Yellowstone Wildlife

One of the many great things about Yellowstone National Park is the wildlife that lives in it. When you have an opportunity to visit you are guaranteed to see some wildlife though maybe not all you may want to see. Elk and bison are some of the most common animals living in the park. There are also wolves, which I had a chance to see, but I had to use my spotting scope to view them, and I do not have a lens in my bag big enough to shoot that distance due to cost. There are also bears, but again you have to either have to know where they hang out and go look for them or be at the right place at the right time. On my visit I was lucky enough to see to sets of bears, a black bear, and a grizzly bear both with cubs. I will put there pictures in the next blog. In this blog I am putting up some of the pictures of elk and bison that I took as well as an antelope. The other fun thing about this time of year is that there are all the baby animals. This trip there was baby bison and baby bears.

As a reminder if you have an opportunity to get out to photograph wildlife be sure to stay a safe distance. A mother protecting its baby can be dangerous and unpredictable. So grab your camera go out and take some great pictures and be safe while doing it.

Stay tuned for bears in a couple days.

Enterance to Yellowstone

Now that I have been able to make my first trip of the year Yellowstone National Park I have my first opportunity to share new pictures with you of the beauty of the park during the early summer late spring season. Right now is a great time at the park since with all the moisture the water tables are still high keeping thermal features still flowing well, some of these start to slow down by the end of summer to a mere trickle. To start you off today the pictures are taken from the north entrance, the original entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

The arch in the picture called the Roosevelt Arch was built as part of the original entrance in Gardner, Montana to greet park guests as they arrive.

This is Located at Mammoth Hotsprings, this is the first town that you will come upon when coming in to the park from the north. This is a hot spring terrace that is grown with minerals over time. This is known as a travertine terrace. during the spring the colors and whites are brighter with the higher water tables, by the end of the summer some of the water flows begin to slow a bit and some of the bright areas will begin to dull a bit.

In the town of Mammoth through out the year elk will hang around. During the fall, it is a great sight to see the bull elk laying around in the grass with the huge antlers.

This is Floating Island lake located about 10 miles east of Mammoth. This is a place that I have seen bears in the past. Bison and water fowl and elk are not uncommon to find here at any time though.

This is taken in the Lamar valley in the north end of Yellowstone Park. At the far end of the field is a heard of bison. Up the road about 12 miles there was a mom wolf with cubs the we were able to stop and watch for a few minutes. Unfortunately  I don't own a lens that I can use to photograph at that great a distance, I do own a spotting scope I could use to just watch. I'm not sure how far they were, but if I had to guess I would say maybe a couple miles. One day hopefully I will have a lens that can do that, but it  cost about $16,899, so it won't be any time soon.

So be sure to grab your camera and if you have any type of park to get out and enjoy it and take pictures while you do. Have fun and be safe till next time.

Prepairing for a Photography Trip

Summer is here and tomorrow is going to be my first distant trip for taking photos. I will be making that 1.5 hr drive to Yellowstone National Park for the first trip of the season. The day before the trip there is some important things to do to be sure everything is ready so you can have an enjoyable trip and come home with great pictures. Here is a list of things to do to be sure you are ready the day before.

1. Be sure batteries are charged (if using regular batteries make sure you have plenty on hand, trust me you don't want to buy these in national parks).
2. Be sure all pictures are transferred from the memory card to your computer and then back them up to another drive if possible then format the memory card. Place memory card in camera before going any further.
3. Clean all lens so you won't have dirt or finger prints to interrupt the beauty of the images
4. Be sure, if you are using one, the secondary camera has batteries and memory card and in camera bag.
5. Check bolts on tripod making sure all are tight, tighten if needed.
6. Be sure to pack small tool kit (precision screwdrivers, allen/star wrenches, small pliers)
7. Pack spare lens caps, these seem easy for me to loose.
8. Pack spare lens cleaning wipes.
9. Pack the battery charger. This may sound odd, but if your batter dies you may be able to find a place to relax in a public area that has an outlet and then you have a fully charged battery again. This can be really handy, so don't forget the charger.
10. This one most people may not think of for a camera bag but is important to carry for outdoor shoots. Pack the sun screen. I'm lucky enough to have enough room in my bag to hold it. If you don't, pack it with the other things you bring such as drinks and snacks. Coming home sun burned can ruin a great trip.

As long as you make a point to be sure you have everything, a trip to do photography that you have to travel to can be fun and not a lot of stress. You will find, getting to a spot with a bear in the perfect location with an opportunity for that perfect shot, to find out you forgot you camera card can ruin at least the first part of the trip. Then when you get to the park store and find out that the camera cards are 4x the price as outside the park you will really be kicking yourself. So just do yourself a favor, take a little time and follow the list and make sure you are ready.

So with that, there won't be a post on Sunday which would be the next scheduled post  since I will be going through all the pictures that I will have taken. On Monday and over the next week or so I will be sharing the photos that I have taken. Hopefully there will be some great animal and scenic photos that I will be sharing.

Have a great weekend, get out, have fun, and take some great pictures. Remember to always be safe in all you do.

  

Saving Old Photos

When you look in old photo albums one thing you may notice is that if there is some really old photos they may be starting to deteriorate from age. One thing that is a good idea to try to save these pictures is to scan them and create digital copies that will remain and save those memories well after the prints are gone. All that is needed to do this is a scanner and time. For safety of the pictures a flatbed scanner is the best to do this. The type that you feed pages into have a risk of ripping the paper, especially the paper older pictures that are deteriorating are printed on, causing further damage to already potentially damaged pictures.

If a picture is damaged and it is important to you, you have a couple of options. If you are good with photoshop, you can do some restoration yourself, but if you are not that good at photoshop, there are services available that can do restoration services for you with. Prices ranging depending on the amount of service needed for the picture. If you need help finding this kind of service feel free to contact me and I will be happy to try to help.

In most photo software you should be able to scan the photos directly into it and be able to enter information about the photo into what is called "metadata". This is where information is recorded about a photo. It can be notes about the photos, cameras store information about settings, if there is GPS abilities with your camera, that will be stored there, serial number of the camera, and you can input copyright information in this section as well. This is an area that is not visible when just looking at the picture but is stored in the background of the picture.

Another option, this is what my sister that has been working on scanning my grandmothers photo albums, is to type the names at the base of the photos and this makes it easier for people that are looking at the pictures to see the information without having to go into photo programs to pull up the background information.

The pictures that I am adding on my blog today are some old pictures that have been scanned in by my sister. Most are from the early 1900's. Except for what is on the pictures no other information was recorded about them unfortunately.

So when you have a chance, pull out the old photo albums, and start scanning the photos. Don't forget to back everything up as well. Once you go through all this work you don't want to lose it all to a hard drive failure. Don't forget to go out and take new pictures, have fun and be safe.

Pony Montana (Ghost Town)

One of the great things about living in Montana other then all the scenic beauty, is the abundance of history contained from the times of the gold rush. Within 1 or 2 hours of where I live there are 8 ghost towns. Today I am including pictures from the second one that we went to yesterday. The one in today's pictures is called Pony which was a mining town that was started back in the late 1800's. Unlike Maudlow, from the post titled "Ghost Towns", the remaining buildings seem to be watched after a little better and not being taken down for parts. This town though does still have several people still living there today.

Photography is a great way to be able to capture parts of history. There is no way of knowing when something might happen that might damage or destroy places, through nature or other means, and pictures that were taken by people like you are all that may remain for places to be remembered.

So grab your camera, go out and look for those hidden historical treasures near you and take pictures. Be safe when doing so, you never know what dangers may be lurking around, and have fun.

Feel free in the comments below to put a picture of a historical place near you and maybe history to go with it.

Bank Located in Pony, Montana 

Closed Store Fronts Along the Main Street

Public School in Pony, Montana

This looks like it could be an old mine building, I believe that it is being used as a private residence now though.

This is what remains of an old gold mill. The 2 stone walls are the only remnants still standing of the structure that operated from 1884-1926.

Some of the buildings it will take more research to know what they were for sure but that is part of the fun of history, continuing to learn new things all the time.

Places near Home

Hopefully some of you are lucky enough to have access to scenic areas either inside or outside of the areas you may live. The pictures that I am including in todays post are some that I am lucky enough to be able to take just a few minutes just outside of Bozeman. When you look at these pictures you may think that I had gone hours from town but it was maybe a 20 min drive. You may be surprised if you just look around you what you find to photograph with in a short distance.

For some fun if you would like in the comments area below put a picture of where you are from and write where you are from. This would be a fun chance to see where people that follow this blog are from.

So grab your camera, go out, and get a picture that shows where you live, and have fun while you do it.

Fun in the Sun

When you have a beautiful day, there is nothing better then going out and spending some time walking along the river. When you go out on a leisurely activity like this, it is a great time to to take your camera along to take pictures. Even if you have taken pictures in an area, it is nice to take pictures in that area again, because nature is always changing. Even if you go to a city park there are still plenty of places that can be photographed including trees, birds and other wildlife. So with the nice weather, grab your camera and take some pictures as you go out on your walks and enjoy the weather and scenes that surround you.

Here are some pictures that I took today along another portion of the Gallatin River at Cameron Bridge, further north, away from the canyon where the previous pictures were taken.

Any suggestions for future posts, please place them in the comments below and I will be happy to try to work them in as we continue down the road of photography.

So remember, grab your camera, go out and take some great pictures and build those memories. And please remember to always be safe in all your activities.