Nature Photography successes, failures, etc.

I just took a 2 day trip to one of my favorite lakes in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. The lake has had a good population of Beaver in it in years past. My son and I enjoyed watching several generations of Beaver growing up in this lake. We could hear the babies inside the lodge. Alas, the Beaver are no more. The lodges are 1/8 the size they used to be. The lodges appear to have been destroyed. I don't know what destroyed them, either human or a bear I guess. No more seeing Mink scurrying about on top of the lodge. I did see a giant Birch Tree that was being cut down by the Beaver, but not finished. Maybe the Beaver moved to another lake.

I saw Common Loons, Trumpeter Swans, Common Goldeneyes, Lessor Yellowlegs, Arctic Terns and a few other types of birds that I couldn't identify because of distance. This morning, I saw a Brown Bear Sow followed by 2 cubs crossing the road. The last cub stopped in the middle of the road and decided to do some acrobatics and tumbling. Then the Sow turned her head towards the cub and "woofed". The young cub stopped his playing and immediately ran towards Mom and they disappeared into the woods. I saw a Bull Moose standing further down the road and he watched patiently as I mounted my window mount and my 300mm lens w/ 1.4 teleconverter. After I got the camera mounted and started to aim it in his direction, he decided he did NOT want his photo taken today, and backed off into the woods behind him. A Wolf woke me up at 1am howling. The loons woke me up at daylight 5:00 am. It was music to my ears. It turned out to be an unsuccessful photography trip, but a great trip to visit Nature.

Nature photography can certainly be unpredictable!

There have been several times that I have experienced the wonderful sounds and sights of nature and missed out on picture opportunities. Sometimes I just sit down or lean against a tree and just breath it all in!

If everything in wildlife photography was always predictable and presented on a platter, I do not believe I would find it as challenging or enjoyable.

Bears, moose and wolves....I wouldnt mind experiencing some of that!

Here is a photo of a Birch Tree that the beaver were cutting down. Too bad they didn't get a chance to finish it.

I just spent two days shooting in Glacier NP and while I did get some shots the numbers were greatly down from previous trips. But a lot of that had to do with bringing my 10 year old with me for the first time. For him it was a grand adventure and a lot of animal firsts to include Black Bears, Mountain Goats and Sheep, Ground Squirrels, but no Grizzlies:>(

Tough lighting but I did manage a few Black Bear Shots:

Hi Jim!

I like the shot of the bear. Do you have others?

Lou

Lou,

I took about 50 images of this bear but with bad lighting issues alot of them were at ISO 1600 or 800. I have not had the time to go through them all to see what can be processed into usable images. Glad you liked them!

where did you photograph the bear - what part of the park?

Excellent! A Feeding Bear! Man, I GOTTA GO THERE! Great shot!

Tony,

I shot this one on the road between 2 Two Dog Flats and the St Mary's Campground late in the evening. It was around 8:30 PM. The day previous there was another Black Bear in the same area. It was on the side of the road right across the street from the St. Mary's camprgound. I didn't get any shots of it because as soon as I saw it another car spotted it, parked about 10 feet away and started yelling at the bear. Needless to say the bear took off.

funny thing is that in my years of living here and photographing in the park, I've never photographed a black bear in Glacier, only griz . . . Some guys have all th luck, looks like you done good!

My first there was a grizzly back in the early 90's. I was at the Goose Island marked photoshoot area as the sun came up one morning shooting the lake. Kept hearing something in the brush and then the bear popped up about 15-20 feet from me. I was first starting out with photography and shooting a 100 speed slide film with a slow 80-200mm zoom handheld (what an idiot I was). Needless to say, the images are severaly motion blurred as I shot backing retreating to my car. But, I could make up the distinctive hump of the shoulders to ID it as a grizzly. The two Black Bear run-ins I mentioned in the earlier post were my only sightings this trip. Can't wait to get back again but it will probably have to wait until next summer. I am shooting for the Tetons within the next month or so though as they are only about 4 hours away.

It turned out to be an unsuccessful photography trip, but a great trip to visit Nature.

I think this is a very important point that I missed earlier. It is more than just about taking pictures. It is about an experience. LOL. I need better pictures...I will say though that I am great at the experience.

Lou