Swan Lake Landing

It was a clear, calm summer evening perfect for a little flying. I am amazed at the transition between one of the largest shallow water lakes in America and the intense farming that surrounds it. It is also a good place to get lost while kayaking.

A Summer Itch

This young bull moose must have been bothered by mosquitoes like the rest of us along the moose pond trail in Grand Teton National Park. His mother would have nothing to do with him as if to say, "Grow up".  It was tempting to go BBC and add the sound of scratching.  Enjoy.

 

Daddy Long Legs

I was wandering in the dark, damp woods and came across this daddy long legs spider on a leaf. As I watched it I noticed the rhythm in its leg movements which led to this short video. 

Technical: High ISO, 16k? 1/125 sec, f8, @60fps. slowed to half speed in FCPX

Growing Mushrooms

I've been exploring the woods in the rain this week, thank goodness for durable cameras. I noticed mushrooms everywhere and decided to try time-lapse again.  Last summer I made my first attempt at mushroom time-lapse and and was not happy with the results. This year I made a few minor adjustments: placing the Go Pro further away from the subject and recording bigger mushrooms being the main adjustments.

Technical: Go Pro @ 1 minute intervals, about 8 1/2 hours duration. Sequenced in LRTimelapse

August Monarchs

 

I spent a few mornings watching monarch butterflies earlier this month. In the past I have always felt the third week of August was peak migration in southern Minnesota. This year it was the end of the first week. I don't know if I just happened to be there or if the change is real. The good news is that I saw more butterflies than I have seen in years.

Summer Velvet

Another surprise on the camera trap! These cameras have been out in the same location for almost 3 months but the deer are still curious about them. The deer must smell the remnants of my breakfast when I change the SD cards. This is a limited hunting area on public land in the Minnesota River bottom. Hunters might be drooling at the size of these antlers. The color is before light transitions to complete darkness when the camera will use its light at 100% output.

Juvenile Burrowing Owl

 

I was on my out of the park and feeling good about getting the bison shots I was looking for when I saw this owl standing on a prairie dog mound. Two hours later, after about 100 still shots and 50 video clips, I headed east.  The shots were taken of the window and a little shaky but still fun to put together and share with you.

Starting Young

These 6 month old calves are practicing for the big time when they can join the rut in 6-7 years. As with all herds and flocks it's hard to keep up with the action that is happening everywhere. On to the next Badland NP excitement in the next post.

Bison Battle 2

If you notice there is only one foot on the ground of the front bull. It gives me new appreciation for their power. The bulls were almost rabid in there behavior, very frightening.  The apparently slow moving, dull witted animals are entirely beasts in the rut.

Technical: 600 mm with 1.4 tele-extender, 1/800 second

Prairie Evening

I spent a couple hours on the prairie yesterday with some new found friends and left with a renewed enthusiasm for it. It was a perfect evening: hot, calm, sweet light, and no mosquitoes. Even the clouds cooperated as they developed at sunset.

Prairie Afternoon

I went out to the prairie for the first time in a couple weeks looking for insects to film.It was a good afternoon for dragonflies and butterflies. This short piece gives you an idea of what the afternoon looked and sounded like.

Technical: GoPro for time lapse, a variety of slow motion speeds to show the dragonfly in action. Natural sound taken from in camera microphone.

Fawn in the Fog

This is another clip from the summer camera trap. I hope to watch this fawn grow over the season and will share it as it becomes available. I am learning the value of placing two cameras at this site, the animals have a lot of potential paths they can take. This was completely missed by the other camera. Love the mood the fog produces.

Following Mom

I just checked the cards on my camera traps and found lots of activity, including the pesky ants that have taken up residence on one of them. Summer is a notoriously bad for trapping with the high weeds obscuring the animals. I found an intermittently wet pool that is free of weeds and set up a couple cameras a few weeks ago. Over the three weeks since I checked it there has been a nice variety of animals passing in front of the cameras.

Technical: The back lighting is from the second camera which is placed at a right angle to the other one.

Avalanche Trail

This is the most popular trail in the park and was even more popular with the road still closed to Logan Pass. We usually started early in the morning and avoided the long lines of hikers that developed later. Occasionally while stopping to rest I took a few shots. Technical: 1/2 second, tripod

Glacier has had record numbers of visitors this year making traditional park shots difficult to get. This is for those who would rather not see fellow visitors.

Bird Woman Falls Overlook

The crowds at Glacier were impossible to overlook so I started photographing them in the scene. This unhappy Arizonian was traveling alone while on his way to the next pullout while the couple were in the moment enjoying themselves. Maybe there is a message there.

Trail of Cedars Cathedral

This upturned tree at a boardwalk bench caught my attention and as I was following the broken roots up an idea struck me.  The roots and branches mimic each other to a certain extent. It is also humbling to be at the bottom of such tall trees.

Summer Travel

When you're retired it is hard to say you went on a vacation. We traveled to Glacier National Park last week and did some hiking. We were forced to stay on the west side of the Park since the road over Logan Pass was still closed. We put this disappointment to good use and explored all the trails around Lake McDonald. Avalanche Lake is a high use destination but worth the crowds and a relatively easy hike. This hike seemed much easier the second time. . . wonder why? 

Technical: This was my first hard use of the Sony for landscapes. Its dynamic range makes shooting most HDR sequences unnecessary. The data in dark areas gets pulled out beautifully in Lightroom.

Antelop Fawns

These guys have been around for a few days and only need some growth to look identical to mom. Well, maybe some exercise too.

 

Big Horn Lambs

These guys were frisky and frolicking with their mothers on a cliff side that gave me motion sickness when filming them. Loose stones were tumbling down a few hundred feet as they moved across the cliff. Perhaps this gives a little better idea of their playground.

 

Fawn in the Rain

I checked my camera trap today and found an ant colony had taken up residence in its nooks and crannies. They were only on the outside but clearly messed up a large number of images as they moved across the camera lens during the last 3 weeks. I have heard of this happening but it was a first for me. I'm not sure how to prevent it either. Fortunately they had not messed up the best video on the card.