Big Horn County Back Roads

Went off on a photo wander today. Nothing and no place in mind just got in the car and drove the back roads. It became a day of opportunity. I found myself in Big Horn County heading for Burlington, Wyoming. I had never been to the Burlington cemetery so I headed that way. I like to wander cemeteries and shoot textures and interesting headstones.

The thing that struck me about the Burlington cemetery was the number of children one, two, three years old that died around the end of the 1890s and early 1900s. One family alone lost three during that time period. Life was tough for homesteaders.

As I was finishing up, Happy Pappy pulled up. He was headed to Worland, Wyoming for a horse sale and decided to stop by and visit his dads grave. Pappy runs wagon trains and cattle drives for visitors to his ranch near Huntley Montana. Huntley is in south central Montana along the Yellowstone River. He calls his outfit Western Romance Company.

We visited for a while and he filled me in on what he has been doing and invited me to photograph and film a cattle drive near Miles City, Montana this summer. I’ll have to see if I can get there at least for a day. Pappy has a great face, full of character. I asked him if I could take a few shots while he said a few words with his dad and he graciously agreed.

THE GALLERY

A couple of shots of Happy Pappy. Thanks Pappy.

Yellowstone in White

I arrived in Yellowstone around 2:00 Saturday afternoon, a little later than I had planned but I still had 4 good hours to scout for the next day. There was a good covering of snow across the Park from the North Entrance to the Northeast Entrance. Making a living is tough for the critters up there right now, especially the bison, elk, deer and mountain sheep, they have to dig up everything they eat.

The bison are interesting to watch as they plow the snow, in some cases over a foot deep, out of the way by sweeping side to side with their massive heads. After snatching up what scarce forage there is they take a step forward and do it again, over and over all day long. They don’t move much in order to conserve as much energy as they can. One bull worked the same area in the Pebble Creek Meadows for the 3 days I was there, tuning up the snow over about a 5000 square ft. area.

IN THE GALLERY

I saw a few coyotes each day and am including a couple of shots.

I spent quite a bit of time with 5 large bull elk near Wraith Falls on Sunday and Monday. I had to post hole out through knee deep snow to get in range to get the 2 shots in the gallery.

There was a small band of big horn sheep in the Soda Butte area all three days and I kept seeing the same shot over and over so I included the best one.

I saw 3 different wolves and their built in crowd of watchers and long lensers. The largest and most durable crowd was at a kill site near Black Tail Deer Plateau. They watched and visited and made thousands of pictures and hours of video over three days as the carcass got smaller and smaller. I took a few shots as I passed by but they are only suitable for editorial illustration. A dark gray wolf put on quite a show chasing ravens and a coyote away from the kill. Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I did making them. I’m already planning my next trip in March.

Makin’ Tracks

Goin’ to Yellowstone.

Monday 2/23 is my birthday and I am going to spend the day in Yellowstone. Actually I’m leaving early tomorrow morning and will be there for the weekend plus Monday. Happy Birthday to me. I have lost track of how many birthdays I have spent in Yellowstone but I know that every one was magic simply because I was in the Park. This will be my first trip this winter and in 2009, I can’t wait.!

Even though I live 75 miles from Yellowstone, in the winter there is only way to get into the park by car and that is at Gardiner, Montana. The trip takes about 4 hours and travels along the Yellowstone River in southern Montana to Livingston before heading south through Paradise Valley to Gardiner. Its a beautiful drive and only about half of it is on Interstate. I much prefer blue highways but it gets me there. I always stay at the Super 8 Motel in Gardiner, its comfortable, clean and they give me a nice rate. I should be in the Park by noon.

I’ll be shooting both video and stills and will post the highlights when I get back next week. Here are some photos of past winter trips to Yellowstone.

Shoshone Big Horns

Living in Northwest Wyoming provides amazing opportunities for wildlife photography. Few places can compare with Yellowstone Country. The North Fork of the Shoshone River has its headwaters in Yellowstone National Park and runs east to Cody, Wyoming where it is joined by the South Fork of the Shoshone River. The Shoshone then veers North and East eventually flowing into the Big Horn River at the base of the Big Horn Mountains near Lovell, Wyoming. Over its length I have photographed and video taped Deer, Antelope, Bald and Golden Eagles, Elk, Grizzly Bears, Moose, Wild Turkeys, Black Bears, Sandhill Cranes, Bison, Coyotes and Big Horn Sheep.

Along the North Fork, Big Horn Sheep provide by far the most opportunities. The run from the US Forest Service line up to Yellowstone’s East Entrance has a year-round population of sheep that can easily be photographed from the road. The animals should not be approached or stressed in any way so the best way to photograph them is to sit in your vehicle with a telephoto.

I tend to focus on the months of November, December and January when mating is going on. There is alot of posturing, an occasional head butt and just more activity in general. The video below is the best head butt sequence I’ve ever captured plus there was hardly any wind so the sound is pristine. The photos are highlights from many years of Big Horn watching.

Going to Hollywood

Three years ago I reconnected with a young man by the name of Andrew Weist. Ten years or so before, when he was around 14 or 15 Andy worked for me at the Cody Theatre in Cody, Wyoming. I had him running projectors, selling snacks and what ever else I could get him to do. Even then he was thinking in movies.

He worked for me for a couple of years and I lost track of him. Anyway, as I said, a few years ago he popped up and was getting ready to start filming, what he called a western thriller horror picture to be known as Dead Noon. I asked if I could help out and he said sure.

I did lighting for interiors, worked locations, brought a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner and even shot a scene or two but mostly just hung out with a bunch 20 something kids and shot a movie. I was also able to provide them with some equipment that they didn’t have, like lights and a tripod. Talk about a low budget film. It energized me to work with them. We worked long and hard, Dead Noon wrapped and then they were gone.

The actors headed home to get back to the world of looking for work, the production crew headed of to school and jobs and Andy headed off to Kalispell in northern Montana to make a movie out of it all. Andy got a chance to show a rough cut to Barnholz Entertainment who recognized it as a “cult hit” and worked out a deal with Andy for distribution to the DVD market. Shortly there after Lionsgate got involved. In an e-mail to me dated 10/04/07 Andy proclaimed the directors cut done. And then Andy’s Hollywood make a movie experience began. The task? Insert a name actor ( Kane Hodder: ) into the script for “Star Power”

In an e-mail I got on February 3, 2009 Andy proclaimed The End . . . The end of “the fun, sad, maddening, tiring, joyful, crazy experience that was “Dead Noon”. It’s no easy task…no easy task at all.” I headed right for Amazon.com and there it was, you can even get it at “Wa . . . rt”. How cool is that?

Thanks for letting me tag along Andy.

While all this happening Andy wrote and shot and is just now going to edit on his next film, “The Wylds”, based on The Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan. Still thinking in movies.

Could it be another “cult” hit in the making? My money is on it! Scroll down and have a look at the teaser.

Here is the original Dead Noon trailer .

Here is the Hollywood trailer.

The Wilds Teaser . . . Check out the rest of the web site while your there.

Memories in Hi8

I ran across these clips the other day and it got me to thinking about the advances that have been made in video since I started shooting in the early 90s. Shot on Hi8 the quality cannot compare to even single chip digital of today but at the time it was hi-end prosumer video. It was exciting to look at especially when compared to the VHS movies we were watching. I have a couple of boxes of stuff I shot in and around Yellowstone National Park. I’ve started to digitize the best of it so I will have digital archives and as I run across Hi8lites I will share them and their story.

River Otters of the Lamar

These clips were shot in the early 90s with a Canon L2 with a long zoom and probably a doubler. It was a magical afternoon in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone and I got to spend 20 or 30 minutes with a group of River Otters. They were feasting on what appeared to be crayfish. As the sun got lower the water picked up more spectral highlites and the colors became more saturated, it was a sight to see and film. Even though it was captured in a now virtually extinct format I am so lucky to have it for the memories and the reminder of why I do what I do.

Now with the magic of WordPress and Vimeo I get to share . . .

Wildlife

Enamored

Sunflowers

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Glow