The Nature, Wildlife and Pet Photography Forum - Fine Art Landscape Photography

Yellowstone - Last Week of September

Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 08/13/07 11:47 AM

Hey Guys,

It looks as if I am doing Yellowstone/Grand Teton the last week of September. I am trying to figure out a couple of things. My pop, who typically comes with us, is having some mobility problems due to arthritis. I am trying to figure out enjoyable things that go beyond 'shooting from near the car' that would be enjoyable to him. While he has had some issues in past years, this is the first time when he seems to be having a real serious problem. He is a real trooper and definitely wants to be out there, so I know this is tough for him.

Are there any really decent non-shooting activities outside of the two museums (in Jackson Hole and Cody) that would be interesting?

Cheers
James

Posted By: Tony Bynum

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 08/13/07 01:50 PM

how about a boat ride/fishing trip on yellowstone lake? there's no limit on the lake trout and there are guides. . .

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 08/14/07 04:25 PM

Hey Tony,

That is actually a great idea....we did that once about 5 or 6 years ago...we did not see much in terms of wildlife, but it was nice that the guide had a rather encyclopedic knowledge of the river.

Any other ideas?
James

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 09/29/07 05:03 AM

Hey Guys,

Chanthee and I are flying back tomorrow from Yellowstone. We will not be back in the City until Monday evening - but at least it is a step in the right direction.

A very cool thing happened tonight. My wife and I were at Schwabacher's for sunset. It looked amazing - and of course, completely fizzled out as the heavy rain clouds prevented any light from breaking through. Anyway, obviously the cool thing is still coming.

I ran into two folks that I know through NWP and the Nikon Cafe. Bernie Weinzimmer, who wrote an article for us on his trip to Alaska with Ron Reznick, and Paul Frye (A Cafe'er).

What a small world.

James

Posted By: Tony Bynum

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 09/29/07 12:40 PM

Cool! hope you got some good shots. . . . it's completely socked in here in glacier park, snow and rain forcast for the next week. . . fall may be over, but I hope not!!!!

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 09/29/07 12:51 PM

I hear you. Color drastically changed over a few short days while we were here. Sadly, we missed the two peak days of color down in the Tetons because we were up in the West Gate area of Montana.

The colors down here were the best I have seen in years. I cannot wait to look at these on a real computer. If they came out, I will be quite pleased.

Did you guys get snow last night? There is reportedly some coming this way - knowing my luck, just enough to potentially delay an airplane, LOL.

James

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 09/30/07 01:15 PM

Well, we are back on the East Coast. It took a bit longer than expected, but we are indeed back. We are heading back to Manhattan tomorrow - and I will start processing some of this stuff. This was a bit of a record for me. We shot about 16 gigs of stuff - a lot of it though was 2nds and 3rds of the same landscape. We were doing a lot of experimentation. I hope that even 1/2 of it works out accordingly.

James

PS Of course, the airplane WAS delayed...about 40 minutes out of Jackson. LOL, of course, the flight to Boston went off just as scheduled.

Posted By: gll

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 09/30/07 02:30 PM

We just got in Sat morning,with help from some fellow photographers I found the Great Greys. I hated to leave.

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 09/30/07 11:30 PM

Hey Gary,

Great shots. Now, where the heck are you seeing all of these owls?????????????? I have never seen an owl in my entire time going back and forth to either Grand Teton or Yellowstone. It is one of the 'top critters' on my list of things I want to photograph.

James

Posted By: gll

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/01/07 12:00 AM

at Canyon bout 1/2 mile south of the junction

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/01/07 04:00 PM

LOL, that's just great. I was past Canyon going towards Hayden Valley every day for three days. Very nicely done.

James

Posted By: jamesdak

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/01/07 04:22 PM

Quote:

Hey Gary,

Great shots. Now, where the heck are you seeing all of these owls?????????????? I have never seen an owl in my entire time going back and forth to either Grand Teton or Yellowstone. It is one of the 'top critters' on my list of things I want to photograph.

James

You just need to run down to northern Utah for a day to get some owls. I can pretty much quarantee short-eared and burrowing owl shots in Box Elder County and probably some barn owls also.

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Yellowstone -Moose - 10/02/07 07:03 PM

Awesome shots, Jim.

I am just starting to process some of the shots that I too last week. This is one that I took of a bull moose in the rain. You can see it pelting off of the guy. LOL, it was the only time this trip that I have been alone with a moose. I may crop it a bit later on.

James

Posted By: Paul_Frye

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/02/07 07:10 PM

Hi James,

It was great running into you and Chantee at The Grand Teton last week. It was my first time there since I was 10 years old (many years ago) so I considered it to be more a scouting trip than anything...but you are right about the colors...and the animals certainly abounded. Like you, I would like to find some owls on my next time out. That is one bird that has eluded me most of my trips.

Here is a link to my site with prelim shots from the trip. Overall I was pleased and look forward to concentrating even more on my photography next time, now that I've got the lay of the land.

Regards,

Paul

http://homepage.mac.com/paulfrye/Yellowstone%202007/index.html

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/02/07 09:46 PM

Hi Paul,

Very nice work - your compositions are excellent. You did a great job processing the shots as well. Some of my colors look a bit duller - and I am curious what I will need to do to bring them out.

Cheers
James

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Yellowstone - Mt. Moran at Sunrise - 10/02/07 09:51 PM

This is a shot I took of Moran that I am very pleased with. Perhaps I should HDR this and make Moran a bit darker - though it looks like what I recall it looking like that mornning.

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Yellowstone - Mt. Moran at Sunrise - 10/02/07 10:03 PM

Another shot of Moran slightly after sunrise.

James

Posted By: Paul_Frye

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/02/07 11:48 PM

Thanks, James.

I am currently using Aperture to do my quick processing. My basic changes to the shot out of the camera involve the following:

1. Adjust exposure, as necessary
2. Tweak Contrast (I shoot with low contrast to reduce blown highlights)(This also cleans up black point)
2a. Open up the shadows a little, as necessary.
3. Adjust brightness (tweak against contrast)
4. Add a little saturation
5. Adjust sharpness (unsharp mask)

Finally, in transition to the Web, I change the file from Adobe RGB to Nikon sRGB.

None of the shots were touched by Photoshop...that gets done as I start to get serious. Aperture works very fast and well in getting the above done.

For your purposes and to bring out the color, I would suggest working contrast, saturation, and shadow. The light last week in Yellowstone tended to be flat so that should help.

I really enjoyed your Great Moose in the rain, by the way!

We were on our way South at that point, headed back to San Diego. Highway 89 South was full of color and my photos were taken in snow and rain on that leg of our trip.

Regards,

Paul

Quote:

Hi Paul,

Very nice work - your compositions are excellent. You did a great job processing the shots as well. Some of my colors look a bit duller - and I am curious what I will need to do to bring them out.

Cheers
James

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/03/07 03:22 AM

Hey Paul,

It is interesting that you picked this photo to show. It was one of the shots that really caught my eye in terms of composition when I logged into your website.

James

Posted By: Buddy Thomason

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/06/07 09:07 AM

Very nice images all around. Thanks for sharing them.

James - that moose in the rain picture should be a real winner once you get it tuned up. I hope you'll post the final version.

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/06/07 01:04 PM

Hey,

I re-processed the moose shot in the rain. My wife says that it looks 'unreal' because of the rain. Thoughts?

Posted By: dave_lines

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/06/07 06:41 PM

James,, I think i tend to agree with your wife,, The moose looks to me like it has a lot of green on it,, But then,, I wasn't there so don't know what it looked like when you took the photo.. DAve

Posted By: James Morrissey

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/07/07 03:12 AM

Thank you very much, David, for the reply. I see exactly what you are talking about. I have made a revision below which I think much more accurately gives the conditions. Thoughts?

Posted By: daveman

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/07/07 03:47 AM

James,

I think this moose shot looks great. Funny - to me the moose looks miserable in the rain.

I also really like the reflection and steam on the shot of Moran - what a great place.

Posted By: dave_lines

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/07/07 05:03 PM

James,, to me this looks more realistic, I agree with dave,, he looks miserable..But if you look close, he does have a smile on his face, LOL,, DAve

Posted By: Buddy Thomason

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/07/07 08:13 PM

Quote:

I have made a revision below which I think much more accurately gives the conditions.

Yes, it's good. I like these kinds of wildlife shots so much better than the standard 'wild creature strikes heroic pose' ones we see all the time.

Maybe it's just me, but when I look at this image it makes me want to go put on my storm jacket and gloves!

Posted By: Paul_Frye

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/08/07 03:55 AM

Hi James,

I like your last "Moose in the Rain" shot. It is very different than an average Moose under ideal conditions and it makes me think it is a lot more natural...and how hard the photographer must have worked to get this shot. Don't change a thing from your last posted shot. It is worth putting on the wall!

Regards,

Paul

Posted By: Tony Bynum

Re: Yellowstone - Last Week of September - 10/08/07 04:37 PM

my advise, for what it's worth, is to shoot ONLY sunny WB no matter what the conditions, dont try to cloudy, or set the camera to what you think it should be or auto WB. Shoot RAW, NO in camera mods, just shoot raw with no in camera adjustmens applied - this is important, if you are shooting RAW, reset the camera, or set the camera to it's default color settings so your not getting image processing during the shot. I know, some will say I'm wrong, some will say so what, I'm shooting RAW, but that's okay.

Give what I'm telling you a try, then after you shoot a few hundred landscapes or wildlife shots, and got them into your computer, come back here and tell me what you learned. . .

Trust me.

Give it a try for a week and then come back and tell me what you think. . . .