Pictograph (Petroglyph) Canyon, March 23-25, 2012

Stars trail through the night sky above an unnamed slot side canyon off of Pictograph (Petroglyph) Canyon on the Montana and Wyoming boarder. Captured with a Canon 5D III and 17-40/4.0L in bulb mode at ISO100, f/7.1, and 7,254 seconds. The camera was mounted on a Gitzo 3540XLS and Arca-Swiss Z1sp ball head, a Calumet Pro Series Intervalometer.

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Two students accompanied me on a trip to Pictograph (Petroglyph) Canyon, a remote canyon located down a poor two track road. We had attempted this trip once before, but uncooperative weather forced us to make a second trip. The weather was significantly dryer and warmer this go around and the sky was clear enough to see and photograph the stars each night.

We lugged seven tripods, a six foot motorized timelapse dolly and roughly one hundred pounds of other camera and lighting gear in and out of the canyon multiple times, so that we could capture the beautiful scenes that we found before us. With the remote location of the canyon we chose to camp on the rim of the canyon, the better weather made for a significantly more pleasant camping experience for the students.

The fun toy for tis trip was my brand new 5DIII, I literally unboxed it moments before leaving for the trip. Oh I also had just picked up my new Ford F150. My main goal for the trip was to test out the internal HDR functions of the 5DIII as well as to take the opportunity to test out the new camera on some long exposures.

The internal HDR of the Canon 5DIII paired with my 6' Dynamic Perception Timelapse Dolly all but forced me to test out a +-3 stop HDR sunset timelapse in the canyon. The attempt showed that the internal HDR is good, but not perfect...take a look, the issues are very evident. I also placed a GoPro timelapse of the shooting process online, so you can watch that 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 the camera information with each image and have added full keywords to share just about anything you would want to know about the images.

p.s. I'll be sure to share the video if/when it is all finished.

p.p.s. The old BLM map I have calls the canyon "Pictograph Canyon" although it is filled with petroglyphs.

Pictograph (petroglyph) Canyon, Feb. 29 - March 2, 2012

Captured with a Canon 5D II and 17-40/4.0L in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of - 1/3 at ISO200, f/13, and 1/80 of a second. The camera was handheld.

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Three students accompanied me to Pictograph (petroglyph) Canyon, a remote canyon located on BLM land that requires visitors to drive in on very poor roads. We planned to spend three days shooting timelapse footage in and around the canyon, unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with our plans. I had a special lens sent in to help us get the shots we envisioned, and I only used it to take one photograph. We lugged seven tripods, a six foot motorized timelapse dolly and roughly one hundred pounds of other camera and lighting gear in and out of the canyon multiple times each day, as we were dancing with the weather.

With the remote location of the canyon we were forced to camp on the rim of the canyon; winter camping is nothing new for me, but none of the students had ever been winter camping. (They were all Montana boys...I guess we found out that Chicago boys are more "hard core")

I have edited very little of the video and timelapse footage that I shot on the trip, but I am pleased with the still photographs that I captured and have online. We intended to shoot no stills, but when unforecasted clouds and snow filled most of the three days we switched over to stills, so we would not come home empty handed. The moral of the story is...when mother nature does not cooperate, just keep shooting, and start planning your next trip.

Speaking on planning our next trip...three of us will be heading back to the canyon this weekend, assuming the weather and roads allow.

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.

p.s. I'll be sure to share the video if/when it is finished.

p.p.s. The old BLM map I have calls the canyon "Pictograph Canyon" although it is filled with petroglyphs.

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)

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

Sage-Grouse Lek, April 23rd & 24th

Created from 584 images each image shot with a Canon 5DII and 17-40/4.0L set manually to f/4.0, ISO1600, and 30 seconds. The RAW files were processed in Lightroom 3 then using action scripts they were stacked together in Photoshop CS5 to make this final image.

PHOTOS NOW ONLINE

I made the trip down to shoot these star trails and time lapses; but really so that the next morning I could photograph displaying Sage-Grouse on a massive Lek on some remote BLM land.

It was calm with perfectly clear sky. The half moon rose during the night and was straight overhead around sunrise, creating good condition (as far as solar/lunar phases go).

Before this trip I took time to record my answer to this weeks 'Ask Dave' and that blog post and video can be found here.

To the left: A male Sage-Grouse displays on a remote Lek near the MT/WY boarder. Captured with a Canon 7D and 500/4.0L IS + 1.4TC III set in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of +2/3 at f/7.1, ISO400, and 1/640th of a second. Mounted on a Gitzo 3540XLS and Induro GHB2 with custom long lens support. Photographed from within a ground blind.

My main point for shooting the star trails and time lapses was to test out some software and action scripts. YOU WANT TO CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO


Two male Sage-Grouse fight on a remote Lek near the MT/WY boarder. Captured with a Canon 7D and 500/4.0L IS + 1.4TC III set in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of +2/3 at f/7.1, ISO400, and 1/320th of a second. Mounted on a Gitzo 3540XLS and Induro GHB2 with custom long lens support. Photographed from within a ground blind.

Yellowstone, February 11th & 12th

A lone tree battles high winds on a snow covered hillside in Yellowstone National Park. Created with a Canon 7D and a 500/4.0L IS set in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of +2/3 to f/9, ISO 200, and 1/800th of a second. Shot from a beanbag.

PHOTOS NOW ONLINE

A trip where if things could go wrong they did. I had planned a full 4 day trip to Yellowstone, and heading into Friday morning everything looked great. When I went to leave, in time to arrive at the park before sunrise, I noticed that neither my car's iPod connector not my old iPod charger would charge my new iPhone 4, so I went back to bed to wait for Best Buy to open at 10am, telling myself "it is no big deal, I have 4 full days, a half day lost is not a problem." I found a charger that worked and was off and started to record my journey in the form of a time-lapse with my iPhone. I arrived at the park before 1pm and even had time to stop, hike to, and dig out my favorite winter camping place. Unfortunately my previous stake holes has thawed, filled in, and re-frozen and the ground was too frozen to drive in new stakes at that time; but I had no worries I would enjoy a hotel tonight (I had plenty of work to do and power/high speed internet make it easier) with the plan that with my tent site cleared of snow, sunny and 40° temps forecasted would help me stake down tomorrow. (a note: snow anchors would typically be my solution; but the snow was very dry and not deep enough to trust anchors, also the high winds forecasted would have made me fearful to leave the tent set with only weak snow anchors for the next three days). After all of that it was time to make a full park lap to see what I could see. Not much was going on, I ran into Bill, Peggy, Rene, Helene, and Max checking on the otters; but no luck. I continued on and stopped only to check empty fields of snow for signs of life. On my return I was fortunate to have the sun/clouds work to present an oportunity for the image above. As I left I ran into Bill, Peggy, Rene, Helene, and Max again this time they were trying, without luck, to photograph some Bohemian Waxwings. We, as usual did some chatting and I was surprised that none of them had heard about Canon's forthcoming 200-400/4.0L IS with 1.4 Extender, a new lens of envy for all of us. The sun set with little splendor; though my iPhone and a panorama app were able to make something of it. Off to the Super 8 for some work and a good nights rest.

I awoke early, grabbed a quick shower as it would be my last for a few days, and was on my way to breakfast and an early checkout. I found myself out well before sunrise (and most others), just as planned, because I wanted to shoot a time-lapse of my drive during sunrise. The app I was using for time-lapses has some issues and it delayed the start of my shooting because I could not turn off the flash, the app is also severely limiting on its exporting options of the high resolution video files; but fixes are promised. A fairly common morning ensued; bison in the road, large snow drifts blocking half of the road, a respectable elk resting roadside in the Lamar Canyon, a red fox using the road as the path of least resistance near Buffalo Ranch, coyotes working their way through the snow in pairs, and a relatively dull sunrise. As this was my first morning with two more to follow, and the promise of better lunar phases with them, I did not have much urge to force shots "I am going to let it happen naturally" I told myself. I did shoot a few of the fox (while rolling), and later a few of an injured coyote near Roosevelt Junction; but that was about it, and I was in no hurry. I then stopped for a quick bathroom break and while kicking the snow and ice out of my wheel wells I heard what sounded to be air seeping, no I must be crazy... I got in and drove a bit further when my tire pressure warning came on, I stopped and started to inspect more carefully at this point, that is when I noticed two "somethings" in my driver side rear tire "gosh darn it." I had only lost about a pound of pressure, so I decided I should keep an eye on it; but drive out to Gardiner to really inspect the situation. I got to town and had not lost any more measurable pressure; but the seeping continued, so it was time to weight my options and make a decision. I could put on my spare, not a real snow tire. I could try to plug the tire; but the objects were broken off and presented no real opportunity to remove them to attempt a plug. I could slime the tire and keep at my trip; but LORD only knows how that would go. Lastly I could pump the tire up a bit past full, and drive home slowly with slime and a spare ready to go if the situation worsened. I am not a car guy; but I did know that the objects were in the meat of the tire and did not pose a threat to tearing the tire apart, I also knew that my warrantee on these less than 9 month old tiers would take care of "roadside hazards." I took my time driving to Livingstone, and upon arrival checked everything... no loss of pressure, relative to my other tires, and the objects had not moved. I took my time driving home, and felt a little silly getting passed by every single vehicle on the road, "eyes forward and ignore them" I kept reminding myself. I got back to Billings, as there is no Sam's Club in Bozeman, and upon inspection they decided that the near 20k miles I have put on the tires in the last 8 months required that I replace all 4 tires "crud" I said. Lucky for me the warrantee covered such situations, to some extent, and my $600 tires only cost me $250 to get all 4 replaced with the same "top of the line" tires (for my Subaru), I hope this set lasts me at least a year ;)

It was then Saturday at 4pm, I was home in Billings, my YNP trip was basically over, and I was not really in the mood to drive back down to the park, so I call the trip officially finished.

During the trip I shot time-lapse footage of my drive to the park and of Saturday morning's drive in during sunrise, this is that video with the addition of music from Alexander Blu (via CC):


I only captured 60-70 images in total, and only 10 ended up online, so I hope to make it back to the park this month for a "makeup" trip, if I do, I will camp and be able to give camping each month of 2011 in Yellowstone a college try.

Enjoy, and happy shooting.

Yellowstone, January 15th & 16th

A red fox runs down a hill during a January snow storm in Yellowstone National Park. Created with a Canon 7D and a 500/4.0L IS set in aperture priority mode to f/5.6, ISO 200, and 1/400th of a second. Mounted on a Gitzo 3540XLS with an Induro GHB2 gimbal head.
PHOTOS NOW ONLINE

I made a trip to Yellowstone with the promise of mild temperatures and lots of snow, and the weathermen got it right. Saturday was a very normal day in the park, it was a two dog day with a few coyotes and a nice red fox encounter. The fox encounter produced the above image, thanks to a Livingston based professional photographer who was leading a group trip in the park. I was out photographing the fox when the group approached, the fox moved to the top of the hill and bedded down. The photographer and most of his group pursued the fox, and in doing so scared it down the hill, rapidly, in front of my lens. Thanks T Murphy... wait that was to obvious... Tom M ;)

Saturday midday also presented a chance for me to test out my new 70-200/2.8L IS II with my new 2.0 TC III on a Ruffed Grouse, here is my report of the test results.

I camped Saturday night, after moving a few feet of snow to set up my tent, that made for some cool images, I think.

Day two, Sunday, was a three dog day before ten a.m. That made for a fun start, even though I took very few photos. The heavy snow came in strong and pushed most folks out of the park. I had some pleasant shooting with a coyote in the snow, and then I decided to make another run through Lamar; but that was close to being a mistake. The snow was heavy and the flat light made visibility very poor in the valley, I wear sunglasses even when the snow is falling so that my vision stays sharp and true. Unfortunately there was gentleman driving what looked like a rental SUV who was not wearing sunglasses and seemed to not be able to see the road. I pulled to the far edge of the road, tires actually off of the pavement, my mirror hit the orange road marker. I slowed to a roll, flashed my brights as he approached, and he still kept coming right down the middle of the road. I honked and he swerved over at the last moment. My Subaru with headlights, floodlights, and big black box on top is not hard to see; but snow blindness and near white out conditions can be a sun-of-a-gun. After that I decided that I should leave the valley, not for fear of myself (I could see just fine); but of others. I know that sounds elitist; but I take precautions that many others don't, I also have a little more experience driving in "bad" conditions than some of the parks visitors. Knock on wood. Oddly the visibility around the time of that incident was not the worst of the afternoon, as there were other times when only one road marker out was visible. I pulled into the next pull out to calm my nerves, and at that time I took off my glasses to see what he must have seen, and it was very little. I left the valley and headed towards Gardiner to check weather forecasts for Monday. The forecast called for about a foot of snow in Cooke City with afternoon and night accumulation combined, snow all day Monday, and freezing rain for a Monday night drive back to Billings, so I headed home a day early. From initial park reports all that I missed was the Lamar pack out on a fresh kill, beyond good photo distance.

I hope you enjoy the photos, and wish you happy shooting.

p.s. For those who like wolf dot viewing I shot video of the 7 Lamars on "Dead Puppy." That footage will be online soon.

Yellowstone, November 7th

Closing Weekend...

Canon 5DII with 70-200/2.8L IS II set in Aperture priority mode at f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/320th of a second. Exposure Bias of +1 shot handheld w/2 stop GND filter (I think).
PHOTOS ONLINE HERE

I almost stayed home this year for closing weekend. I had a football game to photograph on Saturday, plus the lunar charts and weather did not point to anything spectacular in Yellowstone; but winter, with only one park road, tends to be very long, so I made the day trip down for the last full day.

Being completely honest the things that I was able to see; but not photograph, were actually more exciting than what I did photograph. Shortly after sunrise I had the privilege of seeing a Short Tailed Weasel halfway transitioned to its white, Ermine, coat. A while later I spent about a half an hour with a Great Grey Owl, that seemed to be a master at picking backlit perches a little too distant, then towards the end of the day I had a very nice Rough-legged Hawk fly overhead.

I did manage to photograph some Trumpeter Swans flying across the Yellowstone Lake with a storm rolling over the mountains in the background. A trio of Coyotes spent about a half hour working between the road and the Yellowstone River, and a group of Bison walked through a nice late fall scene as the sun was about to set.

Another great year in the park, now let the snow fall and the Wolves take over the Northern Valleys :)

Make the jump to go through the online gallery, if you decide to take a look around I would appreciate any comments/criticisms or even just a quick thumbs up to your favorites.

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

Yellowstone October 9th & 10th

PHOTOS NOW ONLINE
"WOW! This is Yellowstone, why have I lived here 6 years and never visited before?"
"I could not imagine a better visit to the park."
"I see why you love this place, and how it could never get old."
Those are just some of the things said by students after this great little two day trip to paradise, the granddaddy of all national parks: Yellowstone National Park.

We left Billings, Mont. and the campus of Rocky Mountain College a little before 5:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 9. Due to nearly nine inches of snowfall on the Beartooth Pass the evening before we had to take the "long" drive to the Park's north entrance in Gardiner via I-90 and Livingston. Arriving at the park to a very cloudy 8:00 a.m. start we got to work on the point of the trip, taking photographs.

We headed south all the way out to West Yellowstone for lunch with only a few photo stops along the way (Nice light on Swan Lake, Bison, Chocolate springs, Elk, etc.). After a quick lunch we were headed back in and south to Castle Geyser, but progress was slow with stops to shoot a Bald Eagle, Trumpeter Swan, Great Blue Heron, more Elk, and autumn vistas.

This was our second consecutive class trip.

We arrived to Castle Geyser blasting off and then spent some time spent shooting around the area. At this point we needed to head back toward Gardiner as the general consensus was that we wanted to spend some time in the boiling river, but the park had better plans for us.

As we drove north we had the pleasure of sighting a Grizzly relatively near the road and were able to photograph it for some time before it crossed the Gibbons River and headed up the opposite hillside. At this point the students were more than OK with not making it to the boiling river, and their "great" trip had begun. The day finished off with a sunset shoot atop the upper terraces, then off to the Super 8 to get checked in, then K-Bar for some great pizza and conversation.

I was the "bad guy" who ordered 5:15 a.m. wake-up calls for every room so we could have breakfast at 6:00 a.m. and be on the road at 6:25 a.m. With Moose and Black Bears on the top of my students list we were off for the drive to Petrified Tree, with no luck on Moose nor great color at sunrise. I was starting to think that the Grizzly was going to be our "great encounter" for the trip.

We drove through to the Bison Ranch for some colorful cottonwoods with the meandering streams and a few Bison. A carcass from the previous day occupied many watchers, but there was no wildlife activity yet, so we headed over to Slough Creek to see what we could find. There was a nice heard of Bison along the creek. From there it was over the Dunraven Pass with stops for Bighorn Sheep and the decision not to spend time with the Tower Store Black Bear.

We drove over the pass, through the clouds, with stops for only a few landscapes. We hit the canyon and a quick check for Great Grey Owls, still driving south. We heard reports of a Grizzly Sow with cubs and were still hopeful that we might have something else exciting, but none of us were expecting what came next.

“Stop, grab the pullout,” was my radio call, at Otter Creek. There were a few people stopped and looking down... my excitement grew. "Yes, I can give them some Otter shooting" was racing through my mind, but the Park had an even bigger treat for all of us.

The Canyon Pack Grey was bedded down some 40 yards from the road, and Park staff was allowing folks to photograph from the road’s edge. The students scored something that few get to experience, a relaxed wolf very near the road. I had no idea what was about to happen next. After about 45 minutes of photographing every head lift the students were about ready to go, but we stayed just long enough for the Wolf to get up and make his way towards the two nearby Bison, a bull and a cow. The bull’s attempts to breed the cow met with a collapse from her. It became obvious that the cow was injured and weakened and that the Wolf had special plans for her.

The Wolf began to approach the Bison pretending to have little interest in them, but then would charge and a nip, to be met with a kick and the need for retreat as the bull was in violent pursuit of the lone Wolf.

All present were snapping away as the Wolf eluded the bull on each of its charges. After a few rounds of this the Bull appeared to give up defending the cow and the cow was left to defend herself, which for the next hour she successfully did. At this point the action was about 100 yards away and most of my students were ready to go as their lenses, even those borrowing my 70-200s with TCs and my 400, just didn’t have the power to capture shots, as they would like. We waited for a chance to get our blocked-out vehicles out of the pullout and then we were off toward Mud Volcano, a quick bathroom break and snack stop.

Then we drove north over Dunraven toward home. We made a few scenic stops, then a stop to shoot a beautifully perched Bald Eagle near the road, which led to another Eagle approaching, and a quick grappling display. Then we were off again. Down to Tower where we decided to pass by the "boring" distant Black Bear, then off to Mammoth with only a stop around Phantom Lake to photograph a mousing Coyote. After that we were in homeward bound mode and only stopped for gas and dinner as we made our way back to Rocky Mountain College.

I love my job and absolutely love being in a position to take art students down to Yellowstone each semester. I am able to take students from India, Sweden, Florida, Washington and everywhere in between to the world’s first and, in my opinion, best national park for an experience they will never forget.

Once in a while we have experiences that few ever get the privilege of having and this trip was one of those very special trips where the Park provided an experience beyond the students’ wildest dreams.

Before leaving for the Park, one student had Wolves on the mind. I kept telling her that with only 75 Wolves in the park I could not promise her anything, but that we would try our best to at least see a Wolf, even if it was only through binoculars. If you could have seen the smile on her face when the beautiful Grey Wolf stood up and looked around, you would appreciate why I love taking students to our "local" paradise.

Rocky Mountain College is a great place to attend college and anyone in my course, ART247 Digital Nature Photography, or Mark Moaks course, ART243 Digital Photography, would tell you that the ability to make trips to YNP on any given weekend is a great perk to attending this great school. Both of our trips this fall were a blast, filled with learning and amazing encounters with nature. (Our September trip is online here)

Most of my photographs 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!


P.S. If, like one of my students you have been in Montana for years and have never been to the Park, first shame on you. Second, plan a trip ASAP. You will not regret it. If you have questions or need help planning there are tons of resources and I am always willing to answer questions via email. I am finishing off my 4th year for making at least one Yellowstone trip a month, every month of the year, and am more than willing to share information about the park.

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.

Yellowstone June 27th

PHOTOS NOW ONLINE

I made a quick day trip over the Beartooth Pass into Yellowstone to spend the day attempting to photograph the Trout Lake Otters; but they were a but. I did however have some luck with Mountain Goats on the pass.

Enjoy

Yellowstone, August 1st - 2nd

PHOTOS ONLINE

The flowers are still going strong, thinner this year than last.
The bears are into summer patterns.
The Elk and Mule Deer are getting nice racks and are still easy to find in their bachelor groups.

The short two day trip was a nice break from Billings. I wanted to give the flowers one last try; but because they were a bit thin I did not shoot flowers as a primary subject, however they make a great addition to photographing other animals. Oh well... next year

I had a 50D break on top of the Beartooth Pass. Under a year and the lens mount quit locking down. Back to Canon tomorrow and it should be back up and running soon enough to get another trip or two before the 60D comes. That is why I always bring a trusty 20D along when I head out shooting. I wish I had just brought one of my other 40/50D's

There was a bachelor group of about a dozen Mule Deer bucks three of them were quite nice all hanging out in the Elk creek area.

Everything else seemed fairly on par to last year.

I can not wait for fall to come.


As for the Cougar, it was shot in the northern part of the park between Mammoth and Tower. I saw it while driving, stopped in a pullout as quickly as possible, and snapped a few photographs before it disappeared into the trees. I was so glad that I had the the 5DII with 300/2.8L IS + 1.4TC II ready to go at ISO800 and set to f/4.0 the shutter speed was only 1/125th. The entire thing happened in a matter of seconds. I will say that those who do not drive with a camera handy will miss their chance at those brief glimpses of rare YNP specials.

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. :)

Yellowstone, June 27th - 28th

PHOTOS ONLINE

So I simply had to make a quick trip down to the park for the Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarki) spawning. And was hoping for a few Otters too.

I was quite happy with how day one went and almost went home after day one; but I am so glad that I stuck it out and shot a second day, as it became an even better day.

The two day list is:
American Dipper
American Kestrel
Badger
Bison
Brewers Blackbird
Brown Headed Cowbird
Cliff Swallow
Common Merganser
Coyote
Cutthroat Trout
Elk
European Starling
Grey Jay
Horned Lark
Magpie
Mallard
Marmot
Mule Deer
Osprey
Otter
Pika
Pronghorn
Raven
Red tailed hawk
Red Winged Blackbird
Robbin
Sandhill crane
Steller's Jay
Tree swallow
Uinta Ground Squirrel
Western Square-dotted Blue Butterfly
Wild turkey
Wolf (dot's)
Yellow-rumped Warbler
(Sorry for spelling errors, this list is kept on my iPod Touch)

Now if normally you don't head over to my full gallery, this is one trip that you will not want to pass by. There are some 400+ images that made the grade from this trip. Take the time to look, even if you just play it as a slideshow.

I met some great folks from all over the US, like I do most every trip, and actually did not mind the sun and warm weather (though clouds would of been nice for the Otters).

The 5DII worked great in YNP and I have some video that I will try to edit over the next few weeks and get online from this trip.

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 comments there too, with 5 stars. I ask this not to have folks boost my ego, simply to help my images get more play on SmugMug. And so you can enjoy more images of YNP... Thanks.

Total trip was 429.5 miles and my Outback averaged 27.3 mpg.

Yellowstone, June 20th - 22nd

PHOTOS NOW ONLINE

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

I figured why not spend the last day of spring and the first days of summer in YNP, with the time of year comes very long days so I had plenty of time to enjoy the park. The addition of clouds and rain kept the weather cool and the crowds down. For the first time in a long time I really did enjoy driving the park and looking not for things to photograph; but for great mental images to save. I told myself that this summer my trips would be focused on filling in holes in the images that I have captured in the park, and this trip was no exception.

I did enjoy the new iPhone 3.0 software on my iPod touch and kept a decent list of everything that I saw from leaving Billings to returning 3 days later.

Here is the trip list, with some bird species that I saw not listed (due to my poor ID skills):

American Robin
American White Pelican
Bald Eagle
Bighorn Sheep
Bison
Black Bear
Blue Grouse (Dusky)
Blue-winged Teal
Canada Goose
Chipmunck
Common Merganser
Coyote
Douglas squirrel
Elk
European starling
Grizzly Bear
Gulls (island full)
Horned lark
Lesser Scaup
Magpie
Mallard
Marmot
Moose
Mountain bluebird
Mourning dove
Mule deer
Osprey
Pheasant
Pika
Pronghorn Antelope
Raven
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-winged Blackbird
Red-tailed hawk
Ruddy Duck
Sandhill Crane
Steller's Jay
Uenta ground squirrel
Western Grebe
Wilson's Snipe
Wolf

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 comments there too, with 5 stars. I ask this not to have folks boost my ego, simply to help my images get more play on SmugMug. And so you can enjoy more images of YNP... Thanks.

Total trip was 917.2 miles and my Outback averaged 28.5 mpg (So much better than my Blazer ever did).

Yellowstone, May 30th

PHOTOS ONLINE

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

PHOTOS ONLINE
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.