25 Sep 14. Yesterday was a long day making the trip to Swan Valley. It began with an early rise to see the purple mountain majesty framed in a majestic sunrise in the front yard and closed with a cantata by the wolves under a fully stared night with the big dipper spilling over onto the meadow aside us; couldn't have asked for much more! Somewhat of a contrast to the preceding several days but all of which have been nice, some just nicer than others. Our drive around the area on Monday under some potentially threatening conditions presented the aspens in differing arraignment of yellows, depending on the game of tag being played by the clouds with the sun. As part of the journey we took the switchback to the top of Horse Butte some 7,000 feet looking down upon Lake Hebgen. As we wove our way to the top the aspens would pop up in small groves occasionally being strongly back lit which I couldn't resist shooting every time it occurred. This is one such shot taken with the lake in the background, the tall summer grasses in the foreground now golden, and the storm clouds hovering in the background, all rendered in colored pencil courtesy of the new plug-in from Topaz. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f /10.
26 Sep 14. This series of mailings from Yellowstone is a first for me in several different ways. First off I have no real idea of how they look as they are being created from a laptop with which I have zero experience instead of my main graphics box at home. Working off such a small and uncalibrated screen leaves me feeling a bit uneasy. Second, I'm sending from a program, Gmail, with which I have little exposure and whose interface I don't like. Finally, I'm working off a shared network that seems to be working for me but not for Jan. As such, we had a dedicated line installed today that now works for Jan but not for me, so I've reloaded the old network that is NOT supposed to be working any longer for us but seems to be working O.K. at the moment. So I have no idea if you will even get these mailings. That confession on the record, the close up for today is of the remains of a dead tree resting in a very acidic environment such as is commonly found in the park amongst the geyser basin areas. Dead trees such as this one are a common sight and I've seen few individuals take photos of them, but I find them rather intriguing. This particular one had some interesting light falling on it that caught my eye and that of the camera as well. What also gets my attention is the grasses that grow alongside as well as in the water. While I have no explanation for how this can occur, I can and do enjoy seeing such things and recording them for posterity. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f /10.
Returning from a morning walk Sunday a.m. we bumped into a neighbor who lives kitty-corner from us in the condo. After talking with her for a while werealized that she is a semi-pro photographer from CA who plans on building a home here as soon as they can sell their abode near Victorville. Later in the day after an afternoon shoot with the neighbor above us I paid her a visit and got to see some of her work; she is a serious photographer. We chatted some and discovered that we had a major thing in common, our spouses do not share our delight in going out and shooting as we do. So we decided that we should team up whenever possible and go out shooting together. A real "find" for me!! Saturday morning early a week ago I went out with just Maggie and we went for a short ride of about 8 miles max along Highway 287 which is the last leg of the drive before turning right and heading into West Yellowstone. There were a couple areas of color we had observed Thursday evening on our arrival I wanted to try and capture. As I was preparing to take my initial shots I got interrupted by a very friendly mule who came trotting over as soon as she saw me, sticking her neck over the fence demanding that I pay her attention by giving her head and neck a thorough scratching. It was fun but Maggie didn't exactly appreciate my giving the mule attention she thought was hers. After a bit I was allowed to disengage and continue with my shooting. This shot is one of several of my newly found acquaintance; in the background out of focus is what I wanted to capture and eventually did. The intended photo will follow later in the week. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f / 8.
