Nature Photography Workshops Tours
Here’s another Bighorn Sheep image from yesterday morning just near the parks northern boundary. It’s been a lot of fun photographing these big guys the last couple weeks and there’s still plenty of activity going on, especially in the northern part of the park.
Canon 1DX 500mm f4L IS, 1.4X. f11 1/1000 ISO800
Just returned from Yellowstone today. Here’s a shot of some bighorn sheep from the park’s northern range.
Canon 1DX 500mm f4L IS, 1.4X. f11 1/750 ISO3200
Now that the Bighorn Sheep rut is underway, I thought I would share one from the northern range of Yellowstone National Park.
Canon 5D markIII 500mm f4L IS +1.4x. F11 1/1500 ISO3200
Paradise Valley – Images by Jason Savage
Happy Holidays! Thought I would share a few images from around the Paradise Valley and Yellowstone that I shot recently. Winter’s here and what an amazing time to be out, especially around Yellowstone.
Currently I am stuck in front of my computer editing like a mad man trying to get caught up with all my work from this last year with high hopes to be back out on the road soon.
I should have some of my favorites from this year to share here soon and will be posting some new winter photography in the coming weeks.
Happy new year!
Swiftcurrent Lake. Canon 5dmkII 24mmts 3.5II, 3 Image Panoramic, f16 0.5 ISO100
Just returned from my annual photography workshop that I teach in Glacier National Park and as usual had a fantastic time with some wonderful people. We had a cold front roll in at the beginning of the workshop and the wind just howled for three days straight, at times it would just about blow you over. They had around 70-80 mile an hour gusts which makes tripod work just about impossible. Despite the high winds we managed to find some great stuff and captured some great images, with the wind dying down the last couple days.
Ferns. Canon 5dmkII 16-35mm2.8II, f13 1/8 ISO400
Of course the Going to the Sun road has been closed and is scheduled to open on July 13, being the latest opening in the Park’s history. The record was July 10, 1943. It was very apparent that the snowfall had been excessive this year as was evident by the avalanche damage driving up the open portion of the Going to the Sun road. Huge trees uprooted and snapped like twigs in many places. Of course the waterfalls are raging right now with all the melting snow and at the lower elevations, possibly because of the late snows, the wildflowers are not the best as in previous years. However we had great ferns and growth in the forest and it was very green.
The next couple of months should be great with the pass finally opening and lots of water in the creeks and rivers. Probably some good skiing up top too!
Two Medicine Lake. Canon 5dmkII 16-35mm2.8II, f16 1/6 ISO 100
Bighorn Sheep. Canon 7d 100-400 4-5.6L, f6.7 1/45 ISO 1600
Coyote, Yellowstone N.P. © Jason Savage
Here are a few shots from this weekend down in Yellowstone National Park. I headed down there last Saturday to see what was happening in the park and what the conditions were looking like. Also I wanted to test out a Canon 7d that I recently picked up for use as a backup body and for occasional wildlife use.
There was actually quite a bit of snow going from Gardiner up to Cooke City at the northern boundary of the park and a ton of wildlife out. Conditions this last week in Montana have been sketchy at best and I have been cursing the weatherman more than once. Montana was sitting right on the edge of an arctic front from Canada and it didn’t know if it was coming or going, or I should say the weatherman didn’t know if it was coming or going. It certainly made things hard to predict, but we ended getting a ton of warm weather and high winds, which has wiped out a good portion of the snow we had and really made a mess of things.
But, you sometimes have to roll with the punches and make the best of it. Saturday I managed to get a little bit of shooting in and really got to test out the Canon 7d and surprisingly, it’s a really awesome camera.
I normally use Canon 5dII’s and 1 series bodies, for most of my photography. I use the 1d series for backup and wildlife photography, but really prefer the smaller bodies, especially when trying to travel light, so I normally use the 5dII for a majority of my work. The 7d looked like it might have the potential for a great wildlife body, especially in the much smaller size than the 1 series. It has a great auto focus system and shoots 8 frames per second with close to 18 million pixels on a 1.6 crop sensor. I was a little concerned about the noise issues people have reported, especially with so many pixels on a small sensor, but when doing comparisons, it’s really not bad at all and certainly great image quality for a crop sensor. Not to mention it has some really great focusing customizations not seen on any other Canon camera. I give it an A so far in my book, especially if you’re looking for a great wildlife body and on a budget or if looking for something a little more lighter than a 1 series. It’s also sealed up pretty well, Canon says equivalent to the Canon 1dn(film body), which was one of my favorite 35mm cameras I’ve owned, and that one was sealed pretty good, so the 7d should be able to take some abuse.
With the great wildlife and the always fun of testing out new equipment, it was a nice time in the Park. Soon we will have more snow and more great opportunities for photography in Yellowstone, matter of fact, it’s snowing right now:)
Bison, Yellowston N.P. © Jason Savage
300mmf4+1.4tc, f6.7, 1/1000 ISO 800
Mountain Grouse, Yellowstone N.P. © Jason Savage
300mmf4+1.4tc, f5.6, 1/500 ISO 4000
Bighorn Sheep, Yellowstone N.P. © Jason Savage
300mmf4+1.4tc,f5.6, 1/8 ISO 6400