Feb 15, 2011 | Landscape Photography
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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!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp24181.swf, 404, 600 [/swf]
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.
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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
Feb 14, 2011 | Landscape Photography
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!
Feb 14, 2011 | Landscape Photography
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
Feb 12, 2011 | Wildlife Photography
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.
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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.
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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!
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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
Feb 11, 2011 | Wildlife Photography
The moment I saw her, I was in love! She had spent some time on the downward wind side of a thermal and when the steam hit in the cold, it coated her in a splendid winter jacket. We stopped and we shot and as how things often happened, nature moved in our direction.
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What does that mean? The herd slowly walked to us so the distance was closed at their leisure.
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Yeah, it was real simple. With the ice drops hanging frozen from her eyelids and just about everywhere else, she posed at point blank range just long enough to make the shot. It was an amazing Bison day!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP17321.swf,404, 600 [/swf]
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Feb 11, 2011 | Landscape Photography
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Holy Crap, what a bloody amazing day! We started out with a much warmer day at -7 which always concerns me but we headed out just the same. We headed up the Madison River and 30min before sunrise I spotted five wolfs across the river. I yelled out pretty damn fast, “Wolves, Wolved, 10 o’clock across the river!” in time for everyone to see five members of the Canyon Pack before the disappeared back into the forest. Wow, what a start to the day!
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We headed up to the Madison headwaters and there spent a couple of great hours with the Bison herd. We had a ton of great opportunities but it was the entertainment this Black-billed Magpie brought that was a great highlight. The magpie was just doing its basic biology but when you see it go into the ear of a Bison, up its nose or up it ass, or, peek on one’s back until it actually put the Bison to sleep, you ain’t seen nothin! It was the greatest show on earth.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP10991.swf,595, 484 [/swf]
And then there was just those simple moments when Bison are doing nothing other then looking like the master of the plains like they are. We have a great group here who are into photographing Yellowstone and Bison. I know because this was just the start of our Bison day.
Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
