Yellowstone 2013 Visit—#2

Today’s photographs are not about Yellowstone National Park, but, rather something that I found funny. 

We stayed in West Yellowstone, which is just outside the park.  Every morning, we would get a cup of tea (JD) and coffee (me) and head into the park.  We would then sit at one of the parking areas, watch the animals and eat our peanut butter sandwiches and drink our tea and coffee.  To us, this was much better than eating an over-priced, poorly prepared breakfast in a restaurant.  The Woodside Bakery had good tea and coffee, so that was our spot to pick-up our drinks. 

One of things that really surprised us about the park this year was the number of Asians visiting the park.  I would estimate that Asians represented about 40-50% of the people that we saw within the park.  As a result, the most popular restaurant in West Yellowstone for dinner was the Red Lotus, which served mainly Chinese food.   

As proof that capitalism is alive in West Yellowstone, look at the signs of the gun shop two doors down.  The signs advertise services for what people want to do—shoot a machine gun—and accommodate its customer base (note the Chinese characters on the small sign) which according to an employee says the same thing. 

In talking to the owner of the gun shop, he said that his business had almost tripled after he hung the sign in Chinese—which, I guess proves that if you offer a product that people want, tell them that you offer it, they will come. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 110, f/6.7 at 1/30^th of a second. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Standard preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance.

Yellowstone 2013 Visit—#1

 

JD and I just got back from our trip to photograph my nephew’s wedding and our visit to Yellowstone National Park. 

Our visit to Yellowstone did not match our last visit.  Why?  Too many people, and too few animals.  Although the temperatures were generally in the 70’s, the animals were just not moving much except in the very early morning and very late afternoon.  We do not like driving in the dark in the park due to all the animals on the road—just too dangerous for us wimps!  So, I had to settle for shooting other things. 

We spent a lot of time hiking through the various geothermal features—geysers, hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles. 

The color in the hot springs shown in today’s photograph is caused by heat loving organisms that live in and around the hot springs.  The different colors are caused by the varying temperatures of the water as it flows from the hot springs. 

For this photograph, I pre-focused my camera about three feet into the scene and then lowered my camera just above the water.  I wanted a very expansive look to the image so I used f/22 and 24mm focal length.

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 400, f/22 at 1/125^th of a second. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Vivid preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance.

Yellowstone—Revisited #7

 

The last time that we visited Yellowstone, it was in mid-September.  All the trees had their fall color on full display.  Something that we really do not see much in Houston, Texas.  In today’s photo, I thought that the yellow in the trees worked extremely well with the blue sky. 

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D200, 28-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 200, f/13 at 1/500^th of a second on a tripod 

Post Processing

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Vivid preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance.

Yellowstone—Revisited #6

Almost everyone who goes to Yellowstone visits Old Faithful.  I must admit, the fact that it goes off on such a regular schedule is impressive, but I found that many of the smaller geysers to be much more interesting because of what is around them.  Here, I like the small stream that ran beside the geyser. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D200, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 120mm, ISO 200, f/16 at 1/250^th of a second on a tripod 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Vivid preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance.

Yellowstone—Revisited #5

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We had just finished a hike and were approaching our car when I saw this bus driving towards us.  It looked much like the buses that traveled throughout Arkansas when I was growing-up.  Because of the age of the bus, I decided that I should convert the photo to sepia. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D200, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 90mm, ISO 400, f/11 at 1/125^th of a second on a tripod 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Standard preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and converted to sepia using a preset within LR5.

Yellowstone—Revisited #4

We were hiking one day when we came across this deer.  We decided to take a break, ate a snack and sat and watched her for some time.  When we got to leave, she started following us.  I cannot say how far she followed us, but it was at least 20 minutes. 

Just liked how she looks so natural in the woods. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D200, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 90mm, ISO 400, f/8 at 1/90^th of a second on a tripod 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Standard preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance.

Yellowstone—Revisited #3

Sometimes, the scene is so peaceful that all you want to do is sit and take in the moment. 

That was the case as JD and I made our way back to our hotel one evening.  JD does not like being on the road after dark (see last weeks post for the reason) in Yellowstone.  However, she also loves sunset (not so much sunrises because that means getting out of bed early).  She insisted that we stop at a roadside pull-out and watch the sky change colors.  To be honest with you, I was so taken-in by the scene that I only took four shots. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D200, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 90mm, ISO 400, f/8 at 1/30^th of a second on a tripod 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Standard preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance, cropped into panorama.

Yellowstone—Revisited #2

 

Recently, Bill, a friend and fellow photographer, asked me about how I decide what to shoot.  I told him that you must think about your photos as a visual story.  You may have one photo to tell the story or a series of photos to tell the story.  Either way, you must shoot what helps you tell that story—which, of course, will vary from story to story. 

Today’s photo is part of the Yellowstone story—traffic jam, Yellowstone style.  As a photograph, this photo is nothing special, but as part of a larger package (think, Yellowstone vacation book or slideshow), it helps tell something about what I experienced in Yellowstone.  Something that is unique to Yellowstone. 

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D200, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 24mm, ISO 200, f/8 at 1/90^th of a second. 

Post Processing: 

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Standard preset, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance, cropped into panorama and burned top and bottom of photo using the adjustment brush.