Tag Archives: sunset

Color Of Sun

Posted on by

2015-11-15ColorOfSun7093

Some times as a photographer you can become image blinded. What that means is you have a shot in mind, in this case it was to get over to the Blacktail ponds to try and get the sunset coming off the water, and you are so intent on making your schedule that you are not watching for anything else. The sun was already setting and the ponds  were still about five miles away yet, and there was a tendency to hurry. You’ve had this shot in mind all day and here you are scrambling to get there, late as usual.

Rounding the long sweeping bend in the highway that runs past Yellowstone Picnic area and heads out towards the flats, you look over to check the light intensity which is your gauge as to whether you will make it in time. OK you got maybe 10 mins. based on the slant of the shadows, is that enough time to get there and get set up, can I make it, is the thought that goes through your mind, and yet here is this gorgeous patch of foliage all lit up and waiting for you. Its bright golden yellow just perfect in its color and hue.  Can you pass it up and try and get over to the ponds and get set up in time. Quick calculations go through your mind, I mean here is perfect color and it’s only going to last a few more minutes, do you really want to tear over to the ponds only to be late? The old bird in the hand thing pops up and you pull the rig over to shoot this scene.

So intent on your schedule and program you have not even recognized the old silver back grizzly standing there for what he was. He had been standing still and as your eye swept the scene to check out the color and composition he appeared to be a boulder there in the valley. Until he moved. Not startled but focused on his travel he would soon be out of the frame. Man what the hell were you doing? Are you losing it here? was just one of the thoughts going through your mind as you realized what the situation was. Nothing snaps a wildlife photographer out of his preoccupation and inattentiveness than seeing a grizzly appear magically in your shot. Scrambling to get the camera ready, get out of the rig and shooting before he had traveled far enough that this shot wouldn’t be possible, it was a flurry of action that would be comical later if you got the shot, but tragic if you didn’t.

Fortunately practice and experience and pure blind dumb luck was present enough that the image was made. It is called Color of Sun and the grizzly is gratuitous. Blacktail ponds would have to wait another day.

Night Comes To The Blackfeet Camp

Posted on by

This post has been moved to OpenChutes.com. All future postings of Powwows, Indian Relay Races, Rodeos and Rendezvous will be posted there from now on exclusively. So if you’re looking for new images and posts for all those events attended this year, plus all the old posts posted on BigShotsNow.com check out OpenChutes.com. See you there!

2015-10-13BlackfeetSunset2429

The day has been blisteringly hot. Smoke from the western forest fires has been drifting past the camp, sometimes so thick you felt like you were next to the flames. There was some relief from the heat as the sun began its journey past the horizon but not that much. There was no relief from the smoke.

As you looked about the camp the lodges began to fade to black, the lodge poles standing out in stark relief against the sky. But the sky. How beautiful was the sky. If it hadn’t been the result of the massive catastrophe that the smoke represented the resulting colors caused by the sunlight’s passage through it would have been the most beautiful thing you’d ever seen. It was still gorgeous but you knew in the back of your mind this sunset wouldn’t have been this intense if it hadn’t been for the smoke.

However reality is what is happening right now. These events are real. The sun setting, the smoke, the camp, the dancing, everything is real. You might wish the smoke wasn’t there. You might wish the heat was less, but it isn’t and this what you have to accept as an observer and participant in the life that is happening  around you right now. To get the most out of life embrace the time you’re in. Savor every moment because this experience will not come again.

High Desert Sunset

Posted on by

ArchesSunset5820

We had a beautiful sunset this evening at The Institute and it got me thinking about other sunsets I’ve seen around the area. Like this one down in Arches National Park. Because we travel so much our schedule gets pretty darn hectic you know, what with having to look at stuff to see if it’s pretty enough to photograph, then get in a good spot so all the photographic bits are in the right places, finding the camera and getting it untangled from under the seat where it got kicked when we made a burger run and the lens hood got all cocked funny and you have to wrench it off so it sits right, then figuring out the settings and making adjustments to the camera, getting all cheesed off because the flash card wasn’t formatted and you have to stop and do that otherwise the sky comes out all maroon color, I mean it’s lucky we get a sunset picture taken at all.

Then of course there’s the timing of the shot. You got to get it just right otherwise it just looks like noon or 3 in the afternoon or 11:30 in the morning. Some photographers make a big hairy deal about getting to the picture site real early and getting all their gear sorted out and acting like they’re all professional and everything, but then by the time sunset hits they’re all whacked out, bored stupid, and taking a nap in the back seat and miss the whole deal. Other’s have been dawdling, stopping to read all the signs on the side of the road, checking their email, making calls, letting the dog out to do its business, watching other photographers to see what they’re shooting, eating the rest of the potato salad from lunch so it doesn’t go bad, and then they realize “Holy Mackerel it’s dark out, I’ve missed sunset”.

We at The Institute are trained professionals and don’t make dorky mistakes like that. We have it together. We instinctively know where the best shots are, exactly what time the sun will be perfect for setting, how to get all the stuff in the picture that makes it one of those that makes you go “Whoa, man, Look here, this is far out”. This is why we’re so freaking famous. If you check out the photo closely you’ll see that everything that is in it is supposed to be there. There’s ground and sky and rocks all over the place, mountains, bushes, everything you need. We pride ourselves on that. We don’t leave good stuff out. The timing in the shot is like super excellent for the right sunset spectacular lollapalooza look, because we got that stuff down cold and we even got the right kind of clouds in there. Have we got this nailed or what.

There’s some kind of rule or fact, or probably somebody just pulled it out of the back of their long johns, that you have to take like 12 billion and eight sunset photos to get one good one. We here at the Institute say BullPucky! our results are better than that. In fact we’ve gone out when the sun was going down and gotten hallway decent shots of sunset activity several nights in a row. We’re just that good. But then that’s just our and half the English-speaking people of the world’s opinion, so what do we know. Tomorrow when the sun goes down we’re going out and photograph it, I bet those shots will be good too.

Firehole Gold

Posted on by

FireholeSunset1118

Every once in a while when conditions are perfect there is a phenomenon that occurs along the Firehole river. It is a rare event and only a privileged few have had the opportunity to see it. It’s called Firehole Gold and it’s a once and a lifetime experience.

As you might know, or are soon to learn, there is gold in the rivers of the west. In some of them more than others but every river has its share. The gold is in the form of almost microscopic flakes with the particles being small enough and light enough that they can be suspended in the water and carried downstream. Now you can walk up to the river anytime of day and scoop up a handful of water and you won’t see this gold, but it is there, its visibility is only brought out under certain circumstances.

The Firehole river that runs through Yellowstone National Park through valleys and meadows, past thermal geysers, along the highway where you and I can see it, is one of the most heavily laden gold-bearing rivers in the west. Where the source of this gold originates is still under speculation. Some say it is pumped up from a huge gold deposit underground by the many geysers that line the river. The scalding hot water softens the gold and in so doing causes the minute flakes to break off and rush to the surface to be swept down stream by the rivers flow.

Others say that there was once an enormous deposit of gold miles wide, about the size of two or even three of those little States back East and dozens, if not hundreds of feet deep up north a ways, simply lying on the surface of the ground until a glacier came through and pulverized it by using its tremendous mass and weight of ice and boulders to grind the chunks and nugget’s of gold the size of houses into the flakes we see in the river today. This is a very plausible theory because glaciers are really heavy. They don’t even make scales today that could weigh them. But even if you can’t weigh them, the glaciers weigh more than all the heaviest stuff you can imagine put together, except for a mountain, mountains and glaciers weigh about the same, and gold is soft, so a glacier could easily reduce even big fat giant pieces of gold to microscopic dust if it wanted to.

Whatever its origin the gold is there and it will occasionally display itself when the conditions are perfect and the necessary components are all optimally aligned. There is a place along the river’s length just south of the confluence of the Gibbon, the Madison and the Firehole rivers that provides these needs exactly. It is a flat portion of the river’s bank that acts as a giant pan, where the water with its rich load of nearly microscopic gold particles will flow over the many rough-edged pebbles lining the bank thereby sifting itself out of the rivers flow, much like a gold miner panning for gold will do, and briefly deposit itself just under the river’s surface, building up and up until the millions of flakes become visible as a solid sheet of gold only a fraction of an inch thick but thick enough that it can be seen.

This seems to occur near sunset as the sun must be low enough that its glancing rays can reflect the gold beneath the water’s surface. The heat of the dying rays of the setting sun are just the right temperature to cause the flakes to momentarily adhere to each other, forming what looks to be a solid sheet of gold. There can’t be any wind as the agitation of the water’s surface will break up the sheet and cause the flakes to simply continue on downstream. And one of the most important conditions is that you have to be there to see it.

You might think, OK Gold! let’s go get it. But it doesn’t work that way. The flakes are really too small to be filtered out of the water and although gold is still the most valuable object we can get our hands on, there is one thing even more valuable. And that is the fleeting beauty created by this rare interaction of the sunset, the extraordinary land the river runs through, and your participation in the experience. You will spend the gold and it will be gone but the memory of this sight of the Firehole gold will live in your heart forever.

Posted and filed under “Things that are true, kind of”.

Sunset Off The Mesa

Posted on by

image

After a long day in Mesa Verde spent following in the ancients’ footsteps, going from one major house to another, it was time to go home. Or in this case head the Bokeh Maru down from the tabletop towards the next destination. One to be decided tomorrow after a good nights sleep.

The main houses of Mesa Verde are located on a tabletop Mesa twenty miles from the highway. Drive up a very windy road with all the switchbacks you could possibly want and after gaining over 2000′ from the valley floor to the top you’re there. I’ll go into the visits inside the various houses at a later date due to time constraints, but right now it’s time to go home. It’s sunset and as you descend you can look out to the east just like the old ones probably did and watch the mountains across the valley turn purple.

Right now though it’s time to watch the road. It’s a long way down and no guard rails. More to come.

Things That Make You Go ‘Oh Man….’

Posted on by

YS-NP 2005-0052-EditClick to enlarge

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”.

Friday Morning Color

Posted on by

MidwayBasinSunset4172Click to enlarge

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.