Day 10/08/2011
This was our last day at Old Faithful. We took out the large format camera in the morning and working with Mary Austin captured some excellent photos. Once we get them scanned in and edited we will post those shots. We did shoot some digital that morning and captured some really nice photos. The sun did come out shortly after these photos were taken so the film shots we took will reflect that.

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Hooper Photography Copyright © 2011

Hooper Photography Copyright © 2011

That afternoon we boarded a snow coach that took use back to Mammoth Hot Springs. On the trip back we were able to stop some and check out more of the park. When traveling through Yellowstone it is advised to always be on the lookout for wildlife, we saw this beautiful Eagle attempting to pull a dead duck out of the river. Shortly after we started watching this event another eagle swooped in and buzzed the eagle with the duck. We are not sure if this was an aggressive move or a mating attempt but it turned around and did it again. Either way it was an awesome experience.

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Hooper Photography Copyright © 2011

Once in a while you will get really lucky with a photo. We really like the next photo, it is an abstract of the Eagle flying by. The original photo was just a blurred shot of the Eagle so with some processing we were able to create this effect.

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The next morning I took this last shot, this was the end of our Yellowstone trip.
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Day 9 02/07/2011
What can we say about this day…it SNOWED A LOT. So snow is not always that great for photography but it is a lot of fun to just play in. Tamara chilled out that morning while I put on the snow shoes and went out adventuring in the mini blizzard! I hiked up to Observation Point in the Old Faithful area, it was so peaceful, there were only small remnants of tracks from people that had hiked the trail the day before. After I reached observation point and reflected for awhile (asking myself, why the heck am I out in this blizzard hahaha), I continued down the trail. My heart almost stopped when I turned a corner on the trail and this huge Bison was only 15 feet away from me. Thankfully he wasn’t interested in me and continued to use his huge head to move the snow so he could eat. I sat and watched this Bison for awhile, it was so peaceful with the falling snow muffling the sound.
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Eventually I reached the main loop that leads you around the Old Faithful thermals and captured a couple more shots before returning to the room. Later in the day Tamara and ventured out. It stopped snowing but was still overcast so photography was still not optimal. We did what we could and captured the following photos.

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Castle Geyser

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Day 8 02/06/2011
On Day 8 we jumped on a Snow Coach that took us into the park interior. Our final destination was the Snow Lodge at Old Faithful where we stayed for 2 nights. The driver of the Snow Coach was awesome, he knew so much about the park so we were able to ask a lot of questions and get excellent answers. On the way into the park we saw a deer that had been killed by what we think were the wolves but could have been coyotes. We will forgo posting those images, pretty graphic. While traveling to the Old Faithful area we stopped several times so we had some opportunity to capture photos. Here is one of my favorite images. The ring around the sun is cause by ice crystals in the atmosphere, find more info here.
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While we were riding into the park we got creative and took some motion blur shots. We really liked this photo and wanted to post it. This was taken by setting the shutter to .4 seconds.
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After we arrived at the Snow Lodge we got situated in our room and then ventured out into the snow and boardwalks around Old Faithful. We only had time to walk around one of the smaller loops on the boardwalk and the lighting was not great but we still had a lot of fun. Here are a couple photos from this area.
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This is the ground around one of the Thermal features. The organisms around and in the hot water are beautiful and come in a variety of colors. This next photo looks like a photo you might see from the Space Shuttle. What ocean is this?
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Day 7 02/05/2011
As always in Yellowstone the weather changes and provides for amazing views. This day was exceptional. As I mentioned eariler we saw 5 squall lines  roll through Lamar Valley, we had never seen anything like it, very cool. Following are some of our shots from this wonderful day.
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Day 6 02/04/2011
This was the last day of class. We had an awesome time hanging out and photographing with everyone in the class, such a great group of people. After class was over Tamara and I went separate ways for the afternoon. I went snowshoeing with some new found friends and Tamara captured this amazing shot of a Golden Eagle on a kill.
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I took this shot of some duck swimming in the area we saw the River Otters. I initially thought they were the otters from a long distance off but when I got close they were ducks.
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Day 5 02/03/2011
This has got to be one of the coolest and fulfilling days a photographer could have. We were still in Lamar Valley and went for a drive to see what we could see. Well just west of the Lamar Buffalo Ranch we saw this critter all curled up in the snow sleeping. The Red Fox was sleeping away while we moved in close to get some photos. The snow was so deep, every step was taxing, our legs would sink into the snow all the way to our waists. Park rules state that you have to stay 25 yards away from foxes so we used our best judgment and ended up 32 yards away according to a ranger that showed up. Here is the fox sleeping and waking up.
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Hooper Photography Copyright © 2011

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Hooper Photography Copyright © 2011

Now for one of the coolest things we have ever had the pleasure to see much less photograph. I promised a story about why the fox are having such a hard winter. Here is what is going on, this is how the story was told to me so I hope it is accurate. There is a layer of snow at the base of the snow pack. Just above that layer is a hard crust of snow, the crust must have formed due to some melting then a deep freeze. Then a new layer of deep snow fell on top of that crust and then another crust formed. Then more snow fell on top of that. The way the fox hunt is they listen and feel vibrations from the rodents that burrow in the snow. Once they locate the rodent they get ready then pounce head first into the snow pack. They jump as high as they can so they can penetrate that layer of crust and get deep enough to get to the rodent. Problem is, the fox just can’t get through both layers of crust so they are dying of starvation. The other issue is that the base layer of snow melts due to ground heat and the water drowns the rodents so there is going to be a shortage of rodents come springtime. This will cause other issues with the various wildlife that feed on the rodents. The following photo is one of my all time favorites, you can’t help but put a smile on your face when you look at it.
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While driving near the Soda Butte area in Lamar Valley we looked up to some cliffs and saw this guy. The Big Horn Sheep are so majestic and beautiful. There were two of them just lazing about on the cliffs.
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Day 4 02/02/2011
This has to be the coldest day we had during our trip and probably the coldest temperatures I have ever felt. During the night the temp dropped to -43F and in the morning when we went out to do photography it was in the mid -30s. Now there are a few things you need to know when photographing in such cold conditions. We will talk briefly here about things to watch out for but will go into more detail in our tips section once we get that started. So first thing, batteries hate the cold. Here is an example of what cold does to batteries. I had a freshly charged battery in my camera when we first started shooting in the low temps. About 30min into the shoot I checked the charge on the battery and it had dropped by 70%, another 5min it was down to only 5% charged. I took the battery out of the camera, tucked it under my armpit (ewwwwww) and once the battery warmed up I checked the charge again and what do you know, back to 95% charged. The cold can also have adverse affects on your camera gear. My camera completely stopped working about 45min into the shoot and I was freaking out. I was used to the batteries dying on me but not my camera. I believe that 4 other people in the group had cameras that died as well. After my camera warmed up it started working again, whew. So the lesson here is digital cameras and batteries hate the cold so you need to keep them warm when not shooting. So here are a couple photos from that cold cold morning. This is the morning Tamara stayed in bed, smart girl!!!
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 Hooper Photography Copyright © 2011

So later that morning when we thawed out some and the temperatures rose to a whopping -20ish, a new found friend and I cut class and ran into these fun critters. We spent about 1hr 15min with these guys alone before anyone else showed up. We were so excited and privileged to have this opportunity. A note about the River Otters, they love to travel and you will rarely find them in the same place two days in a row, these Otters were in this area for several days, it was amazing. Then a couple days after I took the following photos they disappeared.
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To end the day Tom took us out after dark to do some night shots. Here is one we took that turned out pretty good. We are going to do more of this type of photography in the future, what fun!

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