Once in awhile an image captures your imagination inspiring you to want to learn more about the artists techniques. An article about Dan Burkholder (a previous DLWS guest shooter) and his New Orleans project caught my attention. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his images. They were amazing in their beauty and yet, each image contained a story of the devastation that was caused by Hurricane Katrina I was immediately caught up in his amazing images. It was at that time that I became intrigued by the artistic look that can be achieved with HDR. Dan has now released a book filled with amazing images of the devastation he witnessed in New Orleans called The Color Of Loss. In this book his images of decay and destruction come to life with a beauty all their own.

Around midday we headed out the north entrance of the park to a spot where pronghorn are known to hang out and we were not disappointed.  This male was so comfortable with us that he never even got up as we approached to head and shoulder distance.

We then proceeded to a location where I had found some elk a few days previously and were pleasantly surprised to find a family of bighorn sheep.  This male rested comfortably while the ewes and lambs grazed nearby.

When the other sheep had moved off some distance he decided it was time to join them and off he went.

Images captured with Nikon D3, AF-S 200-400mm on Lexar Digital Media

We headed into the Lamar Valley early today and saw herds of elk and bison as we drove the road towards Cook City.  Towards the end of the road, we found a cow moose grazing in the stream.  The setting was loverly and while most folks only like to photograph the big bulls with their antlers, I liked the setting and she was a healthy gal.

There is a section on the Lamar River where the snow builds up on the rocks forming snow pillows and when the light is right the shadow and light playing on the snow pillows creates sensuous lines and forms.

Images captured with Nikon D3, AF-S 200-400mm on Lexar Digital Media

Leaving Old Faithful on our way to West Yellowstone we stopped to photograph the frost covered bison.

We continued on the Black Sands Basin where I wanted to photograph Emerald Pool and it’s great bacterial mat patterns with my D3X and Fisheye lens.

On our way down the Madison River we spotted a coyote on the hunt.

Images captured with Nikon D3/D3X, AF-S 200-400mm, AF 16mm Fisheye on Lexar Digital Media

A trip to Yellowstone is not complete without a visit to West Thumb, one of my favorite locations in the park.  And we were not disappointed.  We arrived with to a heavy ground fog but knew that if we hung around it would burn off and the scenics would be worth the wait.

Arriving back at the parking lot the god beams were blasting through the trees as the last of the fog dissapated.

Images captured with Nikon D3X, AF-S 24-70mm, AF-S 70-300mm VR on Lexar Digital Media