Monday ~ October 11, 2021

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 11, 2021
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , . 1 Comment

Happy Monday!

There is a saying in photography that goes, “Once you’ve photographed your subject, turn around and you might just find another interesting subject.”

I had been photographing a heard of Bison across the highway and as I was walking back to the car I saw this Raven.  I had seen several of them in the park but they would never sit still long enough to get a decent shot of them.

He gave me a couple of different looks and then he decided to fly away.  They are an interesting bird and quite large.

This was our last day in the park and it was getting late in the day so we were headed back to our hotel.  We took a route that we had not been on before and saw this small water fall.  One of the great things about Yellowstone Park is there are numerous pull over spots for people to stop and look.

This is an area that had been ravaged by fire a few years ago.  Yellowstone keeps renewing itself and new growth and new life can be seen in the midst of the destruction.  The park averages 3 to 4 fires a year and some of the areas of the park are in pretty bad shape but there is always new growth occurring.

We found this thermal on our way out of the park.  If you click on the image to make it larger you will see in the upper left of the image the water boiling out of a hole.

Kind of a disgusting image but this is one of the many boiling mud pots that are around the park.  There is a strong smell of sulfur in the air and you are constantly aware of the activity under the surface.

I  really don’t know why this dead tree caught my attention but I felt compelled to photograph it so here it is.

I really hated leaving the park.  Jeanne said it is the most beautiful and exciting place on the planet in her mind.  I have to agree.  Every time you turn around there is another picture to be made or wonder to see.  Also kind of scary when you think that you are in the midst of one of the largest volcanoes in the world and the amount of destruction it would do when (not if), when it erupts would be cataclysmic.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ September 06, 2021

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 6, 2021
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Happy Monday!

Sorry for the delay in posting more images.  I have had some things going on in my life that have taken me away from my photography for awhile.  Today I have several images of Bison.  This was our third day in the park and we wanted to go back to the place where the”Buffalo Roam.”  Sorry I couldn’t help myself.  🙂

Please click on the image to see a larger more detailed version of the image.  Love the look on his face.  It was close to the mating season when we were there and this is one of the things male Bison do to attract a mate.


This was after his dust roll and he came down to where his lady friend was standing.  You can still see a little bit of the dust  around him.  You can see he is announcing his presence with his low bellow.  When they do that I must admit it sounds ominous and foreboding.


I don’t know what she is thinking but she doesn’t look all the interested in him.  He stood beside her for several minutes.  Just swishing flies with his tail and every once in a while he would bellow again.


We never saw that many calves but when we did they were very close to their mother.  If you look closely at his coat you can see that he has had a few scrapes already in his young life.

This is what happens when a Bison decides to cross the road.  Major traffic jam. We saw an entire heard cross the road on our fist day in the park and we were far enough back with our van that I couldn’t get a shot of it.  The park rangers were there to make sure they all got across the road.  An average bull weighs 850 pounds and can run at about 35 mph so they are a presence to be reckoned with.


And now for our biggest adventure.  We had stopped at a picnic area to have some lunch.  There were lots of people there and we thought we were lucky to find an empty table.  There was a group of eight to our left and a group of 4 to our right.  Jeanne happened to mention that all the trees in the area had the bark rubbed off.

Not long after she said that we heard a low bellow and there he was.  He was coming straight to our area.  All of us in unison ran to our cars until he passed.  He came up to our car and I was wondering how I was going to explain this big dent in the car.  But he didn’t bother us and he casually walked on down to the stream for a drink and most of us went back to our lunch.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ August 25, 2021

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 25, 2021
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Happy Wednesday!

I will continue with our last day in the park.  We saw some new things but we also went back to a couple of things we saw on our first day.  Namely the Yellowstone Grand Canyon and the area where we saw so many Bison on our first day.

On our way to the canyon we saw a small heard of elk feeding and resting.  We weren’t lucky enough to see any bulls but we enjoyed watching these just taking it easy.

Back at the Grand Canyon the shear size and beauty of it is breath taking.  As much as I tried no image can show the depth and breath of the magnificent place.

This image of the water fall was taken at a much higher vantage point then on our fist day.  If you click on the image to make it larger you can actually see the people at the very top of the water fall.

When Angie and Ben were at the water fall they were standing where these people are and said the sound of the water was deafening

Every turn is another image waiting to be taken.  This image was taken from the same vantage point as the one of the falls.  I just turned 180 degrees and was greeted with this magnificent view.

Not too far from where the water fall is there is this Osprey nest.  There was a placard detailing how many times the Osprey would frequent the nest.  It was not their mating season so we had no chance of seeing them on the nest.  I never saw one the entire trip.

Heading for the land of the Bison and came across this beautiful site of the hills, trees, and puffy clouds.  These clouds later produced a pretty decent rain storm and gave the park about a half inch of rain.

I’ll be posting some more images soon.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

Thursday ~ August 19, 2021

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 19, 2021
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Happy Thursday!

Today I have lots of landscape images from our third day in Yellowstone.  We revisited some of the places we saw on our guided tour but then explored places that we hadn’t been.  Saw lots of bison and lots of other wildlife (another post) and had an exciting experience.   Remember to click on the images to make them larger with more detail.

There were some low hanging clouds around the hills and mountains this morning and it made for some beautiful scenery images.  We stopped here for about 10 minutes just enjoying the change scene.

As you can see the low clouds were beginning to lift and it turned out to be a beautiful day of sunshine and cooler temperatures.

I have a painting hanging in my home office / man cave of a fly fisherman and I love it.  The steams that run through Yellowstone are wonderful for trout fishing and we saw a lot of them in the streams.  What I was trying to do was capture an image that closely resembled my painting.  This one was close but not quite it.

The geyser in the distance was our destination.  Jeanne wanted to see it up close and so we had to find our way to it.

Fortunately on the way to the geyser we came across this fisherman and it was the shot I was looking for.  There wasn’t a pull off place so I just parked the car, jumped out and grabbed the shot and then got under way again.

While processing the image I couldn’t decide if the image needed to be in color or black and white, so naturally I did it both and you can decide for yourself.

Thank you for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ August 15, 2021

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 15, 2021
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Happy Sunday!

A few more images of the Grand Tetons.  These were taken as we were leaving the Tetons and headed back to Yellowstone National Park.  As you can see from this image there was a rain storm moving in.  Click on the image to make it larger and more detailed.

It did rain on us for a fair amount of time, however it was not as much rain as the area needed.  It was quite dry in both parks and the fire risk was high.

The clouds were pretty but mixed in with the haze and the pending rain storm it made for a difficult photography experience.  Still it’s hard to take a bad picture when these wonderful mountains are in front of the lens.

Occasionally the sun would break through the clouds and give us a wonderful view of the mountain tops. 

There are just so many rivers, hills, trees, and rocks that it makes for a photographers delight.

On the way back to West Yellowstone I caught a glimpse of this (I believe it is a) large hawk.  I pulled over and got the long lens ready.  I wasn’t expecting to see in flying wildlife.  At first I thought it might be a juvenile eagle, but the more I looked at it I decided it was a hawk.  As you can see he is missing one talon.  He seems to be doing alright and didn’t have any trouble maintaining his balance.

That’s it for today.  My next post will be back in Yellowstone park with some wonderful scenery and of course some more bison. 

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ August 11, 2021

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 11, 2021
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Happy Wednesday!

In my last post I talked about the conditions at the Grand Tetons.  We arrived around 10:00 a.m. an the image above shows what the conditions looked like.  The smoke and haze from the Western fires were just awful and there was a storm moving in.  It was very disappointing to say the least.  However I also knew that since I shoot in RAW format and with the help of Adobe Lightroom® and Photoshop® I could correct a lot of the haze in the image.

This is the same photo as the first one after 20 minutes of working to get the haze out and to reveal what the camera was able to actually capture.  Fortunately after about an hour the haze dissipated somewhat and we had some nice blue skies and puffy white clouds.

The Grand Tetons are just so majestic.  Their ruggedness and sharp edges just make for some beautiful scenery.  I wish I had more time with them so I could really show case the true beauty of the mountains.  We were on a 3 and half day vacation with so much on our agenda it did not allow us to really enjoy any one place for very long.

This is Jenny Lake which a large lake that covers much of the area around the Tetons.  There is a ferry that takes you around the lake to some beautiful vantage points, however we were limited on time and was not able to take the tour.  I know I don’t have to tell you but just in case you have forgotten you can click on the images and they will reveal a much larger more detailed image.

As you can see from this image taken later in the day, the haze did clear up nicely and the big puffy clouds eventually turned in to some storms, which the area really needed the rain.

That’s it for the Grand Tetons, my next post will be back in Yellowstone National park for some more wildlife and other interesting images.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

Monday ~ August 09, 2021

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 9, 2021
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Happy Monday!

I know that I promised the Grand Tetons today but I shot several landscape images before reaching Grand Tetons National Park.  Click on the images to make them larger and more detailed.

I stopped to talk to a park Ranger on our trip to the Tetons and he said that as bad as the smoke and haze were this day, if we had been here a week earlier you could barely see the mountains and certainly wouldn’t have been able to capture any images of them.

To get to the Tetons National Park we had to go through Yellowstone National Park and we decided to take a route that we had not see on our tour.  As you can see from these images there was a lot of haze in the sky and while I tried to remove as much as possible there was just too much of it.  Later in the day the sky did clear up a little bit.

Some more of the hundreds of pools and geysers around Yellowstone. It would have been interesting to walk around this large feature but we wanted to get to the Tetons as soon as we could.

Later in the day the gray skies gave way to some puffy clouds and patches of blue sky.  There was still some haze but it was considerably less than the early morning.

Came across this beautiful water fall.  I wish I would have had my neutral density filter and a tripod.  I had considered bringing my mono-pod but in a rush to finish packing I forgot it.  What that would have allowed me to do would be to make the water falls silky smooth.  A preferred method by many photographers.

So I had to do the best I could with what I had to work with.  There were a lot of people at this water fall and it was hard to get the view I wanted.  Some people finally moved and I got the shot I wanted.

Finally the Grand Tetons came into view.  As you can tell from this image the smoke and haze was a real problem. Still we were in the presences of these majestic mountains and it was a real joy for me to see them again after 44 years, which was the last time I was in the park.

That’s it for today.  Hope to post more Tetons in the coming days along with some other neat images.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Saturday ~ August 07, 2021

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 7, 2021
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Happy Saturday!

Today’s post is all about wildlife in the park.  (you know the drill, click on the image to make it larger and more detailed.)  As our guide was taking us along the road to one of the geysers, she pulled over quickly and stopped amid a lot of other vehicles.  A very large bull elk was resting in the shade of some trees.  He was huge.  I couldn’t get into the position I wanted to get a full image of him because of the terrain and the fact that our guide cautioned us that if you get too close to them they could charge.

This will give you some idea of the size of this male.  He was actually trying to sleep in the shade.  I really wanted to get closer but was told again not to put stress on the animal for its safety and my own.  I have done a fair amount of wildlife photography and it is never my intent to stress out the wildlife.  I had my 600 mm lens on the Nikon D500 body (which is a cropped sensor camera) and that me reach a focal length of 900 mm.

It wasn’t long after we left the bull elk that we came across a herd of bison.  Now in my tiny little mind the buffalo and bison were the same thing but our knowledgeable guide explained the difference.  She said there are no buffalo in the park only bison.  Their shaggy winter coat, their large heads, and hump on their back is much different than the buffalo.

The male bison kicks up some dirt in large quantities by pawing the ground and then lays his 800+ pound body in the dust and rolls in it. You could see these little dust storms all around the herd.  While it is not quite mating season yet many of the bulls are trying to attract a mate and this is how they go about it.  It is actually quite entertaining to watch the massive creatures rolling around in the dust.

This image is of the same bull after he got up from his dust-storm (on the left) to impress the lady on the right.  He was shepherding her away from the rest of the herd and had things on his mind. All the time he was following her he was emitting a loud bellow.  He kept his bellowing up all the way up the hill nudging her along the route he wanted her to take.

We didn’t see many of these calves.  They are a reddish brown and do not wander too far from their mother.  We only saw two in this particular herd.

Meanwhile this guy continued trying to move this female up the hill and away from the rest of the herd.  His bellowing was non stop.  I don’t know what he was saying but he had something on his mind worth saying a lot. 🙂

The bison eat around sage brush, which is actually poison to them.  This guy has a big chunk of sage brush stuck to his horn and you can see some of the remains of his winter coat.

We spent a fair amount of time with this herd and I shot lots of images but many of them looked alike.  So I would photograph a while and then just watch the interaction of the bison with each other.  It was very enjoyable.

Thank you for stopping by.  I hope you are enjoying Yellowstone through my lens.  Tomorrow we head out to the Grand Tetons, some of the most majestic mountains in America.

Enjoy your day and be careful.