Moose News Blog

There are those days when no matter what you know, you can’t scare up an image to save your life. Today was anything but one of those. The entire DLWS gang had a monstrous day of shooting in Yellowstone with the photogods presenting to us all that is Yellowstone. We had the hoar frost light up just at the right moment when we stopped to photograph the rising steam of Paint Pots. We had blue sky come out behind and the wind stop when we photographed Old Faithful which performed the highest display in months. And we ended the day with incredible light and subjects, so many you had to make a choice sacrificing ten other great subjects. I choose to finish the day with this Bison Bull which had just one side a frozen puzzle from sleeping on a thermal area. 64GB of images later, all I can say about the day is it was simply, magical!

Photos captured by D3, 200-400VR/24-70AFS/200-400VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

The DLWS staff headed into Yellowstone prior to sunrise and not until 4PM did we see any sun. That didn’t stop us from having great fun like kids in fresh snow shooting the wonders all around us. One of our first stops was Firehole Falls which in winter is a beautiful place. This photo was finished using Nik Color Efex 3.0 Bleach which, since there was no real color worked great.

We than headed to Biscuit Basin and walked the snow covered boardwalk. Here, the richness of color set again the white snow was quite dramatic.

All it took was a slow pace and lots of looking below one’s feet to find the small gems of color amongst the white.

Photos captured by D3, 24-70AFS/14-24AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

The classic Yellowstone photo is the bison in snow and on our first venture out this afternoon, we were easily able to take the token Bison photo. Of course, I hope to greatly improve on this. The snow on the face of this bull is from plowing the snow away off the ground to find the few dried grasses leftover from summer. It wasn’t cold enough for frost to form and stick on their coats. Hopefully it will get colder than our 15 degrees today.

Light had fallen below the horizon as we were leaving the mud pots when I found another addition to my snow sculpture collection. I like this better than most, but still looking for the shot.

There is probably more photogenic though than the frozen steam caught in mid air by the pines surrounding the thermals. The very slight, slight glow in the far off horizon gives the scene an unearthly feel making you wonder if it’s real or not. The boardwalks which in the summer are quite a challenge to hide in your photograph are hard to find in the winter time. They are covered with snow so watching where you step is real important or otherwise, you’ll warm your toes more than you might desire!

Photos captured by D3, 200-400VR/14-24AFS/24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

In snow country, that first morning walk can be a real eye opener. Especially when mother nature calls. Thank goodness we don’t have to depend on outdoor pluming

This snap was made on the walk to breakfast this AM. This is a closed campground outside West Yellowstone with the sun threatening to come out and play. Though I live in snow country and see it every day for months on end, something about the way mother nature sculptures it still facinates me. At the same time, I’ve still not captured the snow landscape photograph so I’m constantly working at it. Life is good when you have such simple pursuits pulling you forward.

Photo captured by D3, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

We left Mammoth yesterday and arrived in West Yellowstone this evening and the entire 1100 mile drive we were in snow. That’s a first and it was gorgeous! All across the NV desert and UT salt flats, snow. What you see here is not our 1st class lodging for DLWS but the old railroad station across the street. Walking to dinner after sunset in the blustery snow, the sliver of the windows in the snow bank caught my attention. The D3 always goes with me and easily handled the exposure and captured all the detail in the old wood sides. Using the 12WX and my secret filter in Color Efex 3.0, I quickly processed the image without even to have to take my feet down from the fire.

Tomorrow it’s off to the geyers, more fun to blog all this next week.

Photo captured by D3, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film