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.

With warmer temperatures across Yellowstone (it was in the 40s today at Old Faithful) and minimal snow pack, Yellowstone's bears have begun emerging from their dens.  The Park Service has put out a statement, Yellowstone's Bears are Waking Up .  In it, it states that bear tracks have been seen on the Blacktail Plateau.  This region is a bear management area and is closed in the early spring each year due to bear activity.  I've also heard unconfirmed rumors that a bear has been seen at Beaver Ponds, near Mammoth Hot Springs, and down at the South Entrance.  I've posted a couple of bear photos to kick off the up coming bear season!  These photos are not recent.

The image at the top of this entry was taken a few years ago in Mary Bay.  The young griz looks almost disproportionate with his long snout and large ears.  This image was taken from my vehicle with a long telephoto lens.  The image below is of a cinnamon colored black bear on Dunraven Pass a few September's ago.  Again, the image was taken with a long lens.  The backlighting was really nice and I really liked the result.

With the winter season about to come to a close for me, I thought I'd post a few photos of some of the wildlife scene in the park.  The above image is a grey wolf that crossed the road near where I was parked.  I rolled down my window and shot through it, using the window to hold the lens steady.  This image was made with a Canon 5D mk 2 shot at 500mm.  The wolf crossed the road near the Slough Creek turn off.

Bald eagles can usually be found near winter kill or wolf kill carcasses.  These two bald eagles were in this dead tree at Mammoth waiting for a turn to feed on a wolf kill carcass.  Again, in order not to scare off the eagles, I shot through my car window, braced against the window, using a Canon 50D and shot at 500mm.

These bison were blocking the road in Lamar Valley.  Often when stuck behind cars due to animals on the road, I pull out my camera while waiting.  I shot with the window down using a Canon 5D mk 2 and zoom lens.   The near bison was on the far side of the road while the distant bison was out in the valley.

And finally, this coyote, was shot in Little America late one afternoon.  I used a Canon 50D  and 500mm lens to capture this image.  Again, the image was shot from the car.  The coyote was howling to its mate, which was further down the road.  I shoot from the car alot for several reasons.  First, if the animal is close to the road, it's safer for me and the animal if I stay in the car.  Second, animals in Yellowstone are more accustomed to seeing vehicles so they are less likely to flee and act natural if there is a car pulled over on the side of the road.  Countless times I've been photographing this way only to have another car pull up and the occupants climb out causing the animal to run off.

I spent the past weekend up in the Northern Range of Yellowstone so I could do some wildlife photography.  My goal was for whatever critters I was lucky enough to see, but I had heard of a bobcat hanging out near Phantom Lake.  As much as I'd love to photograph one in the winter, I still struck out.  But I did get lucky with wolves this week, for the first time this winter.

One afternoon, while driving back towards Slough Creek, a grey wolf came down a hill near where I was parked and crossed the bridge over the Lamar River.  She was in heat and was followed by several other wolves, but they never approached the road.  Once the wolf was safely across the bridge, I went across too and parked in a pullout there.  The wolf walked about 100 yards off the road, found a place to nap, and slept for almost two hours.  I watched this by myself for about 90 minutes or so before others finally noticed her.  When she awoke, she howled to the other wolves for several minutes before moving off to rejoin them.  I was going to use the above image, "Winter's Call" as this week's Photo of the Week at www.travelsinbearcountry.com, but after going through some of the other images from that encounter, I've opted to use something else.  Meanwhile, here's two other images from that afternoon.

All of these images were made with a Canon 50D using a Canon 500mm L lens and 1.4 teleconverter mounted on a tripod with a gimbal head.

It really feels like the slow days of winter here right now.  It's been cloudy, warm (by Yellowstone standards), and very little snow has fallen.  Plus I've been sick for the last three weeks, which has slowed me down too.  But I'm finally feeling a bit better and I'm headed out to Lamar Valley for a couple of days and hopefully will come back with some nice wildlife shots.  The image above was made on a cold morning a few weeks ago.  The Firehole River is backlit and reflecting the colors of the rising sun.

The image above was made near sunset.  I never realized this area had a name until I photographed it and then looked it up in my "geyser reference book".  The above area is referred to as the Chain Lakes and is a series of hot springs that have been known to erupt to considerable size.  No eruptions on this day, but some nice late day backlighting and steam.

The third image illustrating the use of back light shows two pine tree saplings barely peaking through the snow.  These two saplings isolated against the empty vastness of the snow drew my attention as I skiied past, but the backlighting gave the image depth and character.

The Old Faithful Inn is famous not only for its location but also for its unique architecture.  Designed by Robert Reamer, the Inn was opened to the public in 1903.  While not the oldest hotel in Yellowstone, it is undoubtedly the most well known.  With cloudy skies (but little new snow) dominating the weather lately, I decided to take a few photos of some of the details of the Old Faithful Inn dressed in winter white.  These images were made with a telephoto zoom lens so I could compose the scene as desired while having little room to maneuver.

I am running a special on print orders now through the end of April as well.  The special will be announced tomorrow, Sunday February 7th on the orders page, which can be found here:  www.travelsinbearcountry.com/ordering .

And finally, speaking of orders, I will be back in Europe for most of the month of March and part of April.  So any signed print orders that I receive after February 28 will be processed on April 2nd.  If the prints do not need to be signed, then they will be processed as normal, with about a two week turn around.

Above is Old Faithful Geyser in full eruption lit by the full moon.  The image was roughly 6 seconds at f5.6 at ISO 1600.  Notice the lack of snow on the ground here.  While this is a thermal area, in a typical snow year, the ground here will not be bare.  Even with recent snow falls, the warmer ground in the geyser basins show a lot of bare ground.

This image above is of Grand Geyser.  As I made my way past Castle Geyser, I heard the sound of Grand before I ever saw it.  A three burst eruption gave me time to get over and record the eruption under the full moon.  In this image, Grand is the back and most of what can be seen is just steam.  The jetting water in the front is Vent Geyser.  This image was shot at 4 seconds with an f-stop of 4.5.  I also used ISO 1600 here.  There was a lot of steam, giving the image the look it has here.

Finally, this is Castle Geyser in the back and center of this image.  Again, the full moon provides backlighting through the three steam plumes.  This image was also shot at an exposure of 4 seconds, 4.5 f-stop, and ISO 1600.  Focusing for all the images I took under the full moon was done manually.  No adjustments were made to any of these images on the computer except some noise reduction.

Well, the two big topics in Yellowstone right now have been earthquakes and snow.  The NPS has reported over 1,000 earthquakes since January 17th.  This earthquake swarm is centered on the Madison Plateau almost half way between Old Faithful and the town of West Yellowstone, Montana, as the crow (or Raven, in Yellowstone) flies.  These have been felt in the Old Faithful area, at the least the bigger ones, which have been between 3.0 and 3.8.  The activity seems to have slowed or stopped as of today.  The NPS press release can be found here .  The other big topic has been a winter storm which dropped quite a bit of much needed snow over Yellowstone.  I haven't seen any official measurements, but the road from Flagg Ranch to Grant Village was closed today due to a reported 15 inches of fresh snow overnight.  I'm not sure why snow shuts down roads to oversnow vehicles in the winter, but this has happened a few times now in the last couple of winters.  The photos above and below were taken yesterday during the snowstorm.

Speaking of photos, there's a lot of negative press going on regarding the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition and the winning photo that was disqualified.  I read on a photography forum where one person stated no photos today can be trusted for authenticity with photoshop and other tools being used today.  I've had my own credibility questioned as to my use of photoshop in my images.  I've stated it on my website and it still holds true that "photoshop work" on my images are limited to tweaks to contrast, white balance, and exposure.  Some shots are also cropped slightly.  I've never used HDR or other techniques and have no real desire to do so.  That doesn't mean it's wrong to do so, and to each photographer his or her own as they interpret their own work.  What I do think is important is honesty in photography.  The image of a wolf jumping over a gate at night is a nice photograph.  The wolf however, apparently wasn't a wild wolf as claimed by the photographer, at least according to the judges of the competition.  Information on this topic can be found here.  My images seen here are pretty much straight from the camera.  There are minor tweaks to contrast and exposure.  The dark sky seen below is natural.  The storm clouds were not illuminated by the sun as it peaked out and briefly light the trees and trail before me.  What you see here is what I saw, or at least what I saw through my camera. 

Bison, were common but didn't seem to be in as high numbers as I've seen in the past.  This bison was one of several that ran down towards the road to cross it.

And finally, I took this photo near sunset to illustrate the lack of snowpack.  This shot was taken near Blacktail Ponds.

It may look cold, and it is... in that image, it was about minus 22 F (-29C), but with the right gear, it's possible to stay warm.  I typically layer with two pairs of insulated under garments, both top and bottom.  I then use a pair of liner socks, a pair of heavy socks, and a pair of snow boots.  I also wear a pair of moisture and wind resistant pants, a fleece vest, and a winter jacket.  For my neck and head, I'll wear a balaclava and then a knit hat and possibly the hood from my jacket.  For my hands, I have a pair of silk liner gloves, a pair of fleece fingerless gloves, and then a pair of insulated mitts.  The liner gloves and fingerless gloves allow me to operate my camera while still staying somewhat warm, and when I'm not shooting, the outer mitts keep my hands toasty warm. 

I've read alot about what to do and not to do with your camera in extreme cold conditions, but I've found my camera tends to deal with the cold just fine.  I always carry plenty of spare batteries and keep them inside my jacket.  Batteries don't last long in very cold temperatures.  However, aside from the batteries, my cameras usually hold up without problems.  It's not uncommon for the rear LCD to frost over to the point I can't see it, or it can get sluggish due to the cold, but I've never had any real problems.  I do try to not change lenses unless I absolutely have to, but I usually carry two cameras with zoom lenses attached, so there's no need to switch out lenses. 

All the images here were taken when the temperatures were below minus 20 F.  The above image is the black and white "companion" image of this week's Photo of the Week.  I really liked the symmetry of the two bison in this shot but ultimately, I preferred the turned head of the other shot seen here.  With a little preparation, it's possible to stay warm, safe, and still come away with some nice images during winter's cold.