Unfriendly

Glacier National Park in its raw unwelcoming glory during late winter. This shot is looking up into St Mary's valley near the East entrance of the park. This is not the same friendly park that million flock to during the summer and yet I can not help but be touched by the shere dark beauty of storm clouds brewing over the snow capped peaks. It is such an amazing place!!!

Shot taken with Canon 50D and Sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM lens. f/1, ISO-100 for 1/200 sec exposure at 95mm focal length shot off hand. Best guess is Reynolds Mnt(9125ft) centered and looking dreadfully cold in the clouds. Little Chief mnt. is the large fin shape to the left at 9541 feet.

Fontier Life

This is part of the Rocky Mnt. front near Bynum, MT. I took a little detour to get a clear shot of the mountains and lucked out when I topped a hill just out of town and stumbled across this great character scene. These two old cars slowly settling into the prairie is so typical of the Montana frontier landscape.

This was taken with Canon 50D and Sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM lens. f/14, ISO-100 for 1/40 sec exposure and 210mm focal length. Shot using fence post as a make shift monopod. This shot just captures what Montana is for me.

Glances Exchanged

Tina and I were out in the Ear Mountain Nature area along the Rocky Mnt. front West of Choteau, MT geocaching and happened across several mule deer along the road. This doe was very accommodating while I backed the truck up and poked my camera out the window at her. She was about 15 feet so it was a great chance to capture some detail...

Taken with Canon 50D and Sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM lens. f/14, ISO-100 for 1/25 sec exposure at 210mm focal length and sunlight white balance. The ear wisps showed up nicely and you can even see a bit of reflection in her big beautiful eyes.

Loops

I took this shot while hiking the River's Edge Trail between Rainbow Dam and Cochron Dam along the Missouri River in Great Falls, MT. I decided to be a little lazy on this hike and leave my Kodak Z712 IS point and shoot in auto mode and just snap quick shots while not losing my pace. This fence end caught my eye with its extra loops of barbed wire left for reasons known only to their placer.

Reflections

As I was leaving the Park I looked back at the setting sun as I crossed the bridge in Apgar Village and could not pass on this shot. The reflection in this tributary made for a great mood photo. I used Canon 50D and Sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM lens. f/14, ISO-400 for 1/50 second exposure at 18mm focal length. Shot taken off hand from the bridge.

B&W storm

I stood for most of the afternoon taking a full series of shots(around 250) as the light and clouds swelled and parted and shifted casting fantastic shadow and glowing effects. This shot was taken at 3:20pm with Canon 50D and Sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM lens. F/13, ISO-100 for 1/250 sec exposure at 18mm focal length. Slik Lightypod III monopod was used. B&W really details the winter storm clouds that boiled all day over the park and yet a small bit of sunlight crept in to create the glowing peaks. I am pretty happy with this shot. I hope Ansel Adams would be pleased.

Glacier March 2010

I went to Glacier with the sole purpose of capturing Lake McDonald with show covered peaks. During the winter months only Apgar in West GNP and St Marys in East GNP are open and have winter camping as well. This was the perfect chance to set up the shots I was after without a lot of other people around.

I could not have asked for a better set up. The sky was loaded with thick rolling storm clouds with small pockets of clear blue where the sun would play off the snowy peaks. This is a early afternoon shot of Lake McDonald from the Apgar visitor area at the south end of the lake. Shot with Canon 50D and Sigma 10-20mm ultra wide angle lens. f/14, ISO-200 for 1/250 sec exposure at 10mm focal length and sunlight white balance setting. I used a Slik lightypod III monopod at the waters edge for this shot giving the effect of being right in the lake.