First shots since the ice storm

Today was the first day in what feels like months where the weather was actually nice enough to break out the camera gear and take a few shots to clear the rust.  After work, I wandered down to the Tacoma waterfront and snapped a few shots before darkness set in.


I played around with this shot a little and kind of like the way the effect worked.

Japanese Maple

Japanese Maple in the Dew

After having so many great places to take photos while on vacation, sometimes I find that I get home and put the camera away for way too long.  So this morning I decided to make an effort to find at least one thing to shoot, and post to the website.  I didn't have to go far.  I looked up into the back yard and noticed the dew drops hanging off one of the Japanese Maples, and thought it might make a nice shot, so I went out to see what I could get.

Turns out shooting pictures of trees and plants is much harder than you would think when you haven't payed a lot of attention to the yard this year.  Just finding an angle where the background looked clean or wasn't too busy, took a little more effort than I expected.  I settled on just using the rest of the tree as it's own backdrop though, and this was the final result.  I hope you like it.

Grand Tetons

Today was my first full day in Jackson, and I decided to start the day really early and try to catch the sunrise against the Grand Tetons.  I headed for the Snake River Overlook which was made famous by Ansel Adams, and found two other photographers waiting to do the same.  The hope was to see a great sunrise, but Mother Nature had other plans and placed a nice big dark cloud right where the sun was coming up.  That kept the light from hitting the mountains like it would normally do, and left no choice but to just make due with what light there was.  I'll be watching the sky tonight to see if I should go out and try again tomorrow, but in the meantime, here are a few of the photos from today.

Snake River Overlook at Sunrise

The upper part of the mountains should have had a nice glow from the sun by now, if it hadn't been for the dark cloud directly behind me.  Seems this trip has either been filled with no clouds at all, or a few too many.

Famous Barn on Mormon Row

Shortly after getting to this spot, the sun broke through the cloud and lit everything up making it look so nice and warm, even though I think it was still only about 45 degrees out there. It only lasted a few minutes and then another large cloud moved in and blocked the early morning light again.

Schwabacher's Landing

I wandered over the Schwabacher's Landing after visiting the famous barn, and found this spot that so many others have stopped at before me to shoot photos.  It was just kind of fun to see these places in person after looking at so many photos from them over the years.

Chapel of the Transfiguration

This last set of photos was taken at another very famous spot just inside of Grand Teton National Park. I had to really hurry to get these three photos as there were people milling all around, mostly in front of the door, so when there was the shortest of gaps, I hurried and grabbed this shot, and also manged to take one inside between busloads of people being dropped off here.  If only the light would have been a little better.

View from next to the Chapel of the Transfiguration

View of interior of the chapel

I'm still trying to decide if I should stay another full day and give myself two mornings to catch a sunrise, or just try tomorrow on the way out of town, and just have to plan to come back another day and see if I have better luck.

Yellowstone - Day 4

Bison all alone early this morning

Well, I've seen most of the official sights here in the park already, so decided today to head down to the section of the park furthest from me, and explore that area all day.  Turns out that section of the park has the largest buffalo population and I saw huge numbers of them in almost every open prairie, and blocking the road a number of times during the day.  I could almost imagine what they used to look like when they  dominated the land out here, especially when looking down on them along the river in the valley.  It was fun to turn off the car and just sit on the hill, listening to them in the distance. 

At one point today, I came across a smaller group that was about 30 yards off the road, and a number of the bulls seemed really agitated. Three of them were bellowing much louder than any I'd heard so far today, and they were each tearing up dirt and grass with their front legs, so I had a feeling something fun was about to happen.  I sat and watched as two of them suddenly charged each other and started slamming heads.  Here is one of the shots from the little encounter.

Bison settling a disagreement

You don't realize just how big these guys really are until you feel the ground shaking when they are throwing down.  Not even sure I can explain what it felt like other than you could just feel how heavy they were and how hard they were going at it.

Another thunderstorm moved in late this afternoon and dumped rain again for a short time.  As the rain stopped and the sky cleared up, The land was just lit up with sun rays as they began breaking through the clouds.

Here are a couple more animal shots from the day as well.

Elk crossing the river

Pronghorn

Yellowstone - Day 3 Animals

Okay, for those of you that like pictures of the animals as well, here are a few of the pictures from today, I won't post the link on Facebook but if you look close you'll see it on my website.  :)

Bison just watching me

Grizzly walking through tall grass

This guy was just waking up from an afternoon nap

Yellowstone - Day 3

I decided to explore the north eastern part of the park today, since yesterday was spent exploring the entire middle where all the geysers and hot spots are.  This part of the park is so different from everything I saw yesterday that at times it felt like I was in a different park. It's mostly high country, mountains, some nice waterfalls and deep valleys.  You can just see why certain animals gravitate to different area's of the park. I'd heard to keep an eye out for lots of Buffalo and even the occasional bear while up in this area, and wasn't disappointed as I saw lots of Buffalo, and even another Grizzly.  I think I've been posting too many animal pictures so here are a few scenery photos from today.

They call this the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

As you can see in the top photo, my streak of hot weather and nothing but clear blue skies came to an end today.  The day started off like all the rest, but starting around noon, clouds began building over the park, and then over the next couple of hours those clouds turned into a nice thunderstorm.  That's something I really miss in Washington.  I was hoping to see lots of lighting and try my hand at catching a few photos of lightning strikes over the park, but it never got that far.  I heard thunder rumble a few times, and then there was a downpour that lasted about 20 minutes... and it was done as fast as it came on.  Oh well...

Yellowstone - Day 2

Old Faithful

Today was my first full day in Yellowstone, and I took full advantage of the time by hitting the park at 8:00 am and not finding my way back out until around 9:30 pm tonight.  I forgot just how big Yellowstone is, and how long it can take to get around in the park if you stop at all the exhibits and geysers.  I think I might have been lucky to even drive through a fifth of the park today.  I did hit the most famous landmark which everyone has to see at least once when they come here. :)

 

 

 

Geysers Geysers Everywhere, and not a usable hot tub in sight

 Most of my day was spent stopping to see all the geysers in the Mammoth Hot Springs area of the park. The photo above is just a sampling of the view all over this section of the park,  where all you can see is steam coming out of holes in the ground.  It's hard to wrap your mind around what is really going on under your feet as your walk around these areas. 

Coyote

 There were a number of times where you would come around a corner and there would be a load of cars pulled over and right away you knew there was some kind of animal or other being stalked by the park paparazzi.  Of course I had to join in a few times since it was the thing to do.  The freakiest sighting today was heading out of the park, coming down a long dark stretch and then realizing there was something in the other lane... but it sure wasn't a car... and then coming to a near stop right next to a Bison as big as my car, slowly strolling the other direction in the middle of his own lane like a good driver. He just kind of looked at me and continued on his way, and so did I.

Canyon Falls

 One thing I was hoping to get pictures of today was some of the many waterfalls in the park, but once again the sun just wasn't going to cooperate with me, and this was the only waterfall I was able to find without the sun beating down on it and making it imposible to get a nice photo of it.  I will try again tomorrow, and maybe I'll get lucky and get to a few more before the sun can beat me to them.

Black and White of a dead tree

The park is full of trees that have been killed off by the heat of the geysers. I thought this one was pretty cool, and hoped it would make a nice black and white. I was actually pretty happy with how it turned out.   There are a ton of other photos to go through still, and I know I should have a few that give you a good look into some of those springs. I'll try to post some of them soon.