Foliage and Buffalo Photos

[Mike Jackson]

For anyone interested, I created a couple of new pages on our family section showing some of the fleeting fall images. I got up before daylight the last two days and managed to get about 100 photos each morning. I was back in the shop by 9:00 am. The wind started blowing again this afternoon, so the yellow leaves will be a memory soon and winter will begin its long grip. These are just two of about 14 new images on the two pages.



Fall Foliage Photos:
http://www.goldenstudios.com/family/foliage04.html

Fall Buffalo Photos:
http://www.goldenstudios.com/family/buffalo04.html

Footnote: I was out early and went to a couple of the traditional old barns. There were 8 photographers in one spot and 10 or more in another. I decided to come back after sun up and shoot the barns, so I headed up the road. A small heard of buffalo were graciously posing between me and the Tetons. I got a few cold looking pre-daylight shots, followed by a bunch of very beautiful "golden" buffalo shots. This morning, I took a different road after hearing about all the buffalo near the small town of Kelly. There was a huge full moon early in the morning just above the western horizon and I got a couple of good shots with buffalo silhouetted against the morning light. I stayed just outside the opened truck door with my camera on a tripod, ready to make a jump back into the cab. I had about 200 buffalo scattered in all directions. The photo of the herd crossing the Gros Ventre river was a bit more risky. I had to leave the truck about 20 yards to get to the edge of the river. I had a bull courting a cow not too far away and he was defending his turf against a couple of interested younder bulls.

Normally, the aspen trees turn yellow and sometimes orange first, followed by the cottonwoods in the river bottoms. This year, for some reason, the cottonwoods began much earlier and just turned brown instead of yellow. Someone mentioned the cool, wet August we experienced this year as the culprit. Each year is different!

The end of September marks 18 years of living here in Jackson Hole. I am still amazed and impressed by all around me. I work a lot of hours still, but manage to get out and enjoy the outdoors as much as possible. We live roughly 100 miles from Old Faithful, but for some reason, I haven't made it through Yellowstone this year. I like to fish up there and we usually go when visitors drop in and want to go up. A Yellowstone "zip-through" trip through the figure eight drive is roughly 365 miles and goes slow because of the 45 mph speed limit, not to mention bear jams and campers blocking the road getting a photo of an elk.

Yes, this post is quite a bit off topic. It is much too easy to get into a rut and work too hard, letting the seasons pass unappreciated. To highlight how fast time flies, it has been 9 full years since we sold Jackson Signs!

[Catharine C. Kennedy]

Thanks, Mike! Can't begin to imagine having that stuff in my backyard- even though New England is also gorgious- just different!

[Mike Jackson]

I went out again this morning. It was overcast and gray for the most part. Colors were incredibly intense and saturated. Clouds clipped the tops of the mountains and a few banks of clouds hovered a few hundred feet above the valley floor. Besides the scenery, I could hear coyotes yapping, I saw a couple of moose grazing (too far away), a heard of elk skampering off, and a small heard of mule deer crossed the side road right in front of me.

Click below to see a few more Oxbow Bend Photos:
http://www.goldenstudios.com/family/oxbowbend04.html

[Jon Harl]

I've never seen country so beautiful. I'm totally jealous. Maike even though the pics are OT, they are very inspiring. Let's see some more when you've got the time. Thanks!

[Kristi Percell]

Beautiful pics Mike...

The pics on your website, did you get that close to the Bufflo or use a telephoto lens?

Kristi

[Ron Berlier]

Mike,

Excellent photos, as usual. Ever considered starting a greeting card business or selling your photos as a side profession?

What camera are you using to get this photos and are you using any special filters?

We have an 18x30 color photograph taken by F. Joy, who probably still has a studio there in town, that was probably taken from the same location as your second photo. Even the fall color trees at the bottom look about the same. The nice thing is we get to look at it year round, but it's not the same as being there (Duh!).

Ron

[Mike Jackson]

Ron and Jon,
I am still using my old Nikon CoolPix 990 camera. I don't have the exact total, but I suspect it has about 12000 taken through it by now. Last year, I bought a pocket sized Nikon 3100 and I usually take that one with me when fishing, but even though it has the same 3.2 megapixels, I don't think it has the same quality overall. Less zoom and less of a wide angle, but the small size works great. The low light, early morning shots were taken using a tripod.

I was "pretty close" to some of the buffalos, but I was also just outside the door of my truck. Knowing a buffalo can outrun most horses, you can't take them too lightly, and they can be moody. They gore a few dozen tourists yearly, especially the ones who treat them more like cows than wild animals.

Lastly, these photos are shot for my enjoyment. Some get printed out on 8 x 10 paper or smaller, but were never intended to be sold. I am no professional photographer...far from that! Many of the shots are underexposed or overexposed, especially in areas like the sky. I have become better at learning how to fix problems in Photoshop, including learning how to make photos more dramatic with lights and darks. Now that I see results, I believe a lot of the photos you see in print have been adjusted to some extent.

The photo below was taken a few miles south of my home. It is just as shot:


This one was asjusted in Photoshop to make it appear more dramatic.


Thanks for asking!
Mike

[Catharine C. Kennedy]

I tend to think that it's your "designer's eye" that makes alot of the difference between these photos & snap shots! Thanks for putting them up!