Kodiak Brown Bear family captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC
Each May, they slowly emerge from their dens and make their way down to the flats. Their they start their journey back to their dens, fattening up so they can go back to sleep in September. There is a week when the grasses are short enough we can safely be amongst them and catch a glimpse of their life. Join me and KelbyOne on an adventure to The Land of the Giants!
Kodiak Brown Bear captured by Z 9 / Z400f2.8TC
There are so many salmon I have no adjective to describe the scene! No, you can’t cross the river on their backs and never get wet. But as you walk through you are kicking them left and right. This is the dinner bell for the Kodiak Brown Bears that inhale them as fast as they catch them. And there lies the catch, gotta catch them! Each bear has its own style of snaring a meal, the most common is the chase. After observing them for years and knowing the basic rule of calories in, calories out, I think they chase them because it’s just fun. I’m standing in the water, tripod is in the water and there are about a dozen bears all around me doing their thing. That might be feeding, might be eating, and most definitely, it’s sleeping. It’s a time of plenty the bears reveal in it. The fish are running!
Kodiak Brown Bear captured by Z 9 / Z400f2.8TC
MT Lightning captured by Z 8 / Z24-120
This storm screamed, screamed through the Bitterroots! We heard the thunder off in the distance so I checked the lightning app. I saw the bolts were over in ID. There was a forecast for dry thunderstorms so we were paying attention as it’s wildfire season. No sooner than we did all of this and the lightning was on our front porch. I admit, at first I wasn’t thinking about putting the camera out but then my guilt took over and I set up the Z 8 / Z24-120 with the Miops pointing west. It took 7 shots and then stopped. That’s because the storm was already east! I set up the camera pointing east and it took another dozen or so photos and then the storm was north of Missoula. It did rain, poured in fact, for about nine minutes and then it stopped (glad it wasn’t a dry storm) dropping .09 of an inch. I dried off the gear and called it a night. This morning I went through the 21 images and #6 is what you see above. This is not a great lightning shot by any stretch but it sure is cool to see how the lightning danced from cloud to cloud. My vivid imagination sees two battling each other, the one on the right throwing all it can at the left. The left giving it all in one bolt. Would never have seen this with my eyes but glad I put the camera out. Mother Nature, simply amazing!
White-tailed Deer captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC
For the past two weeks, whenever the fawns appear around the house, I’m out with them. This is even when the light sucks. It seems to have helped, the fawns are now bouncing around without my care about me or Maggie. It is interesting to see the fawn of the Alpha female we call “The Witch” is trying to be dominate over the other fawn. They are permitting me to walk around to get the shots I want when I see them. This is from last night just before the sun slipped behind the mountains. It’s so much fun to be amongst them now we’re friends.
May ’08 Tornado Kearney, NE captured by D3 / 14-24f2.8
If you’ve spent a second on my website, you know I have a thing for weather. It should be no surprise that when the cool from the south meets the warm moisture from the gulf was a place I’d long wanted to travel. The thing that stopped me for so long and prevents me now from not being in the field is time. In May, 2008 I was able to put ten days in the field chasin storms. It’s a trip I’ll never forget. The first hour we saw a tornado dismantle a pig ranch and actually see pigs fly. From that moment on, I never saw nor see this weather the same. While still magical doing things with light you’ll never read about in any physics class, what these storms can do to lives is off the scale!
This particle storm was south of Kearney, NE when we first intercepted it. As we drove towards it, we saw all the cars traveling in the opposite direction. The faces I saw in those vehicles left a permanent mark. Trying to put scale with the wall cloud and rain-wrapped tornado was a huge challenge. Those shiny objects under the center or giant silos and barns. The wall cloud was massive. I’ve only been able to do two chases since this first one and long to do them again. They are a thing of wonder, the storms of summer.
May ’08 Tornado Kearney, NE captured by D3 / 14-24f2.8
White-tailed Deer fawn captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC
My time flies, they are already a month old! We had five fawns drop at The Ranch this spring and we know this as our good neighbor has seen them all at the same time. When it comes to seeing the fawns from our windows, it’s been a real challenge. One, the grass is really tall this spring keeping these little guys well hidden. Two, we’ve had predators about from a Mountain Lion to Coyotes so the does have been very protective. While the does come into the Back 9, come up to me looking for their apples, it wasn’t until a little over a week ago that “The Wtich” brought her fawn into the open. We call the doe The Witch because she is the Alpha and she lets everyone know it! In the last few days, the doe has permitted its fawn to come in closer and closer to where yesterday it was bigger than the viewfinder. It’s progress but we’re still at the peekaboo phase.
White-tailed Deer fawn captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC