Mammoth Hot Springs at Night

The springs have an other worldly character during the day that is even more pronounced at night. The lights from Mammoth shine on parts of the terrace giving it a warm glow. Light was painted in areas that were dark giving this almost rainbow effect with the different light sources. Auto WB was used in Lightroom to balance the mixed lighting.

Orion over Mammoth Terrace

It was the end of a long day but the sky was clear. Instead of heading in for supper we had to take advantage of the clear sky! 

Moose in the snow

A couple moose were watched intently by visitors as they were eating and resting. Occasionally  a noise from the road would get one's attention. The falling snow added some atmosphere to an otherwise unremarkable two days of intermittently watching them eat and rest.

Mom & Pop

Mountain blue birds are a welcome sight in Yellowstone with a sparkle of blue flashing over the snow.  This pair was busy making the rounds over their territory on a sunny morning.

Birch on Round Prairie

I look at these trees each time I pass them on the way to Pebble Cr. It has taken the short trees just protruding through the snow almost twenty years to spring back after decades of over browsing by elk. Nature has its own schedule.

Hot Springs Tracks

We are in Yellowstone for a few days to refresh after a long winter. One might ask why go to the mountains for more snow when spring is so close. the answer is simple, I like winter. However, this winter's temperatures have been a little rough on the morning get up and go. Each of us sees Yellowstone in a different light. I hope to show you my view of it over the next several postings.

Ice Out

The sure sign of spring is ice leaving the river. We may get false hopes up when the temperature temporarily rises or some snow melts but once the ice is out winter is over. It's reassuring since the forecast is predicting another winter storm today. Always looking for the silver lining, it will make for a good snow melting time-lapse in a couple days.

Last morning of tranquility

This is the morning on the day ice left the Cottonwood River. Little did I know that this tranquil scene would be replaced 10 hours later  with ice floes racing downstream in dark muddy brown water. 

What deer?

That's what my wife said when after watching yesterday's time lapse video. Each video is watched a dozen or more times in the editing process so the minute details seem obvious to me by the time the finished product is ready to share. The same can be said when editing and enhancing still shots. We see the flaws others overlook making us at times our own worse critic. In case you missed the deer yesterday here it is in a moderately cropped image.

The season of change

Spring's transitions can be hard to capture in a single image, especially in March, so I have started using time lapse to show change. Time lapse is a faith driven exercise since there is no predicting what will occur over a 6 hour period that is recorded in a 10 second video. 

Technical: 1 minute intervals for 6 hours, manual exposure, Giga Pro T used as the intervalometer on a Canon 30D, JPEG capture. Edited in iMovie to half speed, deer further reduced to 25% speed.

Ice Lattice

The season is changing! Ice is one of nature's mysteries I return to time and again. The patterns and colors amaze me each time I look at it. The challenge is getting an image to show emotion. Frequently color and design just don't translate to an image. However, I keep trying which is the joy of photography. I like this image for the illusion of depth.

Dreaming of spring

What can I say! Color is hard to find and muted when found.  This is from Lion's Park in St. Croix Falls where a carpet of woodland ephemerals will someday replace this blanket of white.

Technical: Lightroom used to push white slider to its limit. Shadow slider used to recover branches and leaves

Turf Battle

Those you who have watched red squirrels know how aggressive they are when defending food. This fox squirrel is clearly getting the upper hand at the water hole.

Technical: Bushnell's capture data isn't transferred to Lightroom. It would have been nice to know the shutter speed that froze this action.

Tension

This has not been a good winter for collecting trail cam images. The deep snow and cold weather have kept wildlife close to home. Compounding that was a 3 week period when the camera was in position with dead batteries. Yesterday I changed cards at a watering hole camera where the seepage keeps it ice free in all but the coldest temperatures. While reviewing couple thousand squirrel images I noticed this hawk and squirrel.

Technical: Lightroom 5's vignette tool was used to highlight the hawk and squirrel. Bushnell Trophy cam used with slight cropping.

Frozen Falls

I hiked into Wolf Cr. Falls to use a slider for the first time in the field. After practicing at home I thought it was time to give it a try outdoors. There is a learning curve for smooth movement and some planning is needed to put a series of clips together.  It has opened a new world of video by creating movement in an otherwise static scene.