Photography
After attending the Natural Exposures Yellowstone in Winter Photo Tour described in Part 1, I picked up a rental car in Bozeman and continued my winter adventure based in Gardiner, MT. Gardiner is only a few miles from the north entrance to the park and Mammoth Hot Springs. Highway 212 passes through the northern section of the park to Cooke City just outside the northeast park boundary. This road is maintained year round and is the only means to reach Cooke City during the winter.
Yellowstone National Park in Winter — Part 1
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. [Read more…]
One thing I didn’t plan when going to Homer to photograph bald eagles was the prospet of capturing the eagles as they swooped in to catch a fish near the surface of rthe water. I always thought that must be one lucky photographer to be in the right spot, with the right equipment, at the right time. It didn’t occur to me that as with birds in the back yard, if you put out food, they will come.
A local water taxi operator brought us, and a couple of cases of frozen fish, to a quiet bay across from Homer. Since the ordinance on feeding eagles only applies to the city limits of Homer, the captain is able to toss fish into the water. While there were only three or four eagles in the tree tops when we arrived, there were more than 20 eventually.
