Lewis River and the Moon in twilight

This HDR combine was shot while I waited for some visitors who hopped out of their car and put themselves right in the middle of the frame for the photos of Lewis Falls from the north end of the bridge here.  I knew the contrast between the darkened scenery and the bright twilight sky and Moon would be tough to catch in a single exposure, so I took 3 images bracketed by 1 stop around 1 second at f/4, ISO 100 with my fisheye lens.

This HDR combine really paid off compared with the original bracketing exposures.  I used 4 exposures in this case thanks to mis-setting my first attempt here - now I wish my old Canon 20D could take 5 bracketed images automatically.  The central exposure in the bracket was 2 seconds at f/8, ISO 400 with my 24mm lens.

Here is one of the original frames that went into the above HDR combine with the central exposure.

Lewis Falls

 As we  drove south through Yellowstone National Park, heading for the south entrance, we passed Lewis Lake and then crossed a bridge and saw this waterfall which we weren't expecting, so we pulled into the pullout and I grabbed my camera gear.  It was close to sunset, so exposures were going to be long, so I decided to bracket shots and maybe combine them later with and HDR program.  Using my 24mm lens, I took shots +/- 1 stop around 6 seconds at f/22, ISO 100.  I used ExpoBlending under Linux to do the combine

This is the middle image of the three used in the above HDR combine.  The improvements are not all that obvious in this case, but the next image did well with the HDR combine.

From the same location, I switched to my 10mm fisheye and took three exposures with a 1 stop bracket centered at 1/6 second at f/2.8, ISO 100.

I set up at the north end of the bridge over Lewis River and took an HDR set of exposures with my 75-300mm lens at 90mm focal length, bracketed by 1 stop centered on 5 seconds at f/11, ISO 400.

Bison Bison everywhere

After leaving Tower Falls, we headed for the south exit of Yellowstone National Park.  Along the windy road, we passed several herds of Bison. As we crested a hill on the highway, I saw some vehicles stopped up ahead and sure enough, there were some Bison on and near the road.  "Bison crossing" would be a worthy road sign here.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 300mm focal length and an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

A Bison calf moves slowly across the ridge not too far from the roadway.  The cars tend to slow to a crawl when there are so many animals so close to the road, so the opportunity to shoot from the car as we drove past was too hard to pass up.  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/1000 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

More Buffalo than you can count.  A bull stands at the top of a hill not too far from the calf above as we drove past.  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.
 

Another bull wanders the grassland of Yellowstone.  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

This bull seems to be watching the traffic go by (it was bumper to bumper for quite some distance).  I took this out the drivers side window as my sweetie drove slowly down the road.  This image was taken at 205mm focal length with an exposure of 1/640 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

This herd of Buffalo were milling around on a hillside by the road that has a hydrothermal vent near its top which you can see in the middle of the frame with a beast in front of it.  This image was taken at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

Confluence of the Yellowstone River and Tower Creek

Fun with special affects, this exposure was long enough to smear the rivers flow significantly with an exposure of 1 second at f/22, ISO 100 using my 24mm lens.  The river bends to the left, flowing away from me here and into the canyon wall.

Upstream from the confluence, the Yellowstone River turns a bend below this shallow canyon wall in the distance.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens and an exposure of 1/25 seconds at f/4, ISO 100.

Tower Falls is far left of this image but the creek below the falls flows down and intersects the Yellowstone River at the lower left corner of this image. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/30 seconds at f/3.2, ISO 100.

To show the whole bend in the Yellowstone River, I used my 10mm fisheye lens for this shot.  The Tower Creek enters the Yellowstone River on the lower left corner of this frame, just below the small rapids in the rover below the yellow cliff face.  The river flows from the right, towards the left in this image.  The area smelled of sulfur which may have come from what may have been a small fumerole at the base of the cliff slightly upstream in the Tower Creek canyon.  I also suspect the yellow highlights in the cliff or canyon wall may be the result of sulfur rich deposits.  This image was taken with an exposure of 1 second at f/22, ISO 100.

Tower Falls

We arrived at Tower Falls in Yellowstone National Park last month in a bit of a rainstorm, complete with thunder and lightning, so we went inside the giftshop by the trailhead, thinking that the hike to view the falls was a couple miles long.  We discovered that the viewpoint is only a short relatively flat trail away and a longer hike went down towards the base of the falls (but we found out later that it is closed about halfway down).  With the storm lightening up with only very light rain, we headed out on the short hike.  I set up my tripod at the overlook and took the shots above with my 24mm lens, varying the exposure for different affects - the top is 1 second at f/22, ISO 100 and the falls are smeared, giving the falls a curtain-like affect.  The bottom was taken at 1/640 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 400, nearly stopping the water.

I switched to my 50mm lens and took these two images in portrait mode.  The top image was taken at 1/800 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 400.  The lower one was taken at 1 second at f/22, ISO 100.

FYI, the trail that heads downhill does not have another view of Tower Falls, at least not down to where it is closed.  It does have wonderful views of the river and canyon below - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Mammoth Hot Springs

The Mammoth Hot Springs are on the north end of the Yellowstone National Park.  The area housed a Military expedition that was used to "tame" the area in the early days.  The hot springs are composed of a number of terraces with bubbling hot springs that drain downhill, forming the terrace features as the minerals in the water settle out into the landscape.  The grey-white limestone deposits are called travertine.  The material looks a lot like snow or ice from a distance.  You can also see a storm which moved into the area while we were there and chased us back into the car.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens and an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

The trails for visitors are on man made boardwalks to allow visitors to get close to the hot springs without damaging them.  Looking down into one of the terraces below the boardwalk shows the pools of water in the terraces and shows some of the structure found in the terraces.  This image was taken at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

These fresh terrace structures show the wide variety of colors and structures.  Some of the features almost look like snow and ice structures.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens and an exposure of 1/400 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

 A closeup of the terrace from the previous image showing some of the complex structures and perhaps you can see the slow trickle of water flowing downhill.  This image was taken at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

 The travertine covered landscapes have a variety of textures and colors to be seen.  This image was taken at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

This is a lower pool at the top of one of the lower terraces.  The pools can be seen steaming and it produces very colorful deposits.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

Where the Buffalo roam

After passing over Dead Indian Pass, the road from Cody Wyoming into the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone dropped into deep valleys with creeks and rivers surrounded by mountain ranges.  Between the Yellowstone National Park N.E. entrance and Tower Junction, some of the valleys widened into large grassy areas perfect for the large herds of Buffalo that we saw there.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

These herds of Buffalo were hundreds strong and we saw several different herds in at least 3 or 4 places along the roads inside the park.  There were many young ones mixed in as you can see above.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

This bull was on a hill near the roadway overlooking the valley where the rest of the herd was.  There were a few others on the other side of the road as well.  This guy was eyeing the visitors like us pulled off the side of the road in a pullout as he slowly worked his way down into the valley.  There are warnings in the park literature and at park facilities about the dangers of the wildlife in the park.  I could imagine how bad it might be if an animal this large decided he didn't like the way you were looking at him and decided to charge your car or even you standing outside of it!  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

A few minutes later, the same bull had moved down into the valley and was rejoining the rest of the herd.  These animals are magnificent creatures and their return in strength of numbers was obvious in Yellowstone.  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

We passed other herds of Buffalo and I promise to post some more pictures an a later post.

The Early Bird gets the worm

After passing through the Northeast Entrance to Yellowstone National Park on Friday July 27, we stopped along the Soda Butte Creek and I found this bird actually pulling a worm from the ground (don't remember ever actually seeing that before in real life...).  As the saying goes, "The Early Bird gets the Worm, but the Early Worm gets eaten by the Bird."  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

The view from Dead Indian Summit Overlook

The view from Dead Indian Summit Overlook on Friday July 27 was quite spectacular as the view westward generally towards Yellowstone National Park show the steep mountain road on the right-center foreground and valleys and mountain ranges as we stopped here along the road between Cody Wyoming and the Northeast Entrance to the park.  Along the way, the road is steep and winding before entering the valley generally to the right third of this image and heading towards Montana to the Northwest of here.  You can even see some snow on the peaks just left of center on the horizon.  This 8 frame panorama taken with my 24mm lens and exposures of 1/500 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100 and was assembled with the Hugin Panorama Creator under Linux.

While at the overlook, quite a large crew of Chipmunks and Squirrels were there and not only entertaining fellow travelers, but happy to accept a small gratuity (of food, of course) from them.  This little guy didn't want to miss out on the activities as he climbed over rocks to get to the crowd of critters and humans.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

This picture is a 2nd squirrel munching a potato chip given to him by one of the other tourists.  Both these guys were around 5 inches long (head and body less the tail) and I suspect they are Sierra Nevada Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrels. This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

I didn't get a very good shot of the little guy below.  He's got the pointier snout of a chipmunk along with the markings on his head and he was a little smaller than the other critters.  This shot was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/1000 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

Campground views

After our late afternoon visit to Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park on Thursday July 26, we drove east past Yellowstone Lake and out the East Entrance towards Cody Wyoming - a place I'd visited during one of my families trips between Oregon and Michigan when I was 8 years old.  We found a campground with a couple empty camp sites well after dark at the Newton Creek Campground along the North Fork of the Shoshone River.  We were greeted by these views in the morning when we finally saw our surroundings in sunlight.  The steep hills and cliffs in the area are composed of sandstone debris flows with many sharp features including at least one window and one cave (see below) visible from this campground.  The image above is a panorama composed of 4 portrait format images taken with my 24mm lens with exposures of 1/1250 seconds at f/4, ISO 400.

Just off the left edge of the panorama above was this small cave feature near the top center.  This first image shows the setting for the next two and was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

Zooming in some, you can see more detail along with hints of many of the features on the cliffside in which this cave sits.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm zoom at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

Finally, zoomed in to 300mm focal length, you can see the cave interior as well as the sharp hoodoos on the left as well as along the top of the cliff and some coarse layering in the sandstone cliffs below the cave.  This image was taken with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

Old Faithful

Old Faithful erupted just about right on schedule. Ok, it was maybe a minute or two early.  The last time I was in Yellowstone and saw Old Faithful was in 1968 when my family stopped here on the way from Oregon to Michigan.  The place has really built up in 44 years and seems a lot more crowded than I remember. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/16, ISO 100.

The Firehole River

The Firehole River runs past Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin, Midway Geyser Basin and the Lower Geyser Basin before meeting the Gibbon River and turning into the Madison River.  This view is from a bridge at the start of the Fairy Falls trail.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 75mm with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Clepsydra Geyser

This is Clepsydra Geyser which was active continuously while we were in the area.  We saw it first from the road as we approached the parking area and is known for its almost continuous eruptions these days.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Fountain Paint Pot and nearby thermal features.

This is the Fountain Paint Pot which gave this trail its name.  These "Mudpots" are fairly thick in the late summer but the mud in the middle of this is continuously bubbling and boiling.  It does appear to have the thickness of paint.  This image was cropped from a frame taken with my 10mm fisheye with an exposure of 1/640 sec, f/8, ISO 100.

This is the very noisy Fumaroles.  This hissing fumerole was being outdone this day by its neighbor below, the Red Spouter.  It smelled of sulfur here too. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye with an exposure of 1/500 sec at f/8, ISO 100.

Red Spouter originated in 1959 with the Hebgen Lake Earthquake.  It was mostly just steaming when we were there, but it apparently changes its typical features during the year from a muddy hot spring in the spring  & early summer to small geyser that splashes reddish water several feet in the air to a big mudpot and then a hissing fumerole.  They sounded like the hissing fumerole the day were were there

Leather Pool has undergone changes in the recent past.  It supported leather-like thermophilic bacteria before the Hebgen Lake Earthquake in 1959 but became boiling after the earthquake, killing off the micro organisms and has since cooled back down.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Silex Spring & Bacterial Mats

This is an image of pretty blue Silex Spring along the short Fountain Paint Pot Trail along the road about midway between Madison and Old Faithful.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 1/400 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Along the boardwalk from the parking lot you can see the Bacterial Mats below the steaming (even in summer, so you can imagine how hot the water is!) Silex Spring.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm zoom at 75mm focal length.  The exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Someone dropped their hat into the Bacterial Mats - I would have left my favorite hat there too....  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.