YA Wk2 D4-4

This movie requires Flash Player 9

And just as quickly as the storm comes in….

What I’m doing to make the contrast pop is 1st, shooting in Vivid and then underexposing -.05. And that’s it.
Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film

YA Wk2 D4-3

This movie requires Flash Player 9

And just as quickly as the storm comes in….

The storm blows out but the crusties remain. And how you ask am I getting the contrast I am in camera? You’ll have to read the next blog….

Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film

YA Wk2 D4-2

I’m brutal to my group! With 20+mph winds, snow blowing horizontally, I take them out to some amazing winter photography! The challenge as I see it is to transport you who is sitting warm inside to walking with those Bison outside. How do you do that?

There is a couple of things. The first is the color temp, don’t warm it up. Let the “blue” of the mismatch of kelvin and AWB give the image a blue color cast. Why would you want blue? Blue is a color that often is associated with cold and in this situation, I want you to feel that cold.

Next there is the wind, there is no setting in the camera or post that makes the wind hit you in the face. So then we can imply wind and let the mind fill in the blanks. In this case, the snow is blowing horizontally so by using a slow shutter speed, we can blur that blowing snow. How slow a shutter speed? That really depends on the wind and in this case, I was down to 1/45. But you can only see the wind blowing where in the photo?

You can only see the white snow blowing in front of something dark, like the Bison itself. To finish this whole thing off, I think you have to capture a posture in the critter that we might interrupt and misery. I feel this bottom photo does that best with the head down gesture brings that out. Hoopefully the photos give you a slight chill.

Photos captured D3s, 200-400VR2 (handheld) on Lexar UDMA digital film

YA Wk2 D4-1

This movie requires Flash Player 9

The magic that is Yellowstone in winter returned and if all its glory! The 6-8″ of fresh snow greeted us as we were the first into the park (which we always are) and some drifts too big for us to go directly through. With the wind chill, we were down to around -14. This combo made for a killer day of finding and photographing crusties. What are crusties?

This movie requires Flash Player 9

Crusites are my own nickname for Bison caked with ice and snow. Some see this and are amazed that a fur barer could have snow caked on them. But between body fat and the fur, very little heat escapes so the snow can stick. The one key ingredient to make this work though is some moisture and that’s where the steam from the thermals comes into play. In Yellowstone in the winter when the conditions are right, it’s easy to find crusties. This duo were literally right on the road. We simply crept up on them with the snowcoach doors open and shot a few clicks without leaving our seats. When you have this kind of opportunity, it’s time to do eyeball photography. It was a great start to a great day of crusty photography!

Photo captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

YA Wk2 D3-4

We had heard about the fishing Coyotes but had yet to see them actually in action. We left the Bison in the blizzard, sun was history when we came across this loan animal out in the Madison River. Does he look miserable or what?

We never saw him catch a fish but it wasn’t because of a lack of trying or camouflage. Look all that snow that’s pilled up on him from the storm, yikes! Winter is back in the park and instantly the photo opps are jumping out. I can’t wait for tomorrow!

Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 (HSC) on Lexar UDMA digital film

YA Wk2 D3-3

The sun had officially set, the storm announced with the Winter Warning had set in and we were out in it shooting. Yeah, that’s Yellowstone winter shooting. We’ve got a great group this week who didn’t hesitate for a heartbeat when I asked if there were up to standing in the blowing snow to photograph these Bison getting piled on. I just love this photo, I love the gesture you can read into the attitude of the two bulls standing in the blizzard. What a moment!

Photo captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 w/TC-17e

Simple Click – Yeah Baby, Winter is Back!

We ate lunch at my favorite spot in Hayden Valley and watched winter return!

YA Wk2 D3-2

For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been sharing with our Adventurers here the beauty of AWB A3. It makes a difference photographing mammals in snow. Today, Jake and one of those “what if” moments I so often write about and he followed it. It was a good one, something that I knew but never tried, until today.

Where A3 warms up AWB, B3 cools it down and if you’re photographing the frozen spray at Lower Yellowstone Falls, blue is a good thing. So B3 it is….

Then bring that image into post and do a little finishing with ACR and you’ve got an image. I love sharing field concepts with Jake and then them working in the end. And his thinking of this, following through with it and sharing it with the group was the best thing yet. It was a grand morning!

Photo captured by D3x, 70-200VR2 w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film

YA Wk2 D3-1

The morning started with gorgeous light rising on a small group of cow Rocky Mtn Elk. After a successful stalk, we were able to make some clicks but as you can see….

they were sidelit. Now that’s not so bad but it doesn’t do a good job highlighting the frost from the morning.

Go from sidelighting to frontlighting and the magic comes to life. Notice how changing the lighting changes the look of the pelt. Light is everything!

Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

YA Wk2 D2-3

Perfect end to a great day, even if the weather “sucked” IMHO for a winter day in Yellowstone. But, any bad day in Yellowstone beats a great day in the city anytime! This lone Bison heading up the hill with its shadow long is a favorite image of mine.

Photo captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

YA Wk2 D2-2

The weather went from bad to horrible so we headed up to Upper Geyser Basin to see what was happening. What do I mean the weather went to crap? Look at the skies….BLUE! I hate bald skies but when you want to photograph steam, they do have some benefit to your photography.

Since it was up to 39 degrees, it was too warm for anything other then geysers. This is Castle Geyser and other then darkening the sky in ACR with the blue slider, it’s straight from the camera.

I have to be honest, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen and photographed Old Faithful so to make a new shot is a challenge. The one hard thing about the photo is the fact you just don’t know what the old girl will do until it blows. How high, the direction of the steam are highly variable. So what I decided to do was stand where I had the best foreground, go B&W in post and click. I was pretty happy with the eruption as the wind took the steam back and to the right leaving the actual eruption up front and white. Perfect for a B&W image.

Photo captured by D3x, 14-24AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

YA Wk2 D2-1

I guess mother nature celebrates Valentine’s Day the day after we do. We’re out on the Madison as the sun rose of a small herd of Bison. It’s wasn’t very cold so we had no crusties but we did have some great looking critters so we spent some time with the herd. Put the time in and more often then not, you are rewarded!

Now this is not the kind of reward most folks have in mind, but it’s what we handed. Spring is a long ways off but not to this pair. They spent a good 20 plus minutes doing the “Bison Shaffle” and then in a couple of second, the love was over. It was a great start to the day!

Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film

YA Wk2 D1-3

This movie requires Flash Player 9

For those of you who saw the video, I didn’t want you to think we don’t do the same think in the field. Work it doggie, work it….

This movie requires Flash Player 9

That’s it, give me more cheek, more cheek….

This movie requires Flash Player 9

Perfect, tilt the head and give me the cheek…..

This movie requires Flash Player 9

Alright, I don’t think this is your best side but we’ll do it for a change. Great…it’s a wrap!

Photos captured D3x, 200-400VR (handheld 1/20) on Lexar UDMA digital film

YA Wk2 D1-2

Then….the sun creeped over the ridge line and lit up the hoar frost on the pines across the river. OMG, it was gorgeous! I instantly grabbed the 200-400, zoomed to 400mm and made the clicks. Now the highlight bouncing off the water bothered me at first but it’s not driving me as nuts now.

It was amazing to me how within heartbeats the color and mood of the light changed as the sun rose over the ridge. Why in the world did I even question the wisdom of doing back to back weeks in Yellowstone? All it takes is an open eye, mind and heart and the images come right up and smack you in the face! I can’t wait for tomorrow to come and see what the old girl will offer up to our lenses!

YA Wk2 D1-1

Let’s put the cards on the table. I wasn’t sure doing this back to back Yellowstone Adv would work for Moose. Especially after just having a killer week with some amazing photography. Looking at the weather forecast for the day and seeing the warm temps, I was sweating this out. Would there be “new” subjects or “improved” subjects enough to keep my enthusiasm for shooting up high enough not only for myself, but this great group of shooters I have with us this week. I should have known the old lady would put on a show and that all I had to do was show up!

This movie requires Flash Player 9

My Hayne at sunrise was simply, gorgeous! There was nothing to do by click, what you’re see above is right out of the camera. AWB, -1/2, Vivid f/8 and click. FWIW, we were at this exact same location last Monday and we never even photographed Mt Hayne. Though it was 7 degrees, it was still cold enough for the magic to happen.

And when you turned west (looking south here), the Madison River was putting on a show of its own. The steam, sunrise, snow are all working together to make the image come to life. But this is nothing…check out the next posting!

Photos captured by D3x, 14-24AFS / 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

And Those I Like the Best?

At this point, I’ve gone through all my images from our first week in Yellowstone (which was great BTW) and picked out those I personally like the best and finished them in post. Of those 100+ images, narrowed it down to 15 the images that bring back the week and put a smile on my face. “Favorite” images I think should be those that put a smile in your heart. That doesn’t mean they are the greatest photographs, but simply those that bring back the memories of that moment. That’s what you have here. How were they finished” You have everything thing from straight out of the camera (yeah, that is permitted) to images finished with just ACR or with that with Nik Glamour Glow, Tonal Contrast or Silver Efex or a combination there off added to the mix. I never spent more then two minutes with finishing any given image. Enjoy and if I’m lucky, an image or two will put a smile in your heart!

It’s all in the Steam!

Had a few folks email asking what I meant when I said “steam” makes the shot and I crank a whole bunch to get the shot. Here’s a simple series of just five images taken with the D3x at 1.8FPS over a span of perhaps 10sec. You’ll see that the images changes slightly with each click. The last image is my favorite. Why? It’s the ratio of lights and darks, information and lack there of that makes it a favorite. There is no recipe for that which is why I shoot the burst (if you call shooting at 1.8FPS shooting a burst). The small nuisances of steam here and steam not there happen too fast at least for my eye to see it, squeeze the shutter off and capture it. I see the general pattern forming which is what starts the firing sequence and I see it ending which stops the firing. But I can’t see “the” image fast enough to make the photo with one click. It’s all in the steam.

Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

5min & Snow Make Magic Happen!

I do love watching and photographing Bison. Next to Grizzly Bear, they are probably my largest file. Spring when the calves are born and winter are my favorite times with them. In my mind though, the winter works only when it looks like winter which I think takes more then the white stuff on the ground. It takes some knowledge and some luck.

Living in the Sierra where we can watch snow storms rolls gives one some insight about coming storms. So there we are cruising through lower geyser basin when we come up to a good lookin herd close to the road and more importantly, frontlit. Even more importantly is the storm I see behind the herd, real dark clouds coming our way. Since the herd was “bare” that depending storm is the only reason we stopped.

And it stormed! Big, beautiful flakes fell and at times obliterated the herd. We didn’t run for cover but rather, kept on shooting. There were some marvelous photos taken in this “bad” weather. Some of the best photography is in the worst weather!

The snow flurry lasted perhaps 20min top and then blew out. The storm didn’t phase the Bison, didn’t phase the photographers but most certainly improved the photography. Knowing some biology, combining that with photography and adding in the magic of Mother Nature’s weather and you’ve got the recipe for great Yellowstone photography!

Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

Next Page »