Yellowstone September 25th & 26th

PHOTOS ONLINE HERE
Have you ever wondered where you/your kids/your friends/etc. should go to college? The answer is... Rocky Mountain College. Where else can you go with a cool professor to the worlds first and best National Park as part of an art course?

I always make sure that my courses include a trip to Yellowstone National Park, so that all of my students have an opportunity to visit paradise. We made a quick two day trip from Billings over the Beartooth Pass into the park. As usual we stayed in Gardiner had the world famous K-bar pizza for dinner on Saturday, and all had a great time learning/practicing the art of photography in the park.

Most of my pictures are actually of students photographing cool things; but I had to take a few for myself too.

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 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

Yellowstone & Grand Teton September 17th - 20th

PHOTOS NOW ONLINE
I think that these photos tell the full story all by themselves.

The fire was burning, I spent the first two days documenting the fire, then I headed down to the Tetons to avoid the smoke. Moose and Elk were just beginning to enter their prime, the bears are in full fall mode; but the weather is still hot and sunny like it is still summertime.

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.

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

Yellowstone August 6th - 8th

PHOTOS NOW ONLINE
To be completely honest this is the first of my trips to YNP (of almost 100 trips) that I would say felt like I was simply Phoning it in. The rainbow and Pika were the only real highlights, the weather was too hot and the crowds were too big. I did get some great hiking in, and still had a good time in the park; but I do feel that I let the images slide. Sorry.

That said I was lucky to spend a few hours with a very predictable Pika and upon my arrival into the park was greeted by a powerful sunset and a few rainbows to photograph all to myself from atop the Blacktail Plateau Drive.

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.

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

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.

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