Yellowstone Revisited after the Digital Revolution

Our family first visited Yellowstone NP in 1986 when our son was 17 years and our daughter just 10 months. The large animals were incidental to our interest in the geysers and other landscape. We returned in 1994 with an 8 year old, and my new interest in nature photography still concentrated on the landscapes. After our return last week, sans children, I returned to look at the images from 1994.

There was the obligatory geyser taken while struggling with the huge crowds in mid summer of 1994. Late September in Yellowstone is refreshingly slower.  The cars still stop on the road when a large bison is seen, but it is still passable and there are safe places on the side to stop.  If the crowd grows, a ranger will often appear to keep the traffic moving and ensure people keep a safe distance.

The air was clear on those previous visits, a fact not lost on  us when compared to the smoky skies we experienced this time.  It has been a summer of wildfires and no rain. There were times when you could look directly at the sun. We actually drove past one active fire, and it was choking.  Don't understand how the fire crews survive the smoke.


This time, we found the geysers a little less impressive.  The height of the eruption at Old Faithful was decidedly less than we recalled.  Other repeat visitors noted the same reaction. But the big animals were the real prize.  I'll make another post solely devoted to them.

We searched for the one geyser field we remembered to be most beautiful; it had bubbling mud pots, clear thermal springs and a continuously erupting geyser.  We both recalled a beautiful sunset at that geyser. You can see that sunset image to the right. 

Finally, we found it at Fountain Paint Pot just as lightening was building to the west.  I so wanted a new sunset shot of Clep- sydra Geyser, but it was not to be. I had to settle for capturing a bubbling mud pot. I could not have made this photo in 1994 - less skill and slide film were against me. I ran about 25 images in burst mode to get that one instant when the mud exploded into a nice pattern. Digital is wonderfully enabling.

The great falls in the Yellowstone River were another clear memory. We returned to the lower falls on this visit to repeat the photo I'd made in 1994.  It is interesting to compare them.  In 1994, I came upon the narrow window of time when direct sunlight produces a rainbow.  But, the limitations of the slide film did not match the true color of the sunlight and the darker areas lacked good definition.  Today, I was able to adjust the darker areas a make a better image than I saw in 1994.

In 2012, almost twenty years later, I arrived on a cloudy day with marginal light. Could I match the earlier result?

I chose a wider view to bring in more of the foreground and show the river's course down from the falls.  That is experience. More importantly, digital enabled me  to fix the light to show the natural yellow in the rocks.  After all, it is the yellow stone river, not the dull stone. Now, I can review in the camera to get the best exposure.  Before, I  waited 2 or 3 weeks to see the result.  Faster learning now.


This is as clear an example of how digital has revolutionized photography as I can recall. Of course, the advent of smart phone cameras had been another aspect of how photo- graphy has changed.

Some of the change has been good and some ridiculous.  How so?  Well, while photographing an elk group some 300 yards away with a big lens, one regularly sees a car pull up, stick a smart phone out the window and presumably snap a photo of the elk.  At that distance with the wide angle lens on the phone, the animals will be a small dot indistinguishable from a rock or downed tree. Even a simple point and shoot camera is a better choice at that time, but I understand the enthusiasm.

Now, I do carry a smart phone, and used it at Yellowstone. I previously posted images made at City of Rocks with a smart phone; it did the job nicely.

I have an app --Dermandar DMD--  that stitches together a panorama automatically as I move the phone across the scene.  This it one of the thermal hot springs in Yellowstone.

With the addition of an app to add text, the sweeping view of the Hayden Valley is well-presented and identified.

Both of these were edited on my phone as we flew home. The smart phone is a lot of fun, even for an advanced photographer.  It is always with you, and offers a nice challenge to one's skill.

Now, the real reason for this trip to Yellowstone NP was to photograph the large animals, and especially the elk in rut when the large bulls gather harems of cows and have to defend their prize against other bulls,  sometimes including little "teen age" bulls.  It is a wonderful time with the haunting sound of the bull elk's bugling declaration of his strength.  I'll shortly post a third, and final compilation presenting the best images of elk, bison and one very big bull moose.

I appreciate your comments and encourage you to share these posts with other interested people.

Regards,

Paul

  

More than potatoes- IDAHO!

We began our western trip with wonderful friends in Pocatello.  Riding up from Salt Lake City, the smoke from wildfires was so dense it smelled like we were trapped in a fireplace that was barely extinguished.  You could look directly at the sun.  It's been a terrible summer in the west- drought and fires. 

Undaunted by the smoke, we went north to a scenic drive along the Henry's Fork River in the Snake River Valley. We should have been able to see the Teton Mountains from the first stop, but the smoke was too much.  Our next stop,  Lower Mesa Falls, is listed as 85 feet with a first major drop of 20 feet to a pool that runs over a 45 foot drop.  When I saw a kayak running the lower drop, I scrambled back to the car for a long lens to record any added boaters going over.  I was just set up when I saw what appeared to be a bright yellow raft. (Kayak groups often include a raft for support on big rivers.)

Looking closely, I could see that it was not a raft, but essentially a  large air mattress - not very rugged. There are two helmeted men behind the float, and a women below is beginning to go down the falls.

The two men scramble onto the float, not quite getting squared up for the drop.

Off they go down the chute!

There was seriously no way they would stay on the float without any sidewalls, and away they tumbled.

Well, this makes me glad they are not  my children.  I'd rather have one of them taking up something sane like rock climbing.  Really! I later learned that they had to hike down a trail from the Upper Mesa Falls to reach the put-in, and float another 6 miles to the intersection with the Warm River to take out.

We went on to see Upper Mesa Falls; it is 110 feet.   Looking it over, I surmised that no one could survive a drop over it.  It is quite beautiful.

So, our first day got off to a good start. The next day, with some hope for showers to wash the smoke out of the sky, we headed south to the City of Rocks National Reserve operated by the National Park Service.  In 1852, over 52,000 people traveled the emigrant trail to the California gold fields.  They branched off the Oregon Trail near here.  It is named for the soaring granitic rock formations that jut up through the sagebrush country.

 I believe this spire is called Chicken Rock with the idea that the top resembles the comb on a rooster. Well, it sort of does.

Today, the road carved by the wagons in 1852 can still be seen as it approaches the granite pillows. We went further into the park for lunch and a view of kids playing on top of one of the formations.

I soon wished we had more than a day to explore this.  Most of the campsites were occupied either with family campers or rock climbers.  There was so much to discover.  We soon found a nice granite arch.

And, there was a really cool couple of granite spires for the serious climbers to work up (and down again).

 

 

There is one climber about a third of the way up the center crack, and another sitting atop a smaller spire to the right (in red and yellow). Yes, I'd rather my child was doing this than dropping over a 45 foot falls on an air mattress.

I want to close with a rock formation that appeared like the huge gaping mouth of a Grouper fish.

The Grouper rests on the ocean floor and when its prey gets too close, its huge mouth snaps open to suck the meal in.  Well, that is what I see.  Maybe you see it differently.  The chicken rock was a stretch for me.

We left City of Rocks reluctantly because we needed to pick up our rental car.  We left our friends in Pocatello to continue our travel north to Yellowstone National Park.   Some spotty rain did come in as we left to everyone's relief.  

Yellowstone was wonderful, and I've got some excellent photos, mostly of elk, bison and moose with a few geothermal spots included.  I'll send them along in a day or so.

Paul

Creative Results with iPhone image editors

I've been preparing for another smartphone workshop and exploring the many photo editors on the market.  One of the most useful (and more challenging) editors is  the Iris Photo Suite.  It is $1.99 and provides a wide range of whole image manipulations-  exposure, white balance, shadows and highlight, sharpness, histograms, and noise.  There is also a wide range of filters that apply textures and color treatments to the complete image.  In addition, it has layers and selective masking so that a texture filter can be applied to a selective portion of the image.  All pretty powerful, but supported by pretty sketchy tutorials.

Here is one image that I first corrected for image wide settings, leveled and cropped, and finally added two masks to create greater texture on the wooden rail fence.

Overall, I am pleased with the result.  One very helpful feature is the ability to zoom in on a local area to achieve some precision in selecting the area on which to apply the mask effect.  The result matches how I felt about this little corner of the Herb Garden at Cornell Plantations.

Another more creative app is MobileMonet which allows you to select where in the image to show colors. I played with this using a photo of a brilliant orange Cana at Plantations.  First, the  image was optimized using Iris Photo Suite. Moving on to MobileMonet, a black and white line sketch is created, and using a stylus brush, I painted in the areas where I want the underlying color of the input image to show.

The result, far removed from the original image, appeals to me because it removes the competing background, and produces a stronger artistic interpretation of the subject without the background colors to confuse the eye.  It reminds me of some wonderful watercolor images done on pure white paper with no color beyond the subject plant.

As I've evaluated the many photo editing apps, I have come to realize the awkward mess we have where no one app has all the tools.  One app may only cost $1.99, but building a set of apps does accumulated a higher cost, and the different apps have so different approaches and icons that it becomes confusing. In addition, the small screen does create a poorer result than can be achieved when the image is brought into a desktop computer with much larger screen. As an example, I cannot imagine how you would see image noise on the small smartphone screen, nor how to correct for it.  That would best be left to the desktop.

Paul Schmitt

Later Summer Beauty

The season is changing in subtle ways. Birds that nested in the far north are now arriving.  Fruit is ripening on  the Black Cherry and the Elderberry with the birds feasting on them. Grasses are blooming and going to seed, so the seed-eating Goldfinches are fledging their brood of babies.

The gardens are still in good color with the addition of Goldenrod and Aster blooms. I love the combination of colorful summer flowers and autumn grasses that I recently found in the Herb Garden at  Cornell Plantations.

Fountain Grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides) blooms in the Herb Garden

On one early morning visit to the garden, I found the Fountain Grass blooms sparkling with dew.

On another morning, I stopped on my drive for a field of Sunflowers.   Sunflowers always mean the coming of autumn to me.

I'd passed this field on three previous dates, but the traffic was too busy or my appointment was too pressing.  I'm glad we left the house early on this morning.   It produced my favorite photos of the day.

Meeting with some new friends, we headed for a nature preserve hoping to find some nice images.  We saw the Robins and Cedar Waxwings feeding on the wild Black Cherries, but they were too high.  Instead, the few good opportunities were on a much smaller scale.   Caterpillars.

This little guy is a Tussock Moth. He's all short hairy spines with a few long spines that are mostly black.  Just like the Monarch Butterfly caterpillar, it likes the milkweed leaves. But, it overwinters here.  Monarchs have a grander plan.

To finish off our exploration, we did find a Monarch caterpillar munching away on milkweed.

That is a certain sign of autumn. It is  humbling to think that this caterpillar will develop into a butterfly that will somehow fly all the way to a mountain in Mexico to complete a migration cycle begun the previous spring by what amounts to its great-grandparents.  How is a humble insect programmed to return to a place it has never been?  Never ask what good a caterpillar is when it contains secrets we cannot explain.  Just wish them well as they journey in their life cycle.

Kind regards,

Paul Schmitt

Have some grass, dude!

I've taken a step into a new subject area, native grasses, and found them fascinating. This is not what you mow on Saturdays, or find on athletic fields.  It's much bigger than that, sometimes 8 feet high.  These grasses can be huge, and make wonderful displays through much of the year.

Fountain Grass, Pennisetum alopecuroides

I've read about the American prairie grasses being so high that only a mounted horseman could see over the tops of the grasses.  But, I've taken the approach to look closer.

Varigated Miscanthus sinensis, Japanese Silver Grass

The textures and visual energy build as you look closer.  The structures create a cacophony that makes it difficult to find an individual grass stem, but it is possible.

Dew laden stalk of Variegated Miscanthus sinensis

In late August, the grasses are beginning to flower revealing some extremely beautiful scenes.

Grass in Flower

The flowers can be extremely small and sensitive to every wisp of the wind.

Tiny Flowers

In late August, the grasses are coming into bloom, and one of  interesting examples is Fountain Grass, Penisetum alopcuroides.  The delicacy of the flowers is matched by their colorfulness.

Fountain Grass, Pennisetum alopecuroides

This morning, after a night of steady rain, I found glass-like jewels of water on some of the flowers that captured my attention.

Grass Flower on a wet morning

In past years, I only thought of the field flowers- asters, gentians and goldenrod - in the late summer.  Now, I have a new realm to explore.  They  make wonderful, low maintenance plants for around the house and add real beauty from spring into winter. Check them out at a local arboretum.

Regards,

Paul Schmitt

Nothing Civil about Civil Daylight

That early light before the sunrise is technically called civil daylight.  Today, I was pushing off in my tiny canoe at civil daylight.  Spare me from telling you the  hour.  I silently moved down a channel.  Numerous carp exploded in the shallow water as I approached. A pair of raccoons looked up as I slipped past.

Six days before, I had seen three Sandhill Cranes as my canoe rounded a bend to the spot seen below. They are fairly unusual and surprisingly large.  Their wingspan of 77 inches exceeds the Great Blue Heron by 5 inches.  So, I began to plot my approach.

I figured I'd have the best chance to photograph  the cranes if I was there before they left the roost to feed. So, at sunrise, I was settled on a muddy bank with full camouflage and my big lens.  All I heard were Marsh Sparrows and a few Great Blue Herons.  Then my first visitor arrived at a nearby perch, and stayed for about an hour.  Belted Kingfishers have proven to be very skittish, so I relished the time to watch and photograph it.

This guy was always active, watching the many possible places for prey, and sometimes becoming vocal.

While some birders are satisfied to see a bird and move on to find the next one, I am happy  to sit and observe behaviors.   I would have become impatient waiting for the cranes without this action. 

I really wanted to capture the Belted Kingfisher in flight.  I began to wonder if the feathers on the bird's nap became more erect as it saw possible prey. It would be a good key to prepare for that millisecond when it begins.  The photographer must be very fast to capture a bird as it leaves the perch.

Well, anyway, with time the bird did sight something down below and I was extremely lucky that it happened in full sunlight.

Off it hurled into the pickerel weeds below.  I honestly don't know if it succeeded because it disappeared and did not return.

It was time to remind myself of the reason for such an early wake up.  I had to keep alert for the Sandhill Cranes.

After a lull, I caught sight of a crane flying into an opening some 200 yards away. It went out of sight quickly.  I wanted more, but would have to be patient.






After a long wait, a pair of adult Sandhill Cranes came into the pickerel weeds some 100 yards away. As a measure of their size, their weight is about twice that of  a Great Blue Heron.

The cranes teased me for well over an hour.  I vainly hoped they would feed across the dried out marsh towards me. Their location last week would have put them withing 30 yards of me.    It did not happen. 

But there was one more  treat in store for me.   Another elusive marsh bird is the Green Heron.  As I waited for the cranes to reappear, I realized that the tree where I saw the Kingfisher now had a Green Heron in it.

They are diminutive compared to other common herons, being only 18 inches long.  I've found them to be solitary and secretive.  You can imagine how the striped breast would blend in among the reeds and cattails.  Watching one up close is a treat. You see above a hint of the namesake deep green on its crest.

I don't know what prompted the display above. They can be quite vocal at times too.

So that concludes my day's results.  The cranes never returned.  Barring a huge rainfall, I'll not be able to get into this location until next spring.  It was so shallow that the canoe dragged in the mud for some 150 yards of the channel, and I was regularly running over the backs of carp that are concentrated in the few remaining pools in the marsh.

The outing was fruitful, but I still think that there is nothing civil about starting the paddle at civil daylight when it is 5:30 am.

Paul Schmitt

A Successful Failed Outing

Our local baseball team has blown the lead in so many games this year that I accuse them of a new tactic- snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.  It is supposed to go the other way in order to reward persistence.  So, it was for me today.  

I went out for birds this morning.  The first place was a zero. Best to forget it.  Then I went to Cornell's Arnot Teaching and Research Forest.  I spent about 1-1/2 hours along the creek that parallels the entrance road. It was frustrating. There were several Red-eyed Vireos but all too distant. One inquisitive Dark-eyed Junco lifted my spirits with its song and feeding behavior along the creek bank.

I usually see these Juncos mostly in the winter, so I am newly appreciating their summer song. Still, I was frustrated.  Packed up and drove up the road hoping to find birds I could photograph from the car.  Reached the top and not even a Goldfinch. It was turning out to be pretty much a failed outing. Then, I came upon the the foundations of some long gone farm buildings with a large bed of naturalized Day Lilies and Pink Phlox.  A second look spied Tiger Swallowtails.  So, today was now about butterflies, not birds.  Maybe I could get something out of this.

I noted that the swallowtails were all getting pretty tattered.  Still, the combination of hot  colored Pink Phlox plus the feeding swallowtails was a lift to my spirits. I ignored the fact I have these in my house garden.

What more could I expect?  As I was concentrating on a pair of swallowtails some 12 feet away, I gave no attention to what was happening on the flowers very nearby.  After all, these blooms would be too close to focus on.  But, some movement did catch my attention, and I had something to surpass the butterflies.  Have you ever seen these?  Hope so.

It is a Hummingbird Moth, technically a clearwing moth.  They hover to feed  just like their namesake Hummingbird. We discovered them on our pink phlox some years ago, and eagerly await them each year.  They are about 1-1/4 inches long typically.  You can see in the next photo the clearwing.

They are an extreme challenge to photograph. They never stay on a bloom for very long and are erratic in their flight. You have to be fast and have a quick-focusing camera.   The image above has a shutter speed of 1/3200 second in order to stop the motion. No flash can help at this brief shutter opening.

Oh yes, I did see a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird on the phlox, but she was quick to see me and exit. Too bad.

So, somehow this failed outing did turn out to be successful. With that in mind, I passed on a ball game tonight to edit the photos and share them with you.  Hope you enjoyed them.

Paul Schmitt