Yellowstone National Park

Madison Campground

10-06-2015

Kim and I moved from the commercial RV park in West Yellowstone, to one inside the park. Unfortunately it was too late to see that they did not have electricity, or cell service, so we would have to try out our new propane heater. At 30 degrees in the morning it works marginally OK.

Here is Jack shooting Old Faithful.

And here is a shot of Old Faithful from inside where it was warm.

Yesterday was the last day of shooting in the park with the boys, and boy did we have a great time. Dick and Jack picked me up early in the morning. I don’t have a lot of time to describe out drive around the park so I will let the pictures tell the story.

A beautiful lake shot

Another Bison shot!

Dick really wanted a Trumpter Swan and here it is.

Yellowstone National Park

Buffalo Crossing Campground

10-03-2015

The PSA Conference is done. It ended last night. Next year the Photographic Society of America will hold their annual conference in San Antonio. The last item on the agenda was for us to present our San Antonio video to show just what there is to photograph. Jack and Dick were the presenters. I produced the 17 minute video. Since we're were the last presenters some of the people had gone home, but still there were about 50 people in attendance.

Jack and Dick planning their presentation.

By the sound of the applause at the end I think it was well received. We all received a thank you note and a commerative coin from PSA. Jack and Dick did a great job of presenting SA in the best light, and answering questions. I think that we will have a good turnout next year thanks to our hosting club Greater San Antonio Camera Club of which we were representing.

Dick receiving thanks from PSA

Jack answering the questions from the audience.

We have all decided that we love it here so much we have extended our stay for another 3 or 4 nights, and I am looking forward to some more excellent photo opportunities.

Here are the 3 of us in front of the Holiday Inn West Yellowstone (pic by Dick)

Yellowstone National Park

Buffalo Crossing Campground

10-01-2015

Yesterday, we thought that we would try to do something a little bit different. I said to the group, “Why don’t we try and paint Old Faithful with light? ” Nice idea, came the reply.

Jack, Kim and I started out at about 3:30pm. It is about and hour drive from our campsite to the main event, but like all drives in Yellowstone there were a couple of stops. The first one was a bull elk, but he proved to be too far to evectively photograph. The second stop was a family of elk just sitting and drinking in the stream.

One of the elk going for a walk.

We hit the Old Faithful parking area at about 5 PM, and we got to our spot on the sidewalk that ringed it just in time to watch it spout. That was about 5:30.

Here is Old Faithful in the late afternoon.

Knowing that she erupted about every 90 minutes we headed off and took a long walk on the boardwalk that spreads out around the site. There were many vents filled with steam, mud pots boiling and a nice stream that ran through the middle of it all.

By then it was time to try and setup to get the sunset behind her. it was a little early for sunset, but we shot it anyway.

And here is Old Faithful at ALMOST sunset.

As the main event wouldn’t happen for another 90 minutes we headed into the cafeteria for dinner. Then, while it was still semi-light we setup again, and waited for it to get dark. I was little worried that my million watt light would not be strong enough to illuminate the geyser, but Kim, who was to be the light painter did an excellent job of slowly moving the beam up and down the stream of water, while Jack and I counted off the 30 second exposures.

And here she was completely dark and illuminated by our light!

The show only lasted for about 5 minutes. It looked like the small crowd of people who sat and watched us enjoyed the show also. In the distance a beautiful lightening show had begun. Jack started to capture it, so I was not to be left standing there, camera in hand so I tried to capture it also. I never could time it exactly to get a lightening strike, but I did get some very interesting clouds being lit by it.

The night sky lit up by a lightening show.

Exhausted but extremely happy we all made it back to camp. Another great day in paradise.

Yellowstone National Park

Buffalo Crossing Campground

09-30-2015

I could live like this.

Yesterday Dick, Jack and I set out for an early morning adventure to find wildlife. The manager of the RV park where we were staying told us about a place called Earthquake Lake, which was outside the park, where we might be able to photograph Big Horn Sheep. It was so cold and windy that once we got to the spot, we all scurried back to the warmth of the car.

Abandoned ranch

The vies were fantastic.

Then we just wandered around for about 4 hours through the beautiful countryside. We got to photograph old abandoned ranches, exotic cattle, a coyote and some nice deer, but mostly it was all about the comrodery and the hunt.

What great photogenic cattle.

When we got home we had a great lunch at an ice cream palor, rested for a while, and then went back to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, which is just walking distance from out camp. We all got some terrific shots of the animals and returned home for another rest.

A wolf resting but keeping an eye on me.

A grizzly on the hunt for food.

Later that night we went over to the PSA conference, and watched a dynamic presentation by one of the premier photographers in the world–Art Wolf.

Nice, nice day!