Monthly Archives: April 2013

Things That Make You Go ‘Oh Man….’

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I think it is safe to say that there are sunsets and then there are sunsets. This is a sunset. One evening I was behind schedule trying to make it to Jackson before all the motel rooms were gone and I was having a tough time getting over Togwotee Pass because I kept stopping to shoot one thing or another. It was getting late, I was tired and rather than push in I stopped at the Togwotee overlook to drink some tea and have a sandwich.

There was thunder rolling in from the distance and a huge storm front was moving over the Tetons heading south. It was pretty dark and it didn’t look like there would be a photo op because the sun was setting faster then the storm was moving, but never say never in this business. Just as I was packing up the clouds broke and lifted enough that the sun could stream through the break and this is the result. It only lasted moments then the sun was gone and so was this view.

I have been through this area dozens of times since and have never seen another sunset like this. The Tetons themselves are so beautiful that you can’t imagine anything making them better, but every once in a while Mother Nature says “you ain’t seen nothing yet” and does something so spectacular you can’t believe you saw it. Photographers have a saying “Shoot it when you see it, it’s not likely to come around again”.

Spring Storms

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No this post isn’t about exotic dancers despite the title, its about snow and it’s ability to fall in the spring catching you kind of unaware even though you saw the storm forecast on TV, or on your computer, or even by the more reliable method of your neighbor saying “Hey its going to snow tonight.” That’s how I found out about todays storm. I stopped  at the neighbors and Sophie said “Hey it s going to snow tonight.” and sure enough here it is. Six inches, all over the yard, the cars, the steps, (you have to shovel that stuff you know) and more importantly the ground that surrounds our little ranch. We’ve been in a drought here in the northern mountains for a long, long time and it has been way too dry, the kind of dry where you don’t even want to get in a fight with your spouse because the heat might set the woods on fire, kind of dry. Lest you think I’m whining about shoveling snow, well maybe a little, think again, because I’m not. In the immortal words of one of our ex-presidents I repeat his phrase “Bring it on!” as I head out the door hoping the shovel handle is sticking out of the snow so I can get at those steps. The buffalo are a lot like me, shaggy, big, hairy and they are also like that Honey Badger of YouTube fame, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nggAj0cxLro (warning off-color language) they just don’t care. They don’t care about snow, about you standing in their way, about whether the calendar says spring or not, they just put their heads down and plow through it. Just like I’m going to do, just as soon as I find that shovel.

Birthin’ Babies

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Buffalo are a lot like other creatures that have babies, they’re just bigger is all, and because they are bigger you can’t always tell that they’re pregnant. Such was the case with this young cow that was soon to be a mother. Whenever I go to Yellowstone, as a creature of habit I have a tradition, or ritual, OK an obsession, where my very first picture has to be of a buffalo. They are the icon for me that represents Yellowstone and all the creatures and natural wonders that makes the park the unique place it is and what draws me back there year after year. As I entered the park from the western entrance and drove along the Madison river watching the herds I noticed a grouping of cows within but slightly separate from the main herd. I pulled off the road, got out and casually ran my lens over the slowly milling animals looking for one that might be my opening shot. Suddenly, without warning, the young cow near the center of the picture began to spin around and out popped a calf. It flew through the air and landed on the ground with a thud. The cows who seemed to be acting as mid-wives and had been keeping an eye on this expectant mother all stood stock still. I stood stock still. It could not have been more unexpected or had any greater impact on me had it happened at Westminster cathedral. I looked around at the other people standing near me and none of them had seen this. The miracle of birth that had just thudded to the ground in a wet pile went unnoticed by everyone but me and the buffalo mid-wives.
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It appears by her size and uncertainty that this may well have been this cows first calf. Buffalo breed when they are two years old and have their first calves when they are three. Instinct has taken over and she knows what to do, she just isn’t quite sure how to do it.
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Another even younger cow comes over trying to make sense of all this but just gets in the way confusing this new mother even more. First item of business is to get rid of the afterbirth which she handles very well and before long the brand new calf is clean as a whistle.
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Next on the agenda is to get him up so he can nurse and learn who his mother is. She is having a little trouble with this part and can’t quite figure out how to do it and winds up rolling him over several times.
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More of the older cows arrive and start to check out the new addition. The new mom is off to the left of the calf lying on the ground.
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Seeing the new calf struggling to get up brings more of the older cows nearer while the new mom still appears be bewildered by events. She hasn’t taken charge of the situation yet and looks on more as a spectator rather than the main participant.
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It is a struggle, to be sure, to find your footing when you don’t know how to do anything yet. His legs aren’t doing what he wants and he keeps falling over. At the top of the image a large older cow arrives and takes charge of what is rapidly becoming a chaotic situation.
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Meanwhile life goes on in the herd. Two bulls decide this meadow isn’t big enough for the both of them and attempt to settle things just a few feet away from the struggling new calf. In the background several elk cows are fording the Madison and up on the road the tourists are boarding their bus to go on to the next sight.
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More and more exhausted the young calf still struggles to get up. He needs to nurse to replace the lost energy spent coming into the world. The midwife greets the new arrival
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and with a few nudges quickly helps him to his feet. He mistakenly thinks she is mom but with several more gentle pushes she redirects him to his own mother and nature begins to take it’s course. His mother is standing directly behind the mature cow and you can see the difference in their sizes, as the new mother is almost invisible behind the larger cow.
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He quickly heads in the right direction and finding her is soon nursing. The midwife cow has her own calf to feed but she sticks around a little longer to make sure that everything is working right for the mother.
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As soon as he has drunk his fill the totally exhausted calf and the brand new mother take a much needed rest. The entire episode, from when the calf hit the ground until this first nap, was almost exactly fifteen minutes according to the time stamp on my camera. It doesn’t take long to get born in the Yellowstone.

Couldn’t Sleep

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You ever have one of those winters when you just couldn’t sleep, you toss and turn and you look at the calendar and it’s only half past March and you normally sleep until May. Try as you might your eyes just won’t stay shut and there is nothing for it but to get up and wander around looking for the grass that isn’t up yet, hoping to find a dead buffalo to eat that the coyotes haven’t ruined, maybe run into some of your bear friends who couldn’t sleep either. It can be a miserable time. If you’re one of those innovative kind of guys you can always go nosing around the campgrounds looking for one of those soft-sided camper things to open up, the ones with the red and white plastic boxes full of supper, there’s always something to eat in there. After all it’s been since last fall that you’ve had anything to eat. Mostly though you find yourself just walking around, visiting all your old haunts waiting until somebody else wakes up to keep you company. This is the north end of Yellowstone lake near Mary Bay and its still winter here for awhile. Next year denning up in early December instead of the first of November will be a better idea. Plus no pizza before putting out the lights.

Friday Morning Color

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We’re spoiled here in Colorado. We get lots of sun and great weather and we sometimes take it for granted. The last few days we’ve had a big storm and lots of grey sky and cold. Taken separately grey skies and cold are easily managed but put the two of them together and maybe add some wind and before long everyone has a severe case of the screaming meemies. The screaming meemies are usually accompanied by huge meals of high fructose corn syrup and carbs, the bad ones, also, sadly, some people in their despair turn to chocolate. I know, I know, it’s worse than crack but I told you, we don’t normally get bad weather so there is a tendency to over react. The month of February has become known as the month of Bliveting Waist Lines or ‘BWL’ as we say between mouthfuls, because that’s when we can get the dark days where sitting by the fire helps but doesn’t reduce those anxious glances at the window. “Still grey out? Yup. Well here, have this bowl of spaghetti.” So what’s this got to do with todays picture? Well it is a known fact around here that the only antidote to sun deprivation is finding some sun, failing that, a picture full of deep rich, warm color like you find in a western sunset up on the Firehole river in Yellowstone will help and I think this one succeeds very well. Now that I’ve looked at it long enough I find that I don’t need that third bowl of spaghetti.

 

Sun Catcher

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This Bighorn ewe looks like she couldn’t be happier to be able to lie here and catch some sun. I mean if you had just spent the whole winter up to your udders in snow I bet this would feel pretty good to you too. In the early spring the herds come down from the high country to drink out of the Big Thompson river, lick the highway for minerals and salt, and hang out for most of the day. The stress level is way down, the new grass is here, the rams have settled down after the rut is over and mostly all the ewes have to do right now is wait for the lambs to arrive. And soak up that beautiful spring sunshine. Now if I were a bronze wildlife sculptor, and I was for about 25 years, this image would make a wonderful bronze piece, the angle of the rock she is lying on, her pose in general, the makeup of the surrounding habitat, it’s all perfect. Now if I were doing that piece I’m quite sure it would take me several months of hard labor to finally have a finished work of art, but now in the age of instant gratification all I have to do is push the shutter and print the picture. Art in an instant. Although you as the viewer will always have the final say on whether it is art or something different, I as creator of the work will always have the satisfaction of knowing that I created it, good or bad. I will always love sculpture, but I love being able to create these images even more. My hope is that you enjoy them too.

We Interrupt our Regular…….

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As you are no doubt aware from all the recent attention by the Nation’s press, the World Headquarters of our Media Empire is located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The Royal viewing room, um, I meant the office, looks East where every morning the sun comes up and starts our day. Things may be different where you live but that’s how it works here. Yesterday it snowed for the entire day and although it didn’t accumulate all that much it did cover our grounds completely. The Staff in their usual surly manner began the task of sweeping the snow off our dirt driveway. As you might imagine there was much good-natured grumbling but they knew it was a necessary task that they needed to complete if they wanted to eat. But that’s not the real story, the real story concerns the incredible cloud cover that sometimes happens after one of our storms. A meteorologist could tell you the scientific name for clouds like this but unfortunately, due to budget restraints and sequestration we had to let ours go. Looking out over the surrounding area you see a sea of clouds under which are entire towns, lots of cows, some people riding bikes, the transmitting towers of the world’s atomic clock, (seriously every time your computer updates it time, the signal came from a little pulse sent from the towers near the World Headquarters of our Media Empire) and etc. Under there it is still dark and cold, they won’t see the sun for another hour or so until the cloud cover is burned off by the thermonuclear reaction above. But meanwhile above all that there is an absolute riot of shifting shapes, entire mountain ranges build up and are dissolved in moments, seas form and huge waves are cast forth that never reach a shore, and once in a while when we’ve been particularly good, a rainbow begins to form, like the one to the right of the sunburst. This isn’t RainbowNomics as such (see previous post)  because we didn’t order this one, it is simply a gift from the universe. It is faint to be sure, but it is there and we are thankful. Normally we do not interrupt our regular posting, but we wanted to share this special event with you, why?, well, because we love you of course.