Friday Field Trip: Hanging With Wolves

Jason's back, and I thank him for taking the time to send some more of his fantastic wildlife shots. When we were looking at homes in the Divide area, I did a little Googling, and discovered one of the local attractions was the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Rescue Center. So when Jason told me he'd had a chance to go behind the scenes and get up close and personal with some of their critters, I thought it was the perfect time to share them. And I'm definitely putting a visit to the center on my "to do" list.

Friday Field Trip - More from the Everglades

Although it was nearly 70 degrees today, there are winter storm warnings for tomorrow and Saturday, with snow, whiteouts and temperatures down into the teens. I thought it might be a nice change to share some more of Jason's Everglades pictures, in case there are more folks stuck in the snow. My cousin reported being without power for 97 hours in New York.

Sunset at Pa-Hay-Okee



Anhinga



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Purple Gallinule



Great Blue Heron



Wood Ibis




Snowy Egret



Double-crested Cormorant



Little Blue Heron



Another sunset at Pa-Hay-Okee



Thanks once again, Jason. Be sure to visit his gallery.

Friday Field Trip: The Everglades

While we were traveling from Florida to Colorado, Jason was doing the reverse. Since I haven't had a chance to do much Colorado photography yet, I thought I'd share some of his wildlife pictures from his trip. I think you'll agree, he got some great shots.

This batch was taken in Everglades National Park. The critter to the right is an anhinga. Usually, you see them with their wings fanned out (they don't have oil glands, so they have to dry their wings after they dive for fish). This one seemed as interested in Jason as in getting dry Or maybe the bird just wanted some privacy.







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These are only some of them. You'll have to keep coming back to see more. Or, you can visit his website and see all the different places he's been. Plus, he caught a great shot of an anhinga chowing down on a fish. I left it off this page in case there are those who prefer not to see the reality of life in the wild. But you can see it for yourself here.

Road Trip - Rocky Mt. Nat'l Park 2

A while back, I mentioned that the marine mammal group hubby's been involved with for decades is covering most of our expenses to their biennial conference as a thank you for our (mostly his) service. We leave for Quebec on Saturday. On top of that, our Realtor decided that would be an opportune time for another Open House, so not only do we have to get organized for the trip, but the house has to be in "perfect" shape before we do.

Plus, I'm trying to wrap up my manuscript, and all the vague scenes I've had in my head for months now have to make sense on the page. It's one thing to think about how my characters have been captured and locked up--it's another to deal with the physical logistics of having one bad guy overpower them, and the write it so it makes sense.

So, while all that's whirling around in my head, I'll share the rest of Jason Odell's trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. Enjoy!



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That afternoon, we went back into the park to look for more elk to photograph. The crowds were still there, but not as thick as they had been on Sunday. Unfortunately, the elk didn’t receive our memo about appearing in areas where they would be front-lit. Instead, we had to fight strong back-lighting, which unfortunately is not ideal when shooting large, dark mammals.



We took what shots we could get and then headed back to the hotel, where my colleague and I set up our computers and a projector and gave a classroom session on digital photography techniques. The questions stretched until after 10pm, so we had a LONG day.

Tuesday, we ventured out over Trail Ridge Road. This road connects the east and west sides of RMNP and crosses 12,000’ in elevation. We watched the sunrise from the mountain tops and photographed the panoramic scenery. By 9am, we made it to the town of Grand Lake, on the west side of RMNP. Here, we gave a lakeside class on panoramic photography. After lunch, we hiked to a small waterfall and photographed it as best we could, given that it was midday light. Our photos from there won’t win any awards, but it was still enjoyable.



Our afternoon shoot took us to a spot in the west side of RMNP near the Colorado River where there were some old cabins from the early 1900’s. We photographed the cabins and the textures in the wood with the primary intent of making black and white images. Finally, we made it back to our hotel in Estes Park and had a group dinner before retiring.







Wednesday was our last day for the workshop. Our students would be catching flights out of Denver to go back home later in the day, so we set out early to photograph another alpine lake. Unfortunately, clouds in the east and 20 MPH winds made shooting nearly impossible. Without the colors of early sunrise, our shots would look bland and bleak. Add in the wind, and you get lots of blurred trees and water. Not ideal. Before we quit, we figured we would go back and look for more elk, just in case.

We really hadn’t gotten that many good elk shots, even though we had seen lots of them. We arrived in the Moraine Park area of RMNP and found a small elk herd right next to the road. The problem, however, was that they were underneath the trees and in full shade. We decided to get out our telephoto lenses anyway and hope for some action. About fifteen minutes later, the bull elk started chasing another male who was getting near his harem of cows. This solitary male then decided to graze in the field right next to the road. The staccato of rapid fire camera shutters releasing all at once sounded like paparazzi (I’m sure this was not the Brad Pitt of elk, but I bet he thought so with all of us photographers snapping away).

Needless to say, our class was extremely happy with the shoot. Every one of the students walked away with tack-sharp images of a bull elk in warm morning light. It was hard to ask for more.



Thanks, Jason. And tomorrow is the final chapter from Homicide Detective Mark Hussey's manuscript. I've asked him if he'll write more, and he said he would love to, but at the moment, he's really swamped with work. And, catching bad guys does take precedence.

Road Trip - Rocky Mt. Nat'l Park

Today I welcome Jason Odell, our firstborn, who started showing an interest in photography from an early age. Although he has a different 'day job', his number one love is wildlife photography. Today he's sharing his recent photo trip to the Rocky Mountains National Park.

I had the pleasure of leading a group of photographers on a four-day photography workshop to Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. My colleague and I organized this trip through our biweekly podcast on photography, “The Image Doctors”. With a small class size of seven students, we ensured that each student had ample opportunity to ask us any of the questions that they may have had (and they had a lot of questions!) Our goals for the safari were simple: make sure that each of our students went home with photographs they would be proud of.



Sunday afternoon was our orientation session. After the typical lecture on safety (RMNP starts at 8000’ elevation and goes UP from there), wildlife, and photography quick-tips, we set forth to get in a little shooting in the afternoon light. For those of you who are casual photographers, the best outdoor photos are usually made within an hour of sunrise and sunset. Animals are most active during these times, and the light is pleasant and warm in color.

Weekends in a National Park can be crowded, and even though we deliberately began our trip on a Sunday afternoon, the throngs of elk watchers were still in full-force. Rather than fight for a spot to watch elk from 500 yards away (too far for good photos, anyway), we ended up in a serene aspen grove where the fall colors were going strong.




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As we were finishing up our shoot in the aspen grove, we were rewarded by the appearance of a small elk herd, with a large bull “bugling” (that’s elk-speak for proclaiming his territory). We photographed the elk herd and then headed back for an early dinner; the next several days were going to be long ones.



Our itinerary for Monday brought us to one of the most iconic landscape spots in RMNP: Bear Lake. Bear Lake is around 9500’ in elevation and above it juts the top of Hallett Peak, a rectangular-shaped mountain peak. Our reward for leaving the hotel at 5:45 am (not too bad, really) was catching first light hitting Hallett Peak and photographing the reflections of it in Bear Lake. And rewarded we were! We had an unusually calm morning (it is often windy in Colorado, especially in the mountains) and the water was glass-smooth. We spent over an hour photographing all kinds of reflections and fall foliage around Bear Lake; it was truly spectacular.







These are only some of the pictures Jason provided. I'll post more another time. You won't want to miss them.

Jason P. Odell is an outdoor photographer in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He has authored several books on digital photography techniques and is the co-host and producer of a photography podcast, "The Image Doctors". You can see more of Jason's photography at www.luminescentphoto.com, or follow his blog.