Yellowstone, Day 4

Another busy day in Yellowstone. We started the day in the fog. There we found this bull and cow elk grazing along the Madison River.

After a while they both moved across the river.

As the elk moved out, a great blue heron arrived and began working the shoreline looking for a bite to eat to start the day.

No trip to Yellowstone is complete without a trip to Old Faithful, and we made sure to get there.

After watching the geyser erupt, we walked around and tried shooting details around the geyser pools.

Moving on, we happened upon this coyote hunting in a grassy field.

The day ended with a rare treat. A pack of wolves had killed an elk, and we were able to see a black wolf feeding on the carcass.

How can you beat that for a day in Yellowstone?

Yellowstone, Day 3

You never know quite what Yellowstone will give you on any given day.  Day 3 started out with a heavy fog as we left Lamar Valley and headed on to other areas of the park, looking for wildlife on the way.  Bison appeared almost ghostly in the fog.

Landscape opportunities abound in the park, and we stopped at a small marsh to see what we could do.

Later in the day, the skies cleared, and we found a herd of elk cows emerging from the trees, followed by a big bull.

He herded his harem of cows across the river and on into the trees beyond.

All in all, it was a busy day.  More to come.

Yellowstone, Day 2

We spent another day in Lamar Valley. This was to be a wildlife day, but, as often happens, someone forgot to send the wildlife the memo. The weather was pretty much overcast for the day and it seems like the wildlife took the day off to wait for better weather to show themselves.

The day wasn't a total loss, however, as we did find a few things to photograph. We first found another pronghorn antelope buck feeding all alone in the sagebrush.

After a while he bedded down and was content to watch us watching him.

The bison were out as usual, and we found a spot or two to photograph them.

One even gave me a close-up.

And again, bedding down seemed to be the order of the day.

Tomorrow, a change in location. Check back to see what we find.

Yellowstone, Day 1

I decided to take another trip to Yellowstone National Park. The national park system has been described as America's best idea, and I readily agree. Yellowstone is an amazing place, teeming with wildlife, with stunning landscapes as well. I had never visited the park in fall, and this time found it at about the peak of fall colors.

Day 1 was spent in Lamar Valley. I've said before that I could spend a lot of time in this valley and I would never miss a chance to do just that. This was a wildlife day, starting with that staple of Yellowstone, the bison.

This big fellow contrasted nicely with the sagebrush.

Next we were fortunate enough to run across pronghorn antelope, America's fastest land mammal. This fellow wasn't running anywhere. Having just fed, he was bedded down for a while before continuing on.

Again, the cottonwoods provided a great background.

One of the truly fantastic sights here in the fall are the elk. This is the time of the rut, and a bugling elk is quite a sight as well as a sound you won't soon forget.

This 6 x 6 bull was truly magnificent!

As the day came to a close, we finished up with a band of bighorn sheep. These were ewes and lambs. No big rams here, but it still was quite a sight!

Stay tuned. More to come.

Photo Walk

I went on a photo walk the other evening.  It's one of those great exercises where you pick a scenic spot and invite a bunch of people to walk around with cameras being creative.  The problem I had was I just wasn't feeling very creative.

It was a nice evening (a little hot).  The light wasn't bad, but I just couldn't find a shot.  I tried setting a piece of shoreline against the city skyline.  It was ok, but not exactly inspiring.

Things got a little more interesting when darkness fell.  Then the skyline was lit across the lake.

Not bad, but a few of those went a long way.  Then I decided to try something different.  Since I was making long exposures, I decided to try zooming the lens during the exposure to see what I might get.  I ended up with this.

Now this looked a little more interesting.  I'm not sure if I really like it, but it was a good exercise in trying to be a little creative when I just couldn't find a lot of inspiration.

The best thing about the whole evening, however, was getting together with some great people who shared the common desire to just get together to make some images, swap stories, and have a good time.

So if you get a chance to attend one of these, do it.  It gets you out shooting, and there's always someone there to provide a little inspiration.  See you next time.