One, Na, Three Better!

Jan 30, 2024 | Landscape Photography

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Fountain Paint Pot Flats captured by Z 8 / Z24-120f4 (click on image and slide it right and left to view entire pano)

The vast landscape of Yellowstone comes to life in the winter when the temperatures drop and all the steam comes to life. The explosive nature of Yellowstone becomes even more apparent when that hot steam smacks the cold air and then is lite up by sunrise. One of my favorite spots in The Park to witness and photograph this mighty act of nature is Fountain Paint Pot Flats. This particular morning we were out to watch the wolf pack we’d seen the night before tuck themselves into the forest to the right of the pano. As the sun rose we heard the howls and then the sun squeezed through the clouds for a heart beat for one of the finest moments I’ve been fortunate to witness in The Park. No one click told the whole wonder, the entire grandeur which meant three images were required. Slide the pano above, you will feel the chill, be warmed by the light and agree one, na, three better!

Got a Bone to Pick

Jan 25, 2024 | Wildlife Photography

Coyote captured by Z 9 / Z600f4 TC

Bison are the heart and soul of the west, and of Yellowstone. These giant creatures roam the landscape and for all time have sculpted it into the world we see today. Their last act on this earth is to serve the natural community one more time. This old bull succumed to stress in the Firehole River last Friday in dramatic fashion (that story still to tell) and now what’s left is being slowly picked over. Here, a Coyote with an injured right hind leg has its turn at the pickings. It is an amazing process that we spent hours for a third day observing and photographing.

The Changing Landscape

Jan 24, 2024 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography

Lower Yellowstone River captured by Z 8 / Z24-120

The Yellowstone River is an impressive act of nature! It’s a view I’ve stopped to take in many times but looking through all my files from years passed, not taken. Why when it is so gorgeous? Because normally it’s all white as the river is frozen solid. Only if you know the point would you know the river is there. This year though, it’s not been cold enough for the river to freeze over and the snow fall could be called a trace. To give you some idea how little snow, normally when you cruise Yellowstone this time of year, the landscape is a carpet of white, snow covers the world. This year it’s a sea of sage brush with white at its base. That’s four to five feet of snow that’s missing. It’s a scene that’s still beautiful but a bit scary, the changing landscape.

Winter Wonderland Prep

Jan 19, 2024 | Landscape Photography

Lone Tree Hayden Valley captured by Z 9 / Z70-200f2.8

One thing I do when I’m returning to a locale to shoot is do my visual homework. For example, I’m heading out to Yellowstone for a grand week in the cold and snow. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to do this many times and some photos like that of Old Faithful, I take every time no matter how many images I have in my files of its irrupting. Other shots I might have not done as well as I liked or, I want to do at a different time of time. And over the years the kit has changed so the one important thing I do is look at what lenses I’ve used in the past. This is real simple to do in Bridge. I simply select all my Yellowstone images in my Gallery folder and then filter on lenses. It shows me focal length and how many photos I’ve taken with a particular lens. It helps me get in the right state of mind and go as prepared as I can doing my winter wonderland prep.

The Gray Ghost & Me

Jan 17, 2024 | Wildlife Photography

Great Gray Owl captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC w/Z1.4x @1176mm

Sharon was four months pregnant with Jake when we hit the trail in the twilight. We were over 9k’ in a high sierra meadow with about a mile and a half walk ahead of us. We were on a path a biologist I had worked with for a long time had directed us to. A colleague of his was up there doing research on what I had begun to call the Gray Ghost. That’s because up to that point, I had already spent a couple of years trying to get one in my glass with only one, soft image to show for my efforts. This morning we saw it as it lazily flew from one stump to another staying in binocular range at best. Then without a sound, it was gone, poof!

The Great Gray Owl is our largest owl but not our heaviest in NoAm. All those feathers that give it that majestic profile permit it to “float” on top of snow when it crashes down through the crust after its prey. That massive head, its facial disk, is a natural radar dish it uses to focus in on the slightest sound and channeling it to its ears with pin point accuracy. All of that biology aside, it is a spectacular critter!

Great Gray Owl captured by Z 9 / Z600f4TC w/Z1.4x @1176mm

Three feet tall, five foot wing span, don’t think for a moment that its large size makes it any easier to find then some tiny hummingbird. They blend into their world beautifully and fly making no sound. There are a number of locales throughout NoAm where you can find them. They literally nest on the other side of the valley from our home (and don’t think for a second knowing that doesn’t drive me nuts). But getting them in the viewfinder is a challenge. One of the locales you have better than even odds to do more than just see them, to actually photograph them is at Sax-Zim Bog. You might think I’m doing you a big favor with that information but even knowing that, I went there for three years before seeing one, five years before photographing them.

This year was our best opportunity to date permitting us a little over an hour with this individual at relatively close range. That wasn’t enough time! I would love to have hours and hours to just watch one, soak in all it is to be a Great Gray and watch it over and over again float down to pluck a tiny morsel from the snow. It is truly a magnificent part of our wild heritage I wish all could spend some time with. Their presence will reach down and grab your heart and lift up your spirit. And once you do spend time with one, you to will know what it is, the gray ghost and me.

Red Loves White!

Jan 12, 2024 | Landscape Photography

Grand Canyon South Rim captured by D2H / 12-24

Bryce, Zion, Monument Valley, Arches, Grand Canyon, are just a few of the magnificent “red” locales we love to visit for landscape photography. You wanna do them right, you gotta add white and when I say white, I mean snow! Snow makes the reds of the earth just light on fire! It’s so easy to say but oh, so difficult to do. Proof? Look at how old this photo is and I try every year to mate the two, red and white. And with the current wx ups and downs, it’s even more difficult. I have a WHOLE lot of photos of these locales taken in January, Feb & March but only 3 times have I hit the snow. Part of the issues is planning in advance, part of the problem is it is the desert so they are supposed to be dry and lastly is these locales tend to shut down with snow. I tried to make it happen again this year so fingers crossed. If I went today, there’s no snow, next week looks better and my dates in March, I dunno. All I know for sure is, red loves white!

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