28 Jul 14. I used to enter into competitions for the fun of competing, but after several years of listening to folks who just couldn't resist making fools of themselves, I gave it up. My favorite two versions of such are the going on and on over the virtues of an obviously bad image when the commentator should have given the image some good solid helpful constructive criticism, and my all time favorite where the commentator, who has absolutely no knowledge of where the image was taken, or the conditions thereof, to tell the photographer how much better the image would be if it had been taken from a different angle, location, etc. This degree of arrogance, much like that held by members of certain photo organizations, is just too much. So I no longer participate in such ventures of frustration. There is of course lots of room for good solid helpful criticism of any image, and I truthfully appreciate any and all I receive from folks on these mailing lists, even though, sadly, there are but a few who offer their sage advice. The image for today is one of those in which a commentator would likely feel obliged to tell me how much better it would have been had I just moved a few feet to eliminate the branch that is covering a portion of the face of the middle cub, or that I could have edited the branch out of the photo. And while the latter is true but I elected not to, the former is not. Moving in either direction would have required me to walk over another photographer standing within inches of me and had I even elected to so do, my position, in relation to the cubs, would have been worse. Of course that possibility would never occur to those who feel like they know more about the location than did/does the photographer. These little guys were playing both hide and seek with the photographers as well as rough and tumble with each other. They put on a real show for perhaps 20 minutes, something the l o n g line of photographers had been waiting for quite a while to observe. We got to see these little guys about 90 minutes after watching the other adult with its kill. Only this time the group of photographers numbered perhaps 4x as many and the cost of the gear must have been approaching a quarter million dollars. I used the longest lens I had, but it isn't as sharp as I would desire, so what I'm sharing isn't razor sharp to begin with, and I've cut out perhaps 20% of the original to share. Normally I wouldn't offer something this soft, but seeing these three little guys was such a treat that I thought you might appreciate it anyway. This last trip we saw more bears than in all of our trips combined; of course our daughter made one trip there a couple of weeks ago and saw the same thing, a set of black bear triplets. This shot was taken with a 400mm lens on a camera body that effectively magnifies the lens by 50%, so it is what one would get with a 600mm lens on a film camera. Remember, this is a 20% section of the full frame, so it may give you an idea as to why serious nature photographers spend $25k or so per lens for the big glass, and also as to why I remain a hobbyist. Zoom in to 100% to appreciate the cubs. Nikon D300s; 80 - 400; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f /6.3.
29 Jul 14. Returning from a full day of shooting and looking forward to a quiet and restful evening, we encountered a bit of a roadblock about 10 miles from the park entrance in the form of a small herd of bison. Now keeping in mind that they weighed, on average, as much as the vehicles on the road with them, the prudent thing to do was to stop and slowly ease by them as opportunity presented. With the herd electing to use the entirety of both lanes, it was obvious to us, as it was to almost all the other vehicles on that road, that we were going to be delayed a bit. Except for one jackass who thought that his desire to be elsewhere took precedence over everything else and, after honking loudly at us for a minute or two, swerved out from behind us, passed rapidly waving arms and yelling at us as they swerved in front of us, then around a LARGE bull directly in front of us, barely missing him and almost (unfortunately) going into the ditch before regaining control of the vehicle and speeding down the road. One of those very few times you found yourself wishing for one of the rangers. The vehicle involved in this display of obvious superiority and intelligence weighed substantially less than did that bull and I was hoping that the bull would give it a nudge!! The bull in discussion is front center in the image. Not being certain as to the attitude of the group at that moment, I took this image through the windshield. I've taken the original color image, fully adjusted the color, then into a B&W program, and finally done a little finagling to give it this 3-D like look. It is a bit surrealistic, but then, so was the behavior of the idiot driving that one vehicle! Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/160 sec @ f / 5.6.
30 Jul 14. In the NW corner of Yellowstone, for lack of a more descriptive identifier, is found the Gardner, or North, Entrance to the park, one of the two open year round. Here you find the park headquarters, the Albright Visitor Center, one of the most active areas for watching the elk rut in the fall, and Mammoth Hot Springs, one of my three favorite places in the park. The hot springs are not for relaxing but for viewing, and are comprised of two terraces, upper and lower. Both terraces are in a constant state of flux, and each time we have visited they have presented very different looks. The changes are subtle from year to year, but put a decade in between visits and you are amazed at the changes. My favorite spot in the area is a specific mound somewhat isolated from all the rest of the springs in the upper terrace, followed closely by the boardwalk viewing area at the far end of the lower terrace. Both offer some outstanding views, and, depending on the weather, the views can be quite spectacular. We paid two visits to the springs last trip and the first was on a day that had threatening weather for the better part of the afternoon and evening. This shot, from the boardwalk along the lower terrace, was taken just before a storm broke that looked like it was planning on drenching us but it never got around to dropping its water, at least not on us. The lighting was a photographer's delight, with the storm opening a hole allowing brilliant shafts of light to intermittently break through and light the area, then rapidly closing up and dimming things substantially. Waiting on the breakouts provided opportunities for some dramatic shots; challenging but really fun photography. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1250 sec @ f / 9.
