Jan 30, 2019 | Landscape Photography
Uncle Tom / Upper Falls
captured by Z7 / Z24-70
There’s a “new” view in Yellowstone and it’s gorgeous! The Park Service for the last eighteen months worked on the Uncle Tom vista of Upper Yellowstone Falls and it’s really spectacular. This is the first winter it’s open and it was quite a treat to be one of the first to see it. This is a simple click taken with the Z7 / Z24-70. Not knowing the splendor of this vastly “improved” vista, I walked to the vista with no tripod. I wanted though to have some movement to the water. With the built-in stablizer in the Z7, I was able to shoot at 1/8 hand-held and capture some movement. If you head to the park, make sure to take in this new view of your wild heritage!
Jan 29, 2019 | Wildlife Photography
I have a thing for Ravens. In part, because Sharon has a “pet” Raven, Edgar, that I’ve written about many times in the past (and why I call all Ravens, Edgar). The other part is because they are so darn intelligent and do a marvelous job of making us humans look silly. This particular one was at Norris parking lot just waiting for the next stupid human. They are so smart, they watch the snowcoaches and snow machines for an open window or zipper (some can open zippers) and they can easily snatch a meal. Coming back from the Geyser Basin and not knowing Steamboat is about to erupt, I saw Edgar on-duty watch. I went into our coach (with its windows closed) and grabbed the Z6 / 180-400VR and literally walked right up to him and shot. The key was moving so I had as little sky coming through the trees and at the same time have darkness to show the falling snow. Edgar the entire time just kept looking out, totally ignoring me. Such a smart bird, just chillin!
Jan 25, 2019 | Landscape Photography
Steamboat Geyser in Yellowstone Nat’l Park up until eight months ago had a frequency of eruption of 50 years. In the past eight months, it’s erupted thirty-five times, the thirty-fifth time was 12:35MT today! At 10:18 this morning, we were standing in front of Steamboat Geyser, you can see a “minor” eruption in the photo above. It erupted last on the 16th so the odds where it would go off but as we stood there and shot, we said, “place your bets” because we didn’t think we would see the 300′ World’s Tallest Geyser go. Wouldn’t you know it, two hours after we left that platform, minutes after we left the parking lot, that she blows! Who knew?
Jan 24, 2019 | Landscape Photography
On a stormy, snow, blustery day in Yellowstone where the critters are back in the woods hunkered down, there’s one place I love to go and shoot. That’s Mud Pot Basin. It’s a moody place on stormy days, great for shooting. If you put in the time, one geyser will perform, Spasm. What I like about it is the spray tends to never be the same second to second. The steam on cold days, (0 with windchill) can be as much of the photo as the eruption. Shooting with the Z7 / Z24-70, I had the camera set to Continuous High Extended and when I say the eruption, just held the shutter release down. Then once back at the computer, picked the image with the best elements to finish. I just love the moode!
Jan 18, 2019 | Wildlife Photography
Steller’s Jay
captured by Z7 / 800mm
I don’t know if the storm blew him in or he just returned, but man was I happy to see him! At the height of our storm Thursday on my constant vigil of looking, I spotted this Steller’s Jay perched. Now why it wasn’t taking cover I don’t know but truth be told, I didn’t care. I had a bird to photograph!!!! Now, to make a photograph.
Steller’s Jay
captured by Z7 / 800mm
Shooting from the warmth of our office out an open window, I pointed the Z7 / 800mm and watched the blowing snow. And I mean blowing snow! There were a couple of tasks at hand, show the blowing snow, show off the blue and get a “clear” shot of it all. That translated into a fast shutter speed, 1/50, and shooting on Continuous High Extended and ripping off about 100 frames in a heartbeat. I took that many because as the snow blew by, at times it would create a fog and then there would be a clear window between the lens and the Jay. At the same time, I wanted the right pose. So when I saw the pose, I ripped the shutter until the pose disappeared. I came away with a number of frames I liked. These two just reminded me of, “Look right, now look left”. It was a glorious ten minutes, and then he was gone. As I tell my students when out shooting birds thought, it just takes one!
Jan 17, 2019 | Landscape Photography
Hoar Frost
captured by D4s / 70-200f4
As I blew the 18″ of snow that fell during the night, my mind started to wonder about all the white. You gotta understand I love living in snow, the white transforms the landscape into shapes, contours and mysterious forms setting the imagination on fire. And as I worked the snow, I was paying attention to what was catching my attention in the all-white world (besides Sadie who is always by my side playing in the new snow with such joy!). The answer was pretty obvious, once I stopped and thought about it. It was just a smidge of color!
Hoar Frost
captured by D4s / 70-200f4
I then came in from my three-hour fun outside and went to my files to see if my conclusion held true in my photographs. Now I have plenty of photographs where there is a smidge of white to set off the rest of the color in the scene. But with little effort, I found plenty of examples in my own files where just a smidge of color really set off the snowscape. In this case on a hoar frost morning in Fargo, ND a few years back, for just a moment the sun broke out and gave the slightest glow to the scene. And that small hint of color made a photograph that just minutes before and minutes later was solid gray. It’s such a little thing, so little that years and years and years in the snow and it just now reached my consciousness but I’m glad it did. I’ll look now a whole lot more for that smidge of color!
