)

Oddly 35 birds again - Merlin, Ferruginous Hawk, Cassin's Finch, Grey-crowned Rosy-Finch, Northern Flicker, Clarks Nutcracker, Steller's Jay, Mountain Chickadee, Northern Pintail, Killdeer, BuffleHead, Ring-necked Duck, American Kestrel, American Coot, Mountain Bluebird, Green-winged Teal, Red-winged Blackbird, Canada Goose, Dark-eyed Junco, Common Merganser, Mallard, Common Goldeneye, Barrows Goldeneye, Magpie, Vesper Sparrow, Tree Swallow, American White Pelican, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Sandhill Crane, Great Blue Heron, Raven, Crow, Robin, and Golden Eagle. There were more I just am not a good birder.

Yellowstone, May 30th

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Work sent me down to Virginia City to do some shooting. The time in the old town was fun and I was able to produce the images we needed (better than expected). They are online here.

The real joy of the trip for me however was that after a long night on the 29th, followed by a long drive, I got to spend the morning in Yellowstone before heading back to Billings for some prior engagements.

The 29th/30th ended with my head hitting the pillow at 1:30 am. The alarm went off at 4:30 am, time to get into the park. By 5:15 am I had spotted a lone grey Wolf at Blacktail Ponds, he was shortly joined by a collared black Wolf. The two of them proceeded to pull a young Bison out of the pond, I have no clue how long he had been dead for. I sat in my car shooting from a bean bag while they went to worked on breakfast. For the first 15 minuets not a single car stopped :) Then the crowds began to amass as the sun filled the valley. As a bus pulled in I pulled out. Heading to check on the regular Great Grey Owl, who had already given his morning show. Came across a few black Bears, one of which was in a somewhat photogenic scene. I fired off a few bursts and headed on to the top of Dunraven pass to look for the Dusky Blue Grouse. Found two, that after a very short battle became one. Enjoyed some shooting of the victor then it was time to move on toward the East entrance. I gave the Fox den a short wait while I took a much need nap, no luck. Then it was back to Billings via Cody.

I will not complain about the extra driving that accompanied my short day trip to YNP. I went 140 miles more than I would have just doing the drive for work, and I got some nice images as a reward, well worth it in my book.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the images.

Yellowstone, May 21st - 26th

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The main round of photos are now online, there will be a few more landscapes to come later (HDRM possibly.)

With the long weekend, lengthened by my need to take some days off work before loosing vacation time, and the long late spring days I had plenty of time to enjoy the park. Unfortunately the sun and lack of clouds made this trip yet another trip about hiking rather than taking photographs; but I believe that I captured some keepers regardless.

I was also playing with a 400/2.8L IS so I had to put in some time simply testing/playing with the lens.

I took over 5k images so as you can image the play by play would fill a dozen post. Just know that I spent a large amount of time hiking, waiting for things to happen (badger den / fox den / coyote den), and shooting birds.

I am sorry for the delay on getting photos online. The day I got home from vacation work sent me down to Virginia City to shoot some theatre. The good news is that I was then allowed to make a morning swing through the park on Saturday (those photos to come soon).

As always, thanks for looking at my photos. Please visit my recent trips gallery to see all of the photos from this trip, while you are there give a thumbs up to your favorites and feel free to leave comment there too, with 5 stars.

Thanks and 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