Wildlife, landscape and weather photography
Holy cow! What an insane scene this was!
Yesterday my buddy noticed a huge, black mass along the shore of a local pond. As we approached, we realize it is 100+ cormorants, all huddled together. I have never seen so many in a single spot before.
They soon realized they were being watched and when one took flight, and in a flurry of flapping wings and splashing water, they all took flight. What you see here is maybe a quarter of the number of the birds that were in this spot.
Kind of a cool shot from this morning. Haze from wildfires continues to impact us and partly cloudy skies further limited the sun’s rays. Our sun was cast in red as it rose above the sunrise and those clouds really made it look crazy cool.
No special filters needed due to the inhibited light, just a bit of darkening in post processing. I really loved the hints of red glow on the surrounding clouds.
I had just remarked to my wife that it was odd we hadn’t seen many pronghorn when this little one and a bunch more appeared. Two bucks, three does and four fawns helped wrap up our tour of our favorite are of the park.
As is typical for the species, none really wanted anything to do with us but this one was quite curious, walking closer while the others maintained their distance.
Check out this cutie – one to hopefully put a smile on your face as you head to the weekend!
While many people visit Yellowstone National Park and never see a bear, we usually have pretty good luck, at least with the black bears. In a span of a few hours, we spotted three adults, two had cubs (one with one, another with two).
This little one was initially hiding in a tree while its mom grazed nearby. We didn’t even know it was there until we saw it scamper down. Both mom’s and the cub’s attention soon focused on a bison bull that was working its way closer.
At different points, both stood up to get a closer look and keep watch on the big fella as he approached. It was interesting because they seemed to purposefully position themselves so that our car was between them and the bison (smart on their part!). This was pretty cool as that allowed us some fantastic views of them.
Eventually they decided it was better to depart the area but we were happy to have been able to spend a good bit of time with the pair.
Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!
Oh man, I really wanted a good look at this guy. Check out those massive paddles on his antlers and if you look close, he has a drop tine on the left one.
Unfortunately, he did not want to pose on this morning last week. After grazing in the near dark, once the sun came up, he was off and running, disappearing into the trees on the far side of the river.
Nevertheless, I kind of liked the scene he was in with what almost look like “layers” of various foliage from the riverfront willows to the grasses and then the aspens in the background.
There are three, iconic spots in Grand Teton National Park for taking pictures of the Tetons. I had hoped to photograph sunrises and sunsets at all three during our recent visit, just as I had done before.
However, oppressive wildfire smoke dominated the skies, oftentimes almost entirely preventing seeing the mountains unless you were right up to them. Last Thursday evening a light rain shower served to tamp down the smoke so I hoped Friday morning would give me at least one chance – and it did.
It was a tough call as to which of the three spots to go to (the other two being Mormon Row and Oxbow Bend). I opted for Schwabacher Landing because it is the closest of the three to those majestic peaks, thus helping to mitigate the effects of the lingering smoke.
Plus, there is something about early morning at this spot that I just love. Not many folks go there early and it is a nice walk along the banks of the pond with lots of spots to just soak in the view and take pictures.
Mama grizzly wasn’t too interested in letting one of her two little ones go for a ride. 😉
Mother Nature saved the best for last on my excursion to Yellowstone and the Tetons. We were on our way home when we spotted three distinct figures off in the willows and clovers. Instantly we knew what it was – and who it was.
Say hello to the infamous Felicia and one of her little ones (the second was just out of frame to the right).
Female grizzly bears can push 400 pounds and this big, pretty lady is probably somewhere near that. She was absolutely impressive and her cubs adorable.
Felicia, officially known as Grizzly 863, is estimated to be eight years old and has become a fixture in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Her propensity to hang out in well-trafficked areas has caused consternation among wildlife officials and they recently tried to haze her to get her to move to more private environs. That clearly did not work for long.
There has been a lot of debate over how to handle her as she has never been a truly problem bear – she hasn’t threatened humans or shown any desire to intrude on human settlements. Felicia simply seems to like the area due to its abundant food supply and the fact that being in the proximity of humans helps to dissuade male bears (boars) who might threaten her cubs.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has said that more extreme measures including possible euthanasia may be taken, something I find personally abhorrent given that Felicia has thus far not presented any threat – and if she did, it would likely be the fault of stupid human behavior, not her.
I’m back! Not that you knew I was gone thanks to the magic of scheduling posts ahead of time but I just returned from a week of much-needed R&R in Yellowstone and the Tetons. It was an absolute fantastic trip despite the unusually warm weather and smoke from wildfires and I captured a good number of cool images.
As we have been to the area many times, we did mix it up a bit, checking out some new sights / sites including where this image was taken – Upper Mesa Falls in Caribou-Targhee National Forest in Idaho.
If you are ever in the area, it is well worth visiting. The waterfalls were impressive but this was my favorite shot as it uses a technique I have been wanting to try out.
Getting the flowers to stay sharp while using a slow shutter speed to portray the speed of the water rushing by is not easy. It of course requires zero wind as you need the flowers to stay perfectly still and for the first time I was able to pull it off. This was taken from a busy boardwalk so I had to handhold the camera versus using a tripod which made it even tougher.
Ideally, I would have been able to secure the camera solidly and go even slower with the shutter speed further blurring the waters but as-is, I am pretty pleased with the shot.
Much more to come from this trip in the days ahead, including a bear or two or more. 😉
A few weeks ago I shared some more pictures from this particular morning in June when a peregrine falcon incited panic in these cool birds. This image was taken before all that action, when the ibis were calmly enjoying a nice, Colorado morning.
These birds are really cool with iridescent plumage when flying or seen from the back. Those white faces and long beaks make for a very unusual look as well.
Well, technically I was below the 14er mark when I snapped this shot but I was on my way up to those altitudes. 😉
Taken on the road up Mount Evans, the sunrise was quite the spectacle. As the sun rose over the horizon, it lit up the one, lone cloud in the sky. The haze on the horizon had an orange glow and closer in, it shrouded the lower mountains making them look like shadows.
Just another, typically beautiful morning in the Colorado high country.
