Summer finally seems to have arrived in Yellowstone.  Warmer temperatures and sunny days are bringing out wildflowers.  As the mountain snows melt, rivers run high and wildlife moves into the higher elevations to escape the biting insects and to find fresh graze.  Summer crowds come and the roads are busy, especially when a bison or elk is nearby.  All of things can make photography a little more difficult.  Here's a few images and some information on how they were made.

The above photo is of Yellowstone Lake.  The sky promised some nice color at sunset, so I headed off to find an interesting place to shoot.  The nice thing about Yellowstone Lake is that there are many places to access it from and rarely will you have to share the spot with anyone else.  The reflecting color was really nice in the still waters.  I used two lenses to shoot on this evening, a Canon 17-40 and then a Sigma 50-500.  These two lenses gave me a lot of shooting options and allowed me to frame my shots in many ways.  The scene was shot using an evaluative metering of the whole scene.

This next photo of two elk calves at play was a bit more tricky.  The light was harsh as it was closer to midday and the calves are also slightly backlit.  I used the Sigma 50-500, shooting from my car window.  This opportunity lasted only a few minutes.  The elk were in Mammoth and I had to pull over into a parking spot and shot out of my car window.  I set my aperture so that the shutterspeed would be fast enough to stop the action but still have enough depth of field to keep both elk in focus.

Finally, this little guy was photographed near Norris Campground.  Again, I was shooting out of my car window with a 500mm lens.  When shooting from a car window, I use a bean bag designed for photography and brace my lens on it.  This is very effective for getting sharp shots.  The calf moved in closer than I anticipated and I didn't have time to switch to a shorter lens, so I tried to frame this in a pleasing way while not losing the face.  Again, I used a fast shutterspeed to stop the motion.

The real trick to getting nice photos in Yellowstone, even in summer, is just to be out.  Early and late in the day provides nice light and also helps to escape the crowds a little.  Light can be harsh in the middle of the day, unless there's some cloud cover, so this is a good time to scout out areas for wildlife or interesting scenics.  When traveling through the park, I always keep a camera with a telephoto lens ready.

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.

Any time I can photograph wildlife, I'm content.  While the Smokies don't have the number or diversity of wildlife as the western parks do, there's still some nice wildlife to see.  The only bear I saw was one grazing in a meadow at a great distance, so I was unable to photograph it.  But I saw several deer and a lot more turkeys than I remember from the days when I frequented this park regularly.  The whitetail buck photographed above was about the largest I saw.  In this image, he is walking towards the road, a soft misty fog enveloping the scene as the sun back lit everything.  I exposed for the deer, letting everything else fall where it may.  The backlighting on the leaves and grasses was nice, especially with the light fog.

 Elk are more common in the Smokies.  They can regularly been seen in Cataloochee Valley, but this bull had his harem of cows near Oconaluftee, where they can also frequently be seen.  The morning mist lay close to the ground as the bull moved towards a rival.  The sun still sat below the mountains.  While I hoped that the elk would stay in the meadow and the sun would backlight the elk and the mist, it would not be so, and the elk moved into the forest before the sun crested the mountains.  I metered the exposure off the elk and adjusted the white balance later.

Finally, while I saw more turkeys than I could count, rarely where they close enough to photograph.  And when they were, the light was often not strong enough for a fast shutter speed.  This turkey however, stepped out of the shadows and into this patch of light, giving me a fast enough shutter as well as some interesting lighting.  I metered the overall scene but then underexposed the shot so all would be in shadow except the area were the sun was shining.

The Smokies are home to an amazing diversity of wildlife, including a huge variety of salamanders, raccoons, opossums, deer, elk, black bears, coyotes, squirrels, and other creatures.  I do feel fortunate however, to come away with the limited number of wildlife shots that I did, as any chance to see and photograph wildlife is always a blessing!

The Arnica Fire is a recent fire that started by a lighting strike a few days ago.  I don't remember any lighting in the area a few days, but that's what's being reported anyway.  It's approximately 250 acres in size now and will probably grow larger over the weekend.  It's located about 5 miles west of Bridge Bay Marina, according to the NPS website.  It's close proximately to the road made it very visible today when it flared up pretty significantly.  Flames were visible from some areas along the road down towards West Thumb, where I had gone to photograph bull elk.  I got some decent elk shots, but ended up getting some great shots of the smoke plume, especially at and after sunset.  There's easy viewing of the smoke plume, at last this afternoon, anywhere between Lake and West Thumb.  It can also be seen up into Hayden Valley and up towards Craig's Pass.  For more info on this fire and others, please see these two NPS releases here and here.

The fire made for some nice photo opportunities last night.  I had intended to drive down to the Tetons early this morning, but with the fire burning close to the road and winds forecasted for today, I didn't want to get down south of the burn and then not be able to return home this afternoon.  So I didn't go to the Tetons today as planned.  I have heard however that the aspens and cottonwoods are at or very near peak right now.  So it is a good time to get down that way if anyone is wondering.  This afternoon I'll either head north over Dunraven and towards Mammoth in search of elk and bears, or I may head back towards West Thumb for the elk down there and additional fire images.  According to the latest update on the fire, found on the NPS website, here, the fire is moving south, towards the Grand Loop Road and helicopters are dropping water on the southern edge of fire to detour it from the road.  Winds continue to be breezy and out of the north.  No road closures are anticipated, but anyone who's been in Yellowstone know weather can change at the drop of a hat, and this can dramatically impact a fire.  More to come later as things change!

Update:  NPS update can be found here.  The fire is now over 1200 acres.  The road between Lake and West Thumb was closed for most the afternoon and will probably be closed all day tomorrow (Saturday) as it looks like the fire will cross the road.  Right now, no developed areas are threaten.  Where are those September snows?

Fall color is still slow in coming.  But wildlife viewing is improving.  Bison are still visible throughout much of the park, mostly in Hayden Valley and the Lamar-Tower area.  Elk are active in their rut with nice bulls visible at Mammoth and down near Grant.  Neither area is especially photogenic, with all the buildings at Mammoth and the burned trees around Grant/West Thumb.  Pronghorn should be nearing their rut too, though I haven't been up north to see if there's much activity.  I have heard of some moose sightings in the Tetons recently and I hope to head that way soon to look for moose and also to check on the fall color.

I have heard of some bear sightings, finally.  My photo of the week this week shows a fat black bear near Dunraven Pass.  I've heard of other bears up in that area recently.  There's also been a grizzly in the Lake Butte area, but that one hasn't been seen for the past several days.

In wolf news, the park service released some information about distemper and wolf pup mortality.  The article can be found here .  Basically the article states that in the past, it was believed the high mortality of wolf pups in 1999, 2005, and 2008 was due to parvovirus but that a new study shows distemper may be the actual cause.

With cooler temperatures forecasted for next week, hopefully fall color will improve and wildlife sightings will continue to get better.