Some might be very tempted to crop the begiggers out of this image. Some might wanna Photoshop a photograph into this image. That’s because it is less than good, it has issues. But that’s not what I want to talk about. There are moments we are so fortunate to witness and capture out in nature that goes beyond the parameters of good or bad that simply need to be shared. An American Kestral on the wing eating the beetle it just plucked off the ground is simply a cool moment. Yep, I would love it large in the frame, would have loved much, much better light but I wouldn’t change the gesture, the story for a heartbeat. And that’s why I’m sharing it. Share your image, tell your story about your subject as you can change the world with your photography!
Everyone who knows my beautiful bride knows just how impeccable she is with her grammar. So yesterday morning when I was sitting at my desk while she was out with Maggie and a text appeared on my phone from her, “Pilested … Wdoeker tree”, I knew she was excited. That’s because she was there twenty feet away watching our first Pileated Woodpecker that had landed on the woodpecker perch and was feeding. She said she could hear me running through the house and saw a flash (I guarantee not from my speed) of me going by with camera in hand. It was ten months in the making and I wanted to record the landing.
We have seen Pileateds fly overhead but they have never stopped on any trees on The Ranch. I have “planted” two dead trees on The Ranch just for them. One is the Woodpecker Perch that has a suet feeder and a much larger diameter snag I’m hoping a woodpecker, a Pileated, will use it for a nest. With the text, I grabbed the D6 / 180-400VR (which is always on my counter ready to shoot) and ran to the garage which has the perfect angle for the Woodpecker Perch. As I pointed the lens through the window, I was struck at the total luck that the light at this moment in time was perfect, perfect for the black / white / red, crow size woodpecker. I took a couple of horrible photos through the window just in case. I then walked over to the door and slowly opened it. It didn’t budge and twenty minutes later, 341 images were on the card. It was a great Monday for photographing a “Pilested … Wdoeker tree”.
The temperatures might be well below zero, the snow is falling and the wind is blowing and the Bison get up and shake it off like it is just another day. Yellowstone in winter is simply a wonderland, classic example of our wild heritage. Every where you look the beauty comes through in so many forms. It is, the classic example of the wild power.
It stays underground and “cooks” for ninety minutes. If you were able to put an ear to the ground, you can hear the rumblings, gurgles and bangs as the pressure slowly builds. Then with a spurt and a spat it announces its coming. Then, explosion, water and steam as Old Faithful puts on the show it has been doing for centuries. It’s simply amazing, the explosive power!
Lower Yellowstone Falls captured by Z 6 II / Z70-200f2.8
Lower Yellowstone Falls is a gorgeous and peaceful sight even though it crashes 308 feet down the canyon floor. Don’t let the fact that at the height of runoff, 63,500 gal/sec rushes over the edge influence your impression. Or that that wall of ice beside and front of it yesterday was created by that flow and is nearly half the height of the falls. It’s a calming scene that brings you tranquility, one of many such in Yellowstone, the flowing power.
You heard a tea pot blowing its top, multiple train whistles, car horns, nearly every sound you can imagine as Porcelain Basin in Yellowstone put on one heck of a show. With magma just two miles below the surface, the heat has to have a place to escape on yesterday morning Porcelain was the place! We stood on the rim as time flew past photographing the every changing landscape below. I’ve been coming here since decades and this was the first time I’d ever seen this show. Wow, Mother Nature, it has some inner power!
