I'm pleased to announce that Steve Hinch Photography prints will be sold once again this summer in Yellowstone National Park.  We're expanding sales so that 8x10 and 11x14 matted prints can be purchased in the gift shops at Lake Hotel, Old Faithful Snow Lodge, Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, and the Old Faithful Inn. 

In addition, I will be opening a small gallery in the Old Faithful Inn, located in the back of the gift shop where there will be an assortment of large framed prints, smaller framed prints, and gallery wraps.  A small selection of gallery wraps, measuring 16x24 will be available at the other gift shops as well.  The popular 5x7 note cards, suitable for framing, will be available again this summer at the Old Faithful Inn and at Lake Hotel.  These note cards are not available for on line purchase, however.

So if you're visiting Yellowstone National Park this summer, stop by any of the locations and take a look at the prints available.

I thought I'd post a few more images from Badlands National Park.  While I only had a couple of days in the park, I found them to be pretty productive, especially early and late.  Mule deer made for good subjects, especially when they grazed among backlit grasses.  The above deer was photographed my last morning there.  It's not hard to find deer in the park and this one was close to the road.  I stopped and photographed out my car window using a telephoto zoom lens, allowing me to change my composition.

This next deer was photographed late in the afternoon.  It was slightly overcast, creating very even light.  This deer was watching me as it moved towards the road to join some other deer.  I used the tall grasses to frame the deer and, with a wide aperture, it threw the grasses out of focus.  This image was shot with a 500mm lens, braced against my car window.

This next shot was taken from one of the overlooks along the Badlands Scenic Loop, the main road through the national park.  A front was moving through and it was incredibly windy.  I used a zoom lens to frame the scene just the way I wanted.  The ridge and light in the foreground made a great leading line into the back of the scene.

This shot was taken late in the day.  Again, I used a zoom lens to frame the shot just as I wanted.  It had been cloudy on the western horizon and I didn't think any nice light would happen.  But before I decided to head in, I noticed a break in the clouds.  I waited for the light to hit this scene and was nicely rewarded.  I ended up with about 30 minutes of great light before the sunset.

.And finally, Badlands National Park provides habitat to a large population of prairie dogs.  Blacktail prairie dogs live in huge prairie dog towns.  This prairie dog is "jump-yipping", a behavior thought to be a territorial warning to other prairie dogs or it can also be an "all clear" notifiying other prairie dogs that a predator has left the area.  Prairie dogs have very complex communication skills.  This image was shot with a 500 mm lens from my car window.  Badlands is a great little treasure of a national park.  It's definitely worth a visit.  I'll add a Badlands Gallery to travelsinbearcountry.com on Sunday.

I took this weekend and made a quick trip to Badlands National Park, near Wall, South Dakota.  I've been through this park twice and have always had an interest in trying to do some serious photography.  Even now, however, I find this beautiful and rugged landscape difficult to photograph.  Light on the landscape is only good for about an hour at sunrise and an hour at sunset.   That said, I've had good luck with wildlife in this park.  Prairie dogs are everywhere and make great subjects.  There's also alot of mule deer too, though they tend to be fairly cautious.  I've also seen pronghorn and bighorn sheep, along with bison.  Of course, rabbits are also common.  I've even seen porcupine here.  And today, I saw only the second wild bobcat I've ever seen, though it disappeared so fast I was unable to get any photos of it.

The above image was made as the sun set.  I used a Canon 5D mk 2 with a telephoto zoom lens so I could compose the scene as I wanted.  I couldn't move position so the zoom lens was invaluable.  The image below of the prairie dogs was taken with a Canon 50D and a 500 mm lens with a 1.4 teleconverter from my car.

It's always fun to discover something new and that's what I did two days ago.  I took a walk out to Black Sand Basin and then took the trail over to Daisy Geyser and into the Upper Geyser Basin.  I've been to Black Sand quite a few times but never in mid to late afternoon.  It's also been a few years since I last visited this thermal area and  I forgot how pretty some of the features can be.  After spending some time photographing different hot pools and runoff channels, along with watching Cliff and Spouter geysers erupt, I then took the trail over to Daisy Geyser.  I quickly realized I had never done this hike before.  Three cool thermal features could be found along this trail too, including Black Sand Pool and Punch Bowl Spring.  Here's a few images from my walk.

Above is Emerald Pool.  The contrasting colors were really cool with the greenish color in the middle and the deep orange on the edges and in the run off channel.  The sun reflected at the start of the run off and this drew my eye to this scene.

This is Punch Bowl Spring and sits between Black Sand Basin and Daisy Geyser.  The boardwalk goes right up to this interesting looking feature.  In fact, the orange run off is basically going under my feet while I stand on the boardwalk.  I had to be careful in framing this shot not to include the boardwalk.

And lastly, this is Cliff Geyser.  It erupts fairly frequently and is probably the most interesting geyser at Black Sand.  Situated on the edge of Iron Spring Creek, it's also rather scenic.

These are just three of the features from Black Sand.  There are many others and I shot a lot of different compositions including wide angles of hot pools such as Emerald Pool and Sunset Lake to macro work of run off channels.

It sure feels like winter is over in Yellowstone.  Day time highs are warm, the snow is melting off the roads, most of the facilities in the park are now closed, and the remainder of the roads will close in a few days.   I haven't posted much lately so I thought I'd post a few photos to recap the winter.

Above is a bull elk near Blacktail Creek.  This guy was biggest of the six bulls hanging in this area.  The image was made with a Canon 5D Mk2 and a 500 mm lens.

This shot of a young moose peering around a tree was made in Silver Gate, just outside the Northeast Entrance.  I saw four moose there on this particular day.  I can't remember the equipment I used, but it was shot out the car window.

Above is a Golden Eagle seen in Lamar Valley.  This guy was actually just on the side of the road.  I looked away for just a second and the eagle flew off.  I hope the guy in the car in front of me got a shot of that.  Photo made with a Canon 50D and 500mm lens out the car window.

And lastly, another wolf from one of my lucky wolf encounters.  This was shot with a Canon 50D and 500mm lens.  I can't remember if I used a TC on this one or not.  Equipment was mounted on a tripod.

On a side note, my Europe trip has been cancelled, so I am taking orders as usual.  However, I'm not much in a position to take photos right now, so Photos of the Week for a couple of weeks will probably be older images.