Photographing Dall sheep in Denali National Park

Some time ago I had the chance to go to Alaska for two weeks to film my TV show called “Outdoor Photo Adventures”. You can't imagine how excited I was to be there. One of the highlights of the trip was the time that we spent in Denali National Park. It is a beautiful place, to be sure, but I was mostly interested in the wildlife.

For as long as I can remember I have studied wildlife. First as a hobby and now as part of my quest to be a better photographer. I have spent a lot of hours reading, hoping that someday I would get the chance to see and photograph animals such as the ones that I saw on the trip. You can then imagine how excited I was as we drove our rented RV into the Toklat River ranger station and found a small band of Dall Sheep resting on the side of the mountain.

Dall sheep are very impressive animals. They are typically white in color although there are darker color phases as well. They live in the tundra areas of Northern Canada and into Alaska. The males have massive curling horns that they put to good use during the mating season or rut that occurs in late November and early December. During this period the rams will square off and butt heads violently in order to gain the right to mate with the local ewes. They tend to hang out in areas where they have a combination of open alpine ridges, meadows for feeding and rough rocky pinnacles where they can seek shelter from wolves or grizzly bears that may desire sheep to eat. Like other wild sheep such as the bighorn found in the lower 48, they are extremely adept at scaling cliffs and negotiating rugged rocky spires where no predator can hope to follow. Even the lambs can run along rocky cliffs and seem to defy gravity as they execute moves that would make the most experienced rock climber shudder with fear. Padded hooves help them to some extent but I think they are magic as well.

That is a little sheep natural history. Now back to my story.

The sheep that we spotted at Toklat were not obvious at first. We got out to stretch our legs a little and look around. As I looked up on the tundra slopes of the mountain nearby, I spotted what at first appeared to be a white speck of late snow at about 1 mile distant and about 1000 feet in elevation gain from where we were. I had a 600 mm lens attached to my Canon 20D for a focal length of 960 mm or about 19.2x magnification. With that kind of power I could barely make them out as sheep. We had a 1.5 mile hike in front of us lugging heavy still camera and video equipment but we were so excited that no one even questioned if we would make the effort or not. So we started up the mountain.

Our party consisted of my videographer and director Dan Blust, his girlfriend, Juliana, Alex Chamberlain my son and our assistant and myself. After we had covered the first half mile or so I paused to take the first photo.

Now, ordinarily, I would choose an indirect rout when trying to get close to a wild animal. This time however, we had no choice but to move straight up the hill, in full view of the sheep all the time. I was afraid that we would spook the sheep so I stopped every few minutes to photograph them.

I was pleased to find that they didn't spook easily. Much like other wild sheep and goats, they were very confident in their ability to escape these clumsy climbers if they needed to and were content to just continue resting while we worked our way closer. After an hour or so, we moved to within 150 feet of the sheep and were able to get some very nice shots. 

What a great experience it was to be in Alaska and have the chance to see and photograph animals like Dall sheep. Now every time I see one of these photos I remember that trip and the great time we had in quest of some photographs of these magnificent animals.

I hope you enjoy these photos and the narrative. Let me know if you do by leaving a comment.

Snow goose Festival this weekend

Come and join me at the Snow goose festival this week end in Delta, Utah.  I will be there on Friday and Saturday February 25th and 26th.  It is estimated that there are 30,000 geese there at this time.  That will be the largest flock that we have seen in the 21 years that we have been holding the festival.  We may see some winter weather this week which will just make the vision more beautiful.  Plan on being there about 9:30 on either morning for the best look at the "fly-in".  This is a great photo op and I can almost promise that you will get some worthwhile photos if you bring a 300 or 400 mm telephoto lens.  Learn more about snowgeese by watching the video below and follow this link to another post on my blog.
http://outdoorphotoquest.blogspot.com/2011/01/snow-geese-are-on-move-again.html

A little snow can change everything

I had the chance to spend some time at Bryce National Park this past weekend.  Friday was beautiful but there was only a little snow with lots of mud on the trails.  I took some photos and was happy with what I got but there was nothing really out of the ordinary.






(This is why we photographers marry such beautiful women.  They make great models.)

Saturday morning we awoke to a foot of fresh snow in the parking lot at Ruby's Inn.  It was still coming down and we ended up with over 18 inches before the day ended.  I was excited to get out and photograph a different look in the park.






The snow really tends to give a pastel look to the colors in Bryce.  It is a great contrast to what you normally see.



I wish I could have spent another day out there but other duties called.  One tip when photographing in bright snow.  Your camera's meter will try to turn the snow gray so you have to over expose by at least one stop and even more if the majority of the scene is white.  All of these snow photos were exposed at 1 2/3 stops over.  If you don't do that you end up with muddy gray snow.





I hope you enjoy these photos.  Please let me know what you think.

Photographing nature from the window of my pickup.

One of my “Face Book” friends looked at some of my photographs and made a kind comment as follows; “How do you just happen to be at the right spot at the right time for all of your awesome pics?” My comment back was that my wife tells me that I spend way too much time looking around when I am driving. I consider myself a safe driver, but I do tend to look for cool stuff on the side of the road. Nature is happening all around us all the time. I am afraid that many of us get so wrapped up in our lives that we miss a lot of beautiful stuff. With this thought in mind, I decided to perform a little experiment. I gave myself a photo assignment. What wonderful things could I see and photograph, from the window of my pickup, in three hours. I started with the Hurricane fields and went as far as Cedar Valley. I have to admit that I surprised myself a little. Not only did I see some wonderful sights, but I actually took some photos that I am happy with. See what you think.

This is a very dark rough-legged hawk.  So dark in fact that I wondered if it was a young bald eagle when I first saw it.

What a beautiful bird.  They are recognizable by the dark chest feathers.

This Northern Harrier is a common sight in agricultural areas.  They can be seen flying low over the grass, looking for rodents to eat.  They are also called Marsh hawks at times.

They can be identified by the facial feathers that form a disk.  Many owls have these facial discs as well.  They improve the birds hearing by funneling sound to the ears.

I have to admit that this is my favorite of the day.  I have always admired Bald eagles.  This one in Cedar Valley let me get quite close.  Not too bad for shooting from my truck.  This photograph was in Friday, February 11th  Spectrum newspaper.

Just a word of advice.  If you are going to take photos from a vehicle, make sure that you turn off the engine.  The vibrations can cause your image to be less sharp than it should be.  Even with fast shutter speeds.

I really enjoyed my three hour tour (apologies to Gilligan's Island).  I saw much more cool stuff that I was not able to photograph.  I intend to make this a regular assignment.  Try it yourself and see what you think.  Meanwhile, let me know what you think of the images.

What shutter speed means and how it can influence your photographs.

If you have ever wondered what shutter speed does or how it influences your photographs, there is a good explanation on the video below. Having some knowledge of the factors that influence exposure will help you take better photographs. I have other instructional videos that I will post over time as well. If you have photographic questions that you are dying to have answered just post the question in the comment area and I will do my best to help. I hope you enjoy this and that it will take a little of the mystery out of photography for you.

Please let me know if this video is helpful.  Leave a comment if you like what you see.

Photographing in Bryce Canyon National Park and Winter Fest 2011

The good people at Ruby's Inn, just outside of Bryce Canyon, are holding the annual Spring fling on February 18^th and 19^th. They have asked me to come out and present a wildlife photography class on Saturday night. I am really excited to join them this year and look forward to spending a couple of days in the Park, even though it will be very chilly. I hope to come back with some snow photos for you to see later this month.

There is no place better to explore the play of light on a landscape than Bryce National Park. You can photograph direct light, reflected light and even re-reflected light. Don't be afraid to use your telephoto lenses to isolate features that interest you. I hope to see you out there this year. Here are a few samples to whet your appetite.  Let me know if you like what you see.  It would be great to hear from you.

Winter photography in Southern Utah, "I love to keep my cameral handy all year"

Winter is one of the main reasons that I live here in southern Utah. While other locations are digging out of the storm, I can grab my camera and enjoy the change in seasons with relative comfort. I have always said that I enjoy "going were the weather suits my clothes" (thank you Nilson). If I want to get into the snow, I can. If I don't, I can still shoot wildlife and landscapes just within minutes of my home. Let me share with you a few of the subjects that I have encountered this winter right here, practically in my backyard.




It is hard to imagine anything more beautiful that Zion National Park and the Kolob Canyons section. As the only National Park that is accessible from a major freway (I-15), you would think that millions of visitors would take the short, 5 mile drive and see the sights. You would be wrong.



The area receives very low visitation annually. You put a little snow on these peaks and add the low light angle and warm color of sunset, and you can come up with a pretty spectacular sight.

You can look at some of my previous, Pine Valley Mountain, post to see other landscapes that were taken close by as well.



Winter here is a great time to photograph waterfowl and other birds. This male wood duck is a good example of the beautiful birds that spend the winter with us.  Tonaquint pond in St. George was the location for this photograph.



This female Buffle head duck was photographed on a private pond near Ash Creek.



This is the male Buffle head. Also photographed near Ash Creek.



This male Mallard in flight landed gently on Tonaquint pond also.



This Red-tailed hawk that I encountered on my way into Toquerville one evening.




I had to stop, turn around and back track to get these photos but it was worth it.



Here is a link to a bald eagle that I was able to find this winter as well.

A good friend of mine and a talented photographer Ron Niebrugge likes to quote Wayne Gretzky in saying, "You miss 100% of the shots that you don't take."   It is certainly true. So get out and take some winter photographs.  If you have any ideas for good places for me to go, please let me know through a comment.