The choice for these Turk's cap lilies was a background of green or blue. Green was an easy shot from the knees. Blue meant getting low which took some flexibility and effort, a perfect excuse for a reward at the DQ on the way home. Technical: fill flash at -2 stops, on camera flash Sony RX10ii
This snake caused quite a stir one afternoon last month as it went through historic Mammoth. The visitor who helped it through traffic was one example of the "good" seen everyday in Yellowstone. Technical: recorded using a Sony RX10ii
There are plenty opportunities for birds in Yellowstone and I could not pass up this chance to film flight in slow motion. I started doing slow motion last summer on my iPhone getting hooked on it. Recorded at 1/8 normal speed using a Sony RX10ii.
This was the unofficial start of spring photography after a long March. I have been out shooting so much that this piece has been on the back burner until now. I considered different titles: Snake Orgy, Reptilian Rhapsody, Sex in the Spring, etc. but settled on something a little more tame. There was so much happening at my feet that I forgot to take an establishing shot and had to come back the next day. The fearless snake was recorded at that time.
If snakes make you squeamish this is not the minute for you.
What does an intelligent, rational nature photographer do with a new camera? He goes out in the rain to test it. I have been waiting for an opportunity to test the slow motion video features on my Sony RX10ii and this was a perfect opportunity. I have previously tried filming frogs jumping, it worked but I didn't get enough material for a story.
Technical: The camera had some problems in the rain. The LCD would display an error message but the electronic viewfinder continued to work. After thoroughly drying it all is back to normal. An eye dropper will also be used to place the water drops within the frame. The four raindrops in this piece took half an hour to capture.
Color is coming! After this week the world will be green! Deer are getting hungry for some fresh greens in Flandrau State Park. We are routinely seeing 15-20 browsing on our afternoon and evening hikes.
I am always trying to find a photographic purpose for moss and rarely find one. This hepatica gave me an opportunity to put some color contrast with it.
I've always been fascinated by images showing smooth water in bright light. For me the milky water matches the calming sound of the water rushing over rocks. Technical: The Sony RX10ii has a 3 stop ND filter built in and ISO down to 64 making images like this easy.
I started playing with slow motion video using my iPhone last summer and found it was a great tool to modify time in nature. One of the pitfalls I see on Youtube is using slow motion throughout the entire video, decreasing its drama. This short video has two slow clips interspersed with normal footage. A Sony RX10ii was used with speed slowed 8x (1second=8seconds).
Snow trillium are the first wildflowers of spring, usually preceding hepatica by a couple weeks. In the past the first week of April has been a good time to see them. With the hottest February in history I went out a little earlier this year and found them starting to bloom. They are not quite at peak but definitely in bloom. They might be hard to find later in the week with the predicted snow storm.
