This was my second visit to the Galapagos Islands.  My wife and I visited in April of 2005, and I never figured I’d return since I have a lot of other locations on my list of places to visit and photograph. 

This trip was one of the prizes awarded to me as grand prize winner in the 2010 Audubon Magazine photography contest.  The cruise was provided by Lindblad Expeditions aboard the National Geographic Endeavor. Lindblad and Nat Geo do organize a great trip, with top notch naturalists, including a few trained by National Geographic photographers to provide advice and guidance to the less experienced photographers among the passengers.

Each day was similar in schedule, but widely different in experience.  We’d awake anchored in the location for the morning excursion.  Occasionally a choice of activities was offered which might include a long walk, a short walk, or just a stay on the beach but mostly one walk was offered.  There was always an alternative activity, usually a zodiac ride along the coast, for those not wishing to take the offered hike.   Most landings (all but two) were wet landings; the zodiac would get close to the beach, and the passengers in turn would get off into the water and wade to the beach.  The water was never more than knee deep, and towels were provided on the beach to dry off feet and put on shoes for the walk.  Upon embarking the ship from the morning excursion, we’d sail during lunch to a second location for the afternoon activity.  Between shore excursions were afternoon lectures, occasional deep water snorkeling or kayaking opportunities.

The weather was mild and cloud covered for sunrise, with the clouds burning off as the day went on, with the afternoons mostly sunny.  Seas were mostly calm even when on the edge of the archipelago north of Isabella Island.  Sunrise photography was not great, and only one evening was good for sunset, with the exception of the last evening at sea, when we were circumnavigating Kicker Rock, unique rock formations which are the remnants of a volcanic cone.  Just before we sailed away from this rock, the light turned golden and the rock appeared on fire.  Based on the week of dull evening light, this last evening was spectacular.  The ship was sailing into the sunset, I hurried to the bow of the ship, where both feet slipped out from under me, I landed flat on my face spread out on the deck, my camera skidded across the deck  . . . and no one noticed.  I dragged myself up and looked around; everyone was intently watching the sunset and hadn’t noticed my acrobatics at all.

View the Galleries.

 At the end of September, my wife, Chris, and I visited Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park hoping to see and photograph the yellow and orange fall foliage, abundant wildlife preparing for winter, and perhaps a touch of winter itself.  We arrived with the leaves just starting to turn, scant wildlife, and temperatures in the 80’s for the first few days.  We did find a herd of 200 or so bison spread out in the Lamar Valley and on the return to Mammoth Hot Springs we found a herd of ten pronghorn does with a buck keeping order.  One evening we also had a few bighorn sheep come down the cliffs to the Gardiner River. The first evening we planned on eating at the park dining room anticipating the evening show; 30-40 elk cows with two or three bulls vying to keep track of their respective harems, and try to coax a few more cows from another harem.   We saw one nice bull, and four cows.  Where did they all go?  The introduction of wolves to the park did reduce the elk herds, but to a greater degree than initially expected.  This was a result of the overwhelming success of the wolf packs, which have done better than predicted.  The wolf/elk ratio has probably hit an equilibrium; if there are not enough elk for one reason, let’s say a bad winter, there will be fewer surviving wolf pups due to less food available, then the elk with have greater success, and then the wolf numbers will increase.

 We spent the first three nights based in Gardiner, MT, at the north entrance to Yellowstone NP.  From there it is convenient to travel to the Lamar Valley, Tower Junction and the Canyon Village section beyond, and to Norris Geyser basin.  Basically, the northern half of the park.  Mammoth Hot Springs is the northern headquarters of the park services with lodging, dining, and conveniences (general store, fuel, post office, etc.).   The springs for which the area is named, and the travertine cliffs here have changed over the years as geologic activity redirects the hot spring water below ground though subterranean limestone,  dissolving calcium carbonate and depositing it as travertine (a bone white mineral) as the water cools on the surface. But that is not what creates the rainbow of colors at this, and all other, thermal features: it’s the thermopiles (heat-loving microorganisms).  The color of the thermopiles is due to the temperature of the water.  Cooler waters support the growth of orange, brown and green thermopiles while clear and yellow thermopiles thrive in the hottest water.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone has several viewpoints to easily view and photograph both the upper and lower falls and the Yellowstone River. There are also a number of trails that lead down into the canyon for a more intimate view of the falls. We visited the canyon on different days and at different times of day to get a variety of light into the canyon.  While overcast conditions greatly reduce shadows in the canyon, the light is not dramatic nor does it bring out the intense colors of the rock.  The sun cast a heavy shadow on half the canyon for our visit to the canyon at midday, and a return visit a few days later at 3pm with cumulous clouds in the sky provided a brightly lit inner canyon.

Our next stop was in Jackson, WY, near Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons National Park.  Since we were so late in planning this trip, we opted to stay in Jackson, even though we would have an additional 20-minute drive into the park for sunrise.  Sunrise opportunities are numerous in Grand Teton; Schwabacher Landing, Oxbow Bend, Molton Barn, and Mormon Row.  In our exploration, we found a beaver pond near the road (about a foot away from the road) where one evening we watched two adult and two young beavers feeding on the bark and leaves of small branches within fifteen feet of us.  We visited the location several times during our four days in Jackson and did repeat the experience.

Again, wildlife was somewhat scarce, with the exception of the beaver.  We saw several elk cows and a couple of bulls in the early evening hours, but did not see a single moose.  We did see osprey on a nest but the position made photography impossible, and saw a red tail hawk flying.  In any case, the landscape photography opportunities were reasonably decent, even though proscribe forest fires at the south end of the park resulted in ground smoke at the base of the mountains.  This is evident in the images that show a grey pallor on the lower half of the mountains.

We then moved on to Old Faithful Snow Lodge for the last five nights of our stay.  This location gave us good access to the southern half of the park, and even drives to the Canyon Village area were not that far away. A large number of visitor accessible thermal features is in this area, including Old Faithful geyser.  Photographing hot pools and geysers can be challenging as they produce large amounts of steam.  Your luck will depend largely on the direction and speed of the wind, and the air temperature.  On my winter visit here, there were times when you could hear a hot pool bubbling, but couldn’t see it for all the steam surrounding it.  The higher daytime temperatures (low 70’s) while we were there offered up some interesting views of the thermal features.   I concentrated on areas of the thermal features that had striking color or interesting compositions.

The wildlife activity did eventually perk up as the nights became cooler and the daytime heat finally abated.  We saw several herds of elk along the Madison River, and bison herds could be seen at many locations with about 50 animals each, except for the big herd in the Lamar Valley.  By far the best experience was viewing a pack of wolves in the Lamar Valley returning to an elk they had killed the day earlier. At one of the pull-outs overlooking Hayden Valley, we overheard this tidbit of information from a couple that was deciding where to go next.  One at a time the wolves would come to the carcass, chase off the ravens and magpies, and try to pry meat from the bone.  Since the carcass was in the river, one wolf tried to pull it up onto the bank to get at the meat that was previously submerged.  Another big spectacle was the number of photographers who had lined up shoulder to shoulder in two locations.

My blog entries for this trip will be divided by location, starting with the Bougainvillea Hotel in Heredia, near San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. We also traveled to Selve Verde Lodge, the Arenal Observatory Lodge, and the Bosque de Paz Ecolodge as well as side trips from those locations.

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The Bougainvillea Hotel This was my third trip to Costa Rica and each time I stayed at the Bougainvillea to start and end each trip. Tour providers choose this hotel in a residential area for its 10+ acres of gardens that include over 50 species of bromeliads, native trees, orchids and frog ponds. Each visit offered different plants in blossom. And while my two visits in March had quite a few birds in the garden, in June the migratory birds were gone, and the local birds were raising chicks and mostly staying hidden. There were more plants in blossom, but fewer orchids. In any case, I wasn’t disappointed with the opportunities to use my macro lens.

Costa Rica 2011 The Art of Biodiversity – Part 2

I’ve always wanted to visit Yellowstone in winter to photograph the scenery and wildlife.  After considerable internet searching, this year I signed on for a February trip with National Geographic contributing photographer Daniel J. Cox (Natural Exposures).  The trip schedule included four day-long excursions by snow coach into the park from West Yellowstone and a day on either end to travel from/to Bozeman.  Since I was going to travel to Montana, I added on three days of photographing the park from north entrance at Mammoth Hot Springs, the only area of the park that clears the roads for automobile travel during the winter.  More about my independent travels in Part 2.

Part 1 is long and includes both my trip report and a review of the Natural Exposures Yellowstone in Winter Photo Tour for those considering this trip or this tour company.

Natural Exposures Photo Tour

Booking the trip was easy with terrific communications from Tanya Cox, Daniel’s wife.  She arranged for hotel accommodations in Bozeman for the night before the trip, and offered a discount of $100 for being a first-time traveler with Natural Exposures.  I was also able to book the trip without the lodging costs since I had Holiday Inn points I could use for free lodging.

The afternoon drive to West Yellowstone was a little over two hours, and we stopped to photograph big horn sheep on a hill by the road.  That evening we met to discuss the upcoming trips into the park, photographic considerations for snow and high contrast, and Dan showed some of his work. We also filled in menu selections for the box lunches that Tanya would prepare for us.  There was a group dinner in the hotel restaurant following the presentation.

Day One – to Lower Geyser Basin

Natural Exposures uses 28 passenger tour vehicles (snow yacht, which have been designed for travel on snow in winter as well as on the road pavement the rest of the year.  With only 14 participants, we each had two seats so we had plenty of room for our gear.  We headed out from the hotel at 7 AM in anticipation of some delay at the park entrance station, which didn’t happen, and we arrived at the Madison River in low light conditions due to the heavy overcast.  We stopped near several groups of tundra swans and stayed there while the light brightened.  It was an excellent opportunity as we had adults and signets, preening behavior, take-offs, fly-bys, and landings.  Moving down the road, which follows the river, we stopped to photograph elk, bison, and eagles.  We stopped for a hot drink and pastry break at Madison Junction, which also has a warming hut and heated restrooms.  Heading south from here, we drove along Firehole Canyon Drive, stopping to photograph the cascades and walk along the road for other scenic views of the river.  Lower Geyser Basin is a short drive from Firehole Canyon and we stopped here for an hour to explore the Fountain Paint Pots and other thermal features along the boardwalk trail.  It’s very difficult to get still photos that fully capture the dynamics of thermal features.  Luckily, I didn’t forget that I have video capture capability on my Canon cameras, and actually remembered to use it once in a while.  The return to West Yellowstone included stops whenever bison, elk, and eagles offered the opportunities.  As we neared Madison Junction we received a report that a bobcat was on the prowl along the river.  Dan mentioned that he had heard of the bobcat for the last three years but had never seen it.   By the time we found the bobcat, it was getting pretty dark and snowing, but we couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

Day Two – to Norris Geyser Basin

It snowed overnight and we weren’t disappointed with the snow covered bison we found along the Madison River as well as snow covered trees and a fresh layer of snow everywhere.  It continued to snow on-and-off through the morning and we did have blue skies at times later in the day.  We spent a long time with an eagle perched in a tree across the river and we followed it as it moved up the river.  It was likely the same eagle we photographed the day before in the same tree.  Great looks for a long time.  Once again we stopped at Madison Junction for the facilities and a snack break.  Today we turned north and stopped for a while at Gibbon Falls.  The parking area and paths had been renovated in the recent road upgrades and while there were railings to protect visitors from falling into the canyon, they were of little benefit as the snow was packed down and three feet deep.  Only the top of the railing and stone walls showed.  The demarcation of packed snow to loose snow was impossible to determine in many locations and stepping out too far from the vehicle tracks could result in being hip deep in snow, as several of us found out.  Gibbon Falls was an interesting place to photograph with distant and close views available to those who decided to walk down the road, and back uphill.  The Norris Geyser Basin offered two trails to follow, one short and the other longer with an elevation change.  We only had an hour here so I chose to follow the short path figuring I’d have more time to photograph whatever interested me.  One difficulty with the paths here are that the number of visitors is probably less than some of the other spots and the deep snow on the boardwalks are only packed down in the very center.  Letting someone pass was an interesting exercise.  One feature here is that small pine trees are bent over with the weight of accumulating snow next to thermal vents and pools that have no snow accumulation at all.  We made a few stops along the way back to West Yellowstone for scenics and a particularly well lit bison foraging near the road.  As we neared Madison Junction, we again received a report of the bobcat hunting along the river.  This time the light was still low but at least it wasn’t snowing;  the action was limited as the cat stayed in one location, watching, napping, grooming.  No waterfowl floated by, which could have been exciting.  It would have been a toss-up of who was more excited, the birds or the photographers.

Day 3 – to Old Faithful

The temperature was colder than previous days, about 0º Fahrenheit to start the day.  While this sounds bad it was indeed a good thing.  The cold atmosphere in combination with moist air results in anything nearby being frosted.  We weren’t disappointed; frosted trees, frosted bison, steam rising from the rivers, we had it all.  Trees near the river were frosted from the steam rising from the water and the steam added some interest to the scene, but it was a challenge to capture images of wildlife near the river shooting through the mist.  A breeze was blowing the steam by one bison, and by watching and waiting I did get some images with less steam between me and the animal, resulting in images that show the effect of the steam on the bison in this cold environment.  Another effect of moist air on cold fur occurs with bison breath frosting their faces.  We were fortunate to arrive at the thermal areas near Fountain Flats while the frost was still on the trees; on the return trip from Old Faithful all the frost had melted.  Near Midway Geyser Basin we had good views of bison on both sides of the Firehole River.  The time at Old Faithful in the Upper Geyser Basin was limited to a little more than an hour due to all the stops for wildlife we made on the way.  Just barely enough time to get to a few nearby thermal features. Along the way back to West Yellowstone we stopped to photograph an eagle flying over the river, watching the ducks, hoping for a dynamic moment that never came.  The eagle perched on the top of a pine tree for a while, but by the time I had retrieved my big lens from the bus, it had flown off.

Day 4 – to Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Today we switched to two small vans since the snow “yacht” didn’t have the legs to reach the canyon and return on a single tank of fuel.  The smaller vehicles had similar accommodations as the larger vehicle with two seats for each photographer.  We headed out along the Madison River with a forecast of snow for the day.  It did snow at first, but we were treated to breaks in the snow, with some blue sky.  We stopped for scenery and elk along the river until out morning break at Madison Junction.  The rest stop was crowded with buses, vans, snow coaches, and snowmobiles.  On previous days the rest stop had only one or two vehicles; we had stopped frequently to photograph along the Madison River and reached the rest stop well after the normal vehicle tour schedule.  From here we headed to Norris where we turned west towards Canyon.  It also started snowing heavily.  We ate our box lunches at the visitor center which had a large room with picnic tables.  On previous days we ate in the bus, either at a rest stop or while we were traveling to save time.  As we headed over to the scenic overlooks of Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, it continued to snow heavily.  Not looking good as we stopped to photograph the Yellowstone River from a bridge.  As luck would have it, the snow stopped when we arrived at the overlook of the Lower Falls, a 306 foot drop with water thundering over into the canyon bottom.  Ice formations on either side of the falls were conspicuous even from such a great distance.  We also stopped at Upper Falls, and then headed to Hayden Valley in hopes of seeing wildlife.  It was quiet there, with a couple of bison in the middle of the valley a mile or so away.  They were mighty small in the viewfinder.  The drive back to West Yellowstone seemed long, and it I’m certain it would have seemed longer if I had to drive; the snow was very heavy and it was difficult to see the road.  Traffic wasn’t much of a problem, but if one were to veer off the road slightly, the unpacked sides would cause a problem for the vehicle.  (More on that in Part 2.)  After we arrived at the hotel, we met for a pizza supper and many participants provided images to share with the group.  Dan also showed videos of their Canadian Rockies trip and an Africa trip (these and others can be viewed on the Natural Exposures website).

The next morning we headed back to Bozeman to catch flights home, or pick up a rental car as I did to extend the trip in other locations.

General Comments on Natural Exposures

I was very impressed with the logistics provided and the care Dan and Tanya, as well as their office staff, took to ensure that the participant’s needs were met.  One person had a late arrival at the airport and one of the staff met that individual at the airport and drove him down to West Yellowstone that evening.  Another person was a day late due to weather induced travel problems and Tanya drove up to the airport and back to bring that participant to the group.   A few weeks before the trip, a package arrived with a down vest, insulated coffee mug and a folio of information for the trip, and on arrival at the West Yellowstone hotel room I found a re-useable water bottle, a bag of chocolate truffles, some toiletries, and a bottle of wine.  Very nice touch.  The lunches that Tanya made for us were packaged in re-usable plastic containers which held a hefty sandwich, drink, desert and fruit, yogurt or other item.  A variety of chips was also available.  The lunches were different every day with exception of the sandwich that was selected for that day on the first night.  Out in the park, if anyone wanted to photograph something, they would shout out and the bus would stop and those interested would jump out and do their thing.   I think the time spent at the Norris could have been better spent at the Midway Geyser Basin’s Grand Prismatic Spring or have more time at the Upper Geyser Basin near Old Faithful.   Because of the travel time involved, it would require reducing the amount of time we spent with some wildlife along the way, but that could have been handled on those occasions that the scene wasn’t changing dynamically enough to warrant staying at that location.  That’s my only nit to pick.  I can see why many of the participants had traveled with Dan and Tanya in the past, and several had already booked future trips with them.  I know I’ll be visiting their website regularly and will likely travel with them again.

Yellowstone National Park in Winter – Part 2

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

My image of a Green-breasted Mango was selected as the Grand Prize Winner of the Audubon Magazine Birds In Focus photography contest.  It was selected from the 8,000 entries in this year’s competition.  The image is one of the thousands of images I captured during my trip to Costa Rica in March 2010.  You can find the announcement of the winners at Audubon Magazine.

Another of my entries was selected as one of the Top 100 images of the contest and can be seen here.  Rather than tell you which one is mine, I’ll leave it to you to explore all of these wonderful images.  After you see these images, you’ll understand how honored I am that my image was selected from among those images.

Click on the thumbnail to view a larger image.

After several weeks of photographing, I haven’t been able to catch the male’s gorget fully lit up.  Most captures that are a side view of the male results in dark, almost black gorget feathers.  There always seems to be a dark patch of red gorget that never lights up.  It’s very difficult to catch the throat lit up, and only seems to happen if the bird is facing the camera, but even then, there’s a patch in the center that doesn’t fully light up.   I’ll have to experiment more with light placement to see if I can get better results.  Up to now the two front lights have been to either side of the flower.  Perhaps I need to place one below and directly in front of the bird.  In the past, I’ve used a camera mounted flash with a BetterBeamer to trigger the other flashes.  That may provide enough direct light, if lack of direct front light is the cause of the dark feathers. 

I’ve been using the Canon 7D with the 500mm f4 Is lens since the birds were very wary of me being nearby.  Now they are more comfortable with me there and I’ve been using the 100-400 zoom lens. .  I can’t rotate my camera for vertical compositions because the built in flash controller of the 7D will not see all the remote flashes if I do so. So I’ve been taking images with less zoom with the intent of cropping for vertical presentation.  The portrait images were taken this way.

There are not many more days to photograph hummingbirds; the males will leave soon and the females a couple of weeks later.