Jason Savage Photography

Nature Photography Workshops Tours

2021 Photography Workshops

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I’ve decided to finish out 2021 with two of my favorite weekend workshops here in Montana! Both of these workshops I’ve had the privilege of teaching over the years and they have some of my favorite locations to photograph in the fall. These workshops will be held in October and will be limited to a small group size. I will be offering the Bitterroot Valley Workshop Oct. 15-17 and the Seeley-Swan Valley Workshop Oct. 22-24, please see the workshops page for more details or to reserve your spot. Here are a few images from our previous trips over the years. 

Bitterroot Montana
Fall colors at the Daly Mansion, Hamilton. 

Bitterroot Montana
Fall colors along Kootenai Creek, Bitterroot Valley.

Bitterroot Montana
Bitterroot Mountains, Hamilton.

Bitterroot Montana
Fall colors in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley.

Montana Photography Workshop
Fall color in the Seeley Swan Valley.

Montana Photography Workshop
Fall colors, Seeley Lake.

Montana Photography Workshop
Swan Range, Holland Lake.

Montana Photography Workshop
Paddling on Seeley Lake, Montana.

Fall Photography Montana

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I’ve finally wrapped up a few of my fall trips here in Big Sky Country for September and October. Talk about a weird fall! Our September had some beautiful weather and fall colors were slowly coming in until we had a crazy arctic blast from the north putting things in a deep freeze throughout October. Unfortunately this took a lot of the fall color with it. We had a record breaking snowstorm the week after my September Glacier National Park trip that dropped up to four feet of snow in some areas of the state. Crazy!

So it’s been an interesting fall here in Montana to say the least. Despite the lack of color, we still managed to get some great stuff. One tree that was immune to the early freeze was the Larch and these were going full force during my Seeley-Swan Valley trip. Really breathtaking up there this year and even more so with some fresh snow.

All in all it’s been a great fall, now shifting gears and looking forward to some upcoming winter trips! Here’s a few from the last couple months in Montana.

Fall Montana
Salmon Lake, Montana. Sony a7rIV 24-70mm 2.8GM f11 1/5 ISO100

Fall Montana
Salmon Lake, MT. Sony a7rIV 24-70 2.8GM f11 1/6 ISO100

 

Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park, MT. Sony a7rIII 16-35mm 2.8GM f16 1″ ISO100

 

Fall Montana
Seeley Lake, MT. Sony a7rIV 16-35mm 2.8GM f16 0.3 ISO100

Fall Montana
Salmon Lake, MT. Sony a7rIII 100-400mm 4.5-5.6GM f8 1/10 ISO100

Stevensville Montana
Bitterroot Valley, MT. Sony a7rIV 100-400mm 4.5-5.6GM f11 1/20 ISO100

 

Bitterroot Valley Montana
Daly Mansion, MT. Sony a7rIV 100-400mm 4.5-5.6GM f8 1/160 ISO1600

Back from Glacier National Park

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Glacier National Park
Wild Goose Island, Glacier National Park. Sony A7rIII 24-70mm 2.8 f11 .03″ ISO100

Just returned from another epic trip in Glacier National Park! We had a great workshop with a fantastic group of travelers. I think someone had the good sunrise mojo because we had wonderful clouds and amazing color every single morning of the trip. Two of these we had no wind which allowed for some perfect landscapes. It’s not everyday we have these conditions come together, but when they do it’s magical! 

We had great wildlife viewing as well and saw around 7 or 8 grizzlies and a black bear with cubs, along with the usually Bighorn Sheep, Mountain Goats, and some smaller critters. A wonderful trip and sorry to have to go. This workshop also marks my one year anniversary shooting Sony and I’ve been nothing but impressed with how this system is performing, still absolutely no regrets on making the switch last year from Canon. 

I’m really looking forward to getting back up to the park and will be conducting my fall workshop in late September. Here are a few shots from last week.

Mount Wilbur, Glacier N.P. Sony a9 100-400mm f5.6 1/60 ISO800

Horses Montana
Many Glacier, Glacier N.P. Sony a7rIII 16-35mm f11 1/1000 ISO3200

Mountain Montana
Swiftcurrent Lake, Glacier N.P. Sony a7rIII 12-24mm f16. 1.6″ ISO100

2019 Montana Weekend Workshops

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2019 Montana Fall Weekend Workshops are now listed!

We had probably one of the best fall seasons I’ve seen in all the years I’ve been photographing Montana.  Colors were really popping in the western part of the state and we had some great opportunities on our trips.

Both of my Fall Weekend Workshops are located in western Montana, so if you want to visit Montana and don’t have the extra time to commit to a longer workshop, these trips are a great way to get a taste of the Montana landscape in fall.

Here are a few images from this year’s trips.

Montana Fall Colors
Daly Mansion, Hamilton. Sony a7rIII 100-400mm f11 1/6 ISO100

Bitterroot Valley
Bitterroot Aspens, Montana. Sony a7rIII 24-70mm f2.8 GM, f16 1/6 ISO100

Seeley Lake, Montana. Sony a7rIII 24-70mm 2.8GM, f8 1/400 ISO800

Larch Reflections
Salmon Lake, Montana. Sony a7rIII 24-70mm 2.8 GM, f11 1/6 ISO 100

Kayaking Montana
Kayaking Seeley Lake, Montana. Sony a9 100-400mm, f11 1/250 ISO3200

Fall Kayaking
Seeley Lake, Montana. Sony a9 100-400mm, f8 1/1000 ISO1600

 

 

Back from Glacier National Park

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Glacier National Park Workshop
Two Medicine Lake. Sony a7RIII 16-35mm 2.8GM, f16 2″ ISO200

I’ve just returned from my summer workshop in Glacier National Park and thought I’d share a few images from the trip. First I must say that one of the reasons I love teaching workshops is meeting all of you fabulous photographers out there and like minded wanderers! We had such a great group on this trip and thanks again to everyone for making it such a blast! We really lucked out on this trip with weather and had pretty decent temps with a couple really nice sunrises, not to mention some fantastic wildlife encounters. We had Moose, Mountain Goats, Bighorn Sheep and plenty of Black Bears wandering the east side of the park this year.  And the wildflower blooms were just plain ridiculous. 

I also really enjoyed getting to test out my new Sony gear on this trip and I must say, I’m extremely impressed. As some of you may know, I left Canon last year and I have been experimenting with different mirrorless systems. Well I must say I think I’ve found a winner! Sony’s files, camera technology including autofocus and overall performance are simply incredible and seem to fit me very well with my shooting style.Their lenses are also superb and very much in-line build quality-wise with Nikon and Canon, but optics are slightly above, which is saying something. 

I look forward to posting some equipment reviews here shortly. In the meantime, I’ll be busy in front of the computer editing away:)

Montana Moose
Cow moose. Sony a9 100-400mm 4.5-5.6GM 1.4Xtc, f8 1/2500 ISO1600

Glacier Mountains
Wild Goose Island. Sony a7RIII 24-70mm 2.8GM, f11 1″ ISO100

Glacier National Park Wildflowers
Many Glacier Wildflowers. Sony a7rIII 16-35mm 2.8GM, f16 1/250 ISO1600

Glacier Horses
Glacier Horses. Sony a7RIII 16-35mm 2.8GM, f11 1/800 ISO3200

Glacier Mountain Goat
Mountain Goat. Sony a9 100-400mm 4.5-5.6GM 1.4Xtc, f8 1/1000 ISO1600

Avalanche Gorge
Avalanche Creek. Sony a7RIII 24-70mm 2.8GM, f11 3.2″ ISO100

Glacier Sunrise
Swiftcurrent Lake Sunrise. Sony a7RIII 12-24mm f4, f16 2″ ISO100

Swiftcurrent Falls Glacier
Swiftcurrent Falls. Sony a7RIII 16-35mm 2.8GM, f16 1/4 ISO64

Bad day for the Subaru

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Not a good way to end the day, but the Subaru Outback held up well from the crash and everyone walked away, so that’s the most important thing. Thumbs up to Subaru safety. We’ll see if it rides again…

Fujifilm XF100-400mm

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Bison
Montana Bison. Fujifilm X-Pro2 XF 100-400mm f8 1/160 ISO1600

I had a bunch of fun yesterday testing out Fujifilm’s XF100-400mm in western Montana with howling winds, blowing snow and very photogenic Bison. What more could you really ask for? Perfect conditions for testing out a lens’s image stabilization and handling. The Fujifilm XF 100-400 really impressed. Trying to grab focus on an animal’s eye with falling snow is a real challenge, but the XPro2 and 100-400 worked very, very well and produced tack sharp images. The image stabilization was definitely on par with my old Canon 100-400mm and overall I was surprised at how comfortable it was to shoot. I’ll be posting a full review soon of this lens and also my thoughts on switching over from Canon to Fuji.

Fuji X-Pro2

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Fuji Xpro2
Bitterroot Vally, Montana. Fuji X-Pro2 16mm 1.4, f8 1/100 ISO800

Here’s a shot from my first outing with Fuji’s rangefinder style mirrorless camera, the X-Pro2. I’m super excited to try out this new system and will be posting a review after I finish putting it through its paces. Being a longtime Canon shooter, I keep dipping my toes in the mirrorless waters to see if I can finally be lured into lightening my load. We’ll soon see.  

First impressions, very good so far…