Nature Photography Workshops Tours
As I’m catching up on some much overdue editing here, I thought I would share a few images from this year’s Rocky Mountain Front Photography Workshop in Montana. We timed it just right this year with spectacular wildflowers and perfect weather. Spring in Montana is pretty hard to beat, especially in the foothills of the Rocky Mountain Front, enjoy!
We had a fantastic trip in Montana this summer on the 2016 Glacier National Park Workshop. Weather was perfect, wildlife was abundant, and we had way too much fun out there chasing the light in one of my favorite National Parks.
This year conditions were looking good. The remnants of the last year’s fire around St. Mary Lake were evident, but did not affect some of the classic shots, specifically Wild Goose Island. However it was interesting to hike through the recent burn and see the vegetation beginning to grow and also the different bird specifies that were visible and taking advantage of the the new resources available after the fire.
Last year the Reynolds Creek Fire blew up the day we were about to start our workshop on the east side. The fire forced us to evacuate and move our group to the west side for the rest of the workshop. The uncertainty of the fire left a lot of people wondering how much would be left intact around Wild Goose Island and the Going to the Sun Road. In all the fire burned around 4,800 acres.
Fortunately this year there were no fires to contend with and the park was back to normal on the east side. Matter of fact Glacier was to see record visitation this year and as of this writing over 2.3 million people have visited the iconic park, breaking last year’s record of 2.2 million and we’re still not finished yet. That’s a heck of a lot of people considering the park’s season generally runs from June-Oct. It’s also a recent challenge that a lot of National Parks are having to deal with at the moment. Now that more people are discovering our last best places, parks are having to figure out how to continue to protect and manage our delicate lands.
Glacier is certainly a special place for both landscape and wildlife photographers and offers an amazing diversity in climate, landscape, and wildlife found no where else in the lower 48. I look forward to being back soon and visiting one of my favorite places to explore!
Now that my spring and summer workshops are winding down I thought I would share a few images from this past June’s Palouse Workshop. We had an amazing group of travelers on this trip and some of the best conditions I’ve seen in Palouse over the last few years! The hues of greens and yellows were pretty epic and we also had some great old barns and the usually old americana that you can find throughout the area. We also had some pretty spectacular crops of canola and mustard seed, giving us at times almost blinding fields of brilliant yellows, adding some nice landscape foregrounds around the Colfax area.
At Steptoe Butte, we had the usually great crowd of photographers, getting to see some familiar faces from years previous and I think everyone was pretty pleased with the views we had up top this year. The greens were amazing and the light cooperated more often than not, giving us the classic overlook views of the Palouse. We were treated again this year to one of the yellow crop dusters making some passes in front of us, adding a nice element in the sea of green.
Overall it was an awesome trip and I’m anxiously awaiting next years!
Now that the year’s winding down, I’m finally back home for a bit getting caught up on some of last year’s images. I thought I would share a few from this last June on our Palouse photography workshop in Washington State. The Palouse sits in a unique area of eastern Washington and is home to a major agricultural area producing wheat and other crops. The beautiful topography of this area provides endless places to wander for landscape photographers as its rolling hills and pastel hues create painterly scenes reminiscent of Tuscany.
A tip for those who plan to visit: Make sure to pack your telephoto lens as a lot of the classic landscape shots are surprisingly far away and compose better with a focal length in the 300mm-400mm range and even beyond. I routinely will pack my 500mm and use with and without teleconverters to isolate some of the tighter compositions. Apart from the scenic overlooks such as Steptoe Butte there are still plenty of places to use a wide-angle.
I’m really looking forward to getting back out there this next year on my June workshop and revisiting some of these spots. The great thing about the Palouse is it’s such a dynamic and ever changing landscape, between what’s been planted, harvested, the changing light, and weather conditions, it’s never the same scene twice. As of this blog post, there are still a couple of spots open on the 2016 workshop, visit my workshops page for more details.
Just finished up a fantastic private workshop in Glacier National Park this last week. It was so refreshing to be back in Glacier this year, one of my absolute favorite locations right here in my backyard in Montana. Had a wonderful few days with my client with an epic fog and light show our first morning and some pretty sweet wildlife encounters during our stay.
Just arrived in Seattle for a trip out to the Peninsula, but will be back to Glacier in a couple weeks for my annual workshop and will have some more images to share soon. As of right now I’m enjoying the cool down of the Pacific Northwest temps compared to the seemingly endless heat wave we’ve had further inland in the west, next stop Olympic National Park!
Here’s some images from my trip last week out to Washington’s beautiful Palouse region. I had some great light out there and some awesome finds along the way. I will also be adding the Palouse to my 2015 workshops and will have it listed in the coming weeks, so stay tuned…
