My photography work days could be classified as nice, good, great, and outstanding.

• Nice means I made it to the intended location, but didn't capture anything I deem worth sharing. Even so, a nice day for me is oftentimes in spectacularly beautiful locations that most people never get to see in person, so by that measure it's still a darned nice day. :)
  • Most days are nice; let's say about 65%.
• A good day is when I capture excellent photos of at least one species.
  • 30% of the time I have a good day.
• A great day is when I capture multiple species.
  • Rarely, about 3% - 4% of the time, I have a great day; three or four days in 2020.
• Best of all, an outstanding day is when I capture multiple species that I love to see and photograph and my audience really enjoys, too. For example, most people admire Bald Eagle photos or cute Mountain Goats.
  • That leaves about 1% - 2% of the days in the outstanding category; I only had one or two of these in all of 2020.

September 25, 2020 was one of those outstanding days. I photographed a highly unusually-marked Yellow-Bellied Marmot, the American Pika looking ridiculously cuter than usual  

and Rocky Mountain Goats of various genders and ages, too. 

I also got a chance to do some really fun 4x4-ing with a creek-crossing. I stopped there to photograph the little creek's waterfalls, too.

Small Waterfall in Autumn

That was an outstanding day. 

In July, I photographed this young Moose on the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). His/her mother was nearby as they browsed vegetation. They crossed a small road, and even though Mom and kiddo were moving quickly to get out of the open, this little one wasn't able to resist a quick nibble on some tender greenery. 

Although I resist anthropomorphizing my subjects, I couldn't help but imagine a little mischief behind that twinkle in my young friend's eye. I hope to see these two again very soon. 

One way to help the Grand Lake area, which is adjacent to the western entrance of RMNP and whose human population was displaced during evacuation, is to donate to the Grand County Wildfire Emergency Fund.

Photo Recipe:

Canon 5D Mark IV + 100-400 mm lens
Focal length:  400 mm
ISO 1600
F 8
SS: 1/2000
 

Until I visited Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) for the first time in 2009, I'd never seen anything so magnificent in terms of beauty and scale as this valley. Even more amazing was, at certain times of day, the valley teemed with dozens of Elk! I was awestruck. 

This week, this area has been impacted by wildfire. The park just got a significant amount of snowfall in the last day or two, but that won't be enough to put out all the fires. I'm not sure what the area looks like yet. Since the valley is mostly grasses and is irrigated by the watershed / river's flow, I am hopeful it will recover fairly quickly. 

Two ways in which you can help are to donate to the Larimer County Fire Recovery Fund or the Larimer Humane Society.

Photo Recipe:

Canon 5D Mark IV + 600 mm lens
ISO 100
F 8
SS: 1/3200
 

In the last few months, wildfires have torched hundreds of thousands of acres and in the last few days, destroyed some of the most beautiful, wildlife-rich, most-touristed, and well-loved areas of the state:  Granby, Grand Lake, and Estes Park. Perhaps most shockingly for locals and visitors from all over the world, even Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) is under siege from the west side and may soon be from the east as well. The whole park -- 415 SQUARE MILES -- is CLOSED right now. While the entire park isn't on fire, I was astonished to see its closure and one of the reports I read today said that the Visitor's Center on the western / Grand Lake side of the park was destroyed by the fire! 

Of course, while property damage is disastrous for humans, habitat damage is positively catastrophic for wildlife. My heart breaks for the terrible toll the destruction of hundreds of thousands of acres of wildlife habitat is taking on our precious wildlife. I decided I would do something to honor the wildlife I photographed in that area this year. 

With the pandemic limiting travel, I spent quite a bit of time in all of these areas over the last few months as Governor Polis loosened travel restrictions. In Summer, I visited the Granby and Grand Lake areas, stopping into the west side of RMNP to photograph beautiful Elk in velvet:

In the coming days, I'll feature more beautiful wildlife I photographed this year in the areas now being decimated by wildfires. In the meantime, I hope you will consider donating to assist people and animals impacted by the fires. The Red Cross is currently supporting people displaced by the wildfires.

Photo Recipe:

Canon 5D Mark IV + 600 mm lens
ISO 1000
F 6.3
SS: 1/3200
 

Behold!!!! 

Marmot or Raccoon?Yellow Bellied Marmot



20200925-_K2A0521

What looks different to you from the other Marmots I shared this week? If the tail is what caught your attention, you got it, too!!! I'd never seen a Marmot with a ringed tail before; all the ones I'd seen before were solid color! This was a unique pattern and I had to know more. Was there some kind of star-crossed forbidden love story between a Marmot and Raccoon behind that ringed tail??? 

I sought the expertise of Dr. Dan Blumstein, who leads the team of researchers studying Yellow Bellied Marmots. I felt a little silly reaching out to a scientist because I thought he would certainly find my question utterly pedestrian, but I had to know what was up with the ringed tail. Dr. Blumstein was delightfully enthusiastic about my question as we exchanged Marmot stories and pics via email. I had only managed to capture two photos that showed this Marmot's tail, but with just that, Dr. Blumstein graciously answered my questions to the best of his knowledge.

Dr. Blumstein shared, "Looks like a natural artifact of moulting…getting a new coat of fur. Which they do in July/August where we are...sometimes we see stripes when the wind blows a bit but I too have never seen anything like this." Not only did Dr. Blumstein give me the much-needed answer I sought, but the fact that he had never seen anything like this made my day! I was sure he would have dozens of photos of Marmots with ringed tails, but it turns out, even to a Marmot researcher with years of field experience, this was unique!

In addition, he shared more knowledge with me about how to discern gender and age among Marmots, indicating this one was a healthy yearling female; he said the males' noses are more "robust". He also said he concluded this girl was a yearling because "Older animals look a little more 'worn'".

As I later perused the RMBL Marmot research team's instagram, I noticed another moulting Marmots, which helped further my understanding of how the ringed tail developed. Here's an example in this adorable video, during which you can see one of the Marmots has a striped back: 

I wonder, since moult happens in July/August and my photo was taken September 25th, whether this beautiful Marmot will retain her special tail for the rest of her life? Since she has already shed a coat of fur this year and grown in her Winter coat, it makes sense to me that she'll still have it next Spring when she awakens from hibernation and up until the next moult. I'll check in with her early next year and let you know! 

Photo recipe: 

Canon 5D Mark IV + 600 mm lens
ISO 1000
F 7.1
SS: 1/3200

Grateful appreciation to Dr. Blumstein and his research team. Also, thank goodness for science and scientists. :) Here's one more adorable photo from the Marmot Project researchers! 

Where can I find the answer? This isn't the Marmot that stumped me. Just a cute one.

Google? Nope, that was too general for this situation. 

What about a photography buddy? The one who is, well, really into Marmots? Maybe a little obsessed, even? I call this guy the Marmot Whisperer, by the way. He's spent so much time with them, I think the whistle pigs (a.k.a. Marmots) got together and made him an honorary Marmot. But, I digress. Marmot Whisperer was immediately on the case, scouring the whole of his Marmot photography catalogue, yet he returned nothing matching, or even close to, what I showed him. So, while Marmot Whisperer was exceedingly willing to help me find an answer right away, even his special Marmot Whisperer superpowers were unable to help. 

After the trip to the Marmot Whisperer's burrow, I realized I needed an even deeper subject matter expert who had scads of field time with many different Marmots. I needed SCIENCE!!!!! I needed a Marmot researcher!!! My quest led me to Daniel T. Blumstein, Professor at UCLA, but also Board President and Research Scientist at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL), home base for the RMBL Long Term Marmot Study! This study was started in 1962 (!!!!) by University of Kansas Professor Ken Armitage and is now run by Dr. Blumstein. 

I emailed Dr. Blumstein late on a Friday afternoon. I had no expectation I would get a response right away, because who works that hard late on a Friday? Like the Marmot Whisperer, it turns out Dr. Blumstein is, also, really into Marmots. 

Come back for my next post to learn why the heck I needed an actual scientist to help me with my question! 

Until my next post, be sure to check out the RMBL Long Term Marmot Study's account on Instagram. I got deep into their insta posts, wishing I could cuddle all those adorable baby (and grown) Marmots. I easily lost a couple of hours looking at grown Marmots, Marmot pups, Marmot bellies, flat Marmots, fat Marmots, Marmot parties, Marmots earning their whistle pig nickname, Marmot hitchikers, Marmots that sit like people, Marmot researcher humor, whole danged Marmot families (!!!), and Marmot antics and that's when I realized I might be really into Marmots. 

Photo recipe: 

Canon 5D Mark IV + 600 mm lens
ISO 1000
F 6.3
SS: 1/3200

P.S., I'll show you the magical mystical Marmot in my next post, but for now, "SCIENCE!" 

I tried to come up with a word starting with "m" that suitably described the movement of this Marmot as it hastened across the talus field in my direction. His attitude said, "I'm your worst nightmare," but his gait said, "ugh, I ate too many donuts." 

Continuing with yesterday's story, then; I was sitting on a rock in a talus field photographing my subject 100' distant. He became agitated and trundled menacingly toward me, seemingly hell-bent on my destruction. Just look at this face!

Disconcerting! 

Have a closer look. Tell me that's not vengeance in his eye. 

Seething Marmot VengeanceBraveheart-grade Marmot vengeance.

You know that scene in Braveheart when William Wallace rallies the troops? This Marmot was manifesting Braveheart-grade vengeance. ;)

He was less than 15' from me, scampering hard toward me, but at the last second, my life was spared as he veered into a very discreet, and heretofore unknown to me, burrow entrance just 10' from my rock! Not only was my life spared, but I then realized why he looked so angrily at me! He didn't want to end me, he wanted me to go away. Well, he may have wanted to end me, but he couldn't, so he took evasive action instead.

I work hard at leaving as little impact on my animal subject as possible, so I felt badly that I didn't recognize the entrance of his burrow and leave appropriate space between me and the burrow, but I learned a good lesson on how to spot one. 

Photo recipe: 

Canon 5D Mark IV + 600 mm lens
ISO 1000
F 4.5
SS: 1/3200
 

The Marmot was clearly distressed by the loud passers-by and started moving in my direction. He would advance, stop, look toward the voices, look at and observe me, look to the voices, look at me, seemed to gather up his courage, then advance more. He repeated this process until he had crossed perhaps 60' of talus, when he began giving more obvious non-verbal clues to me, such as this one, when he raised his bushy tail, flicking it a bit and looking at me with what I can only describe as Marmot dagger eyes. 🗡👀😠 I knew he was agitated, but thought it was only due to the disturbance of the voices. After covering another 20' of talus and when he was only 20' away, he gave me one last look and dashed headlong toward me. I thought, "am I in for a Marmot attack??!!!" 😲😧

Come back tomorrow for the conclusion of this Mad Marmot Tale!

Photo recipe: 

Canon 5D Mark IV + 600 mm lens
ISO 1000
F 7.1
SS 1/3200
 

A fellow photographer was lamenting to me about missing a particular shot. She said "I waited for hours and when it finally happened the deer ran right over my head. I knew then why National Geographic Photographers are paid a lot to sit and wait for the perfect photo." 

As she said this, I thought to myself, wildlife photography is about 25% knowing where to be when, 50% waiting and/or tenacity to go back to the same location over and over, 15% photography skills, 5% photography equipment, and 5% luck.

She did everything right:  

• Learned about her subject's habitat and habits; she knew where to be and when.
• She patiently waited. 
• She had the skill to capture the image.
• She had the photography equipment. 
• If you're keeping score, you probably realize the luck category is where things didn't go in her favor. :(

I feel her pain. 

Wildlife photography is particularly challenging because subjects seem to be hard to come by. As wildlife photographers, we must learn a lot about our intended subjects. Using Elk as an example, I created a one minute video on how I find them in the field (link).

I was richly rewarded for my work: 

To get to a particular wildlife subject, spend time learning about your subject's habitat and habits. Go to the location, setup your gear, and wait. You may have to visit that location many times to get the photo you want. Even if you don't get the photo you want on the first, third, or fifteenth visit, it is time well spent learning:  the location, the movement of the wildlife within its habitat, the best times of day, the right position yourself, signs of their presence, and so on. 

Photo recipe: 

Canon 5D Mark IV + 600 mm lens
ISO 1000
F 7.1
SS 1/3200
 

Our busy friend is collecting Alpine vegetation from in between the talus. An especially fascinating detail about Pika behavior is they place their hay in the sun to dry before storing in their dens, thus preventing the harvest from spoiling. The drying process is exactly the same humans use when harvesting hay; the crop is mown, left lying in the sun in the field to dry, then it's baled.

How amazing is it the little Alpine farmer known as the American Pika does that, too? 

Photo recipe: 

Canon 5D Mark IV + 600 mm lens
ISO 1000
F 5.6
SS: 1/2500
 

These are some of the most fascinating animals in Colorado. American Pika live strictly in high elevation environments above 8,000' feet (about 2,500 meters). One source I read indicated they only go as high as 13,000' (about 3,960 meters), but I'm certain, from personal experience with them, they live at least as high as 14,000' (about 4,260 meters). 

While the short Alpine summer is in swing, Pika collect about 50 lbs. of vegetation to store away for the long Winter months -- pretty remarkable when you consider these mammals are only about 6" - 7" long and weigh around 6 ounces. Pika do not hibernate and use their storehouse of vegetation in their dens among talus fields for sustenance and warmth.

With their small size, nimbleness, and agility, they can easily cover more ground than me when navigating talus fields in a much shorter time. I'd be on my face if I tried to hop and skip my way through the talus like they do.

I got some really cool pics of Pika collecting vegetation when I was in the mountains. Follow my instagram to see all the cute!

Photo recipe: 

Canon 5D Mark IV + 600 mm lens
ISO 400
F 5.6
SS: 1/3200
 

I chose ISO 400 because the morning sun was getting stronger, so I didn't need as much ISO sensitivity and because I had the aperture pretty open at F 5.6. I often shoot wildlife with 1/3200th of a second shutter speed because I want to capture unexpected action and because a faster shutter speed lets me use the camera (and the long 600 mm lens) without a tripod. 

Mother and Kitten

How amazing is this?!!  The first time I ever have the opportunity to photograph a Bobcat in the wild and it just so happens to be a mother Bobcat and her kitten!  Lucky me!!!

They were enjoying a mule deer meal when I happened upon them.  I kept my distance and they eventually returned to eating their meal.  I have spared my readers the (gory!) details of their meal.  

Autumn Angler

Gorgeous Autumnal Aspens provide the stunning context for this fisherman's visit.  Get yours here!

Dad's Home!

I am thrilled to announce that my photo, "Dad's Home!" is a 2018 Natural Douglas County photo contest winner!  The photo shows a tender moment as Father Fox is greeted by two of his kits upon his return to the natal den on a snowy April morning. 

"Dad's Home!", along with the beautiful work of eleven other photographers, is featured in Douglas Land Conservancy's 2018 notecard collection.  The collection will be for sale in late August; keep an eye on the Douglas Land Conservancy (DLC) web site for more information about how to purchase your set of notecards. 

Proceeds from the sale of the notecards support DLC's mission of land conservancy; I am deeply honored and gratified to share this photo in service to DLC's mission.

I headed up one of Colorado's 14ers (peak that is higher than 14,000 feet) that is pretty well known for mountain goats.  As I was driving up to the summit, the weather, as it is wont to do above treeline, became a little wet, cold, and slippery.  I noticed droves of cars coming down the narrow mountain road.  

At last, I reached the summit.  The view was . . . underwhelming.

Alpine View Atop a Colorado 14er on July 13, 2018Do I really need to watermark this photo? :D Did I really need to put a watermark on this photo?  

That's a cloud.  OK I think technically, maybe it's fog, but I'm going to call it a cloud instead of fog since I took the pic at around 14,130' elevation.  Yes, really.  :) 

Alpine weather changes fast, so I hunkered down in my truck to wait it out to see if my luck (and the weather) would change, mountain goats would emerge from wherever they were hiding, and the sky would provide some of that gorgeous late afternoon light!  

I waited.  I read a book.  I napped.  It thundered.  It hailed.  It sleeted.  

Hail and rain on the hood of my vehicle Hail and rain accumulating on the hood of my vehicle while I waited for the sun (and hopefully some mountain goats) to emerge. While waiting out the weather, I snapped a mobile pic of the sleet and rain accumulating on the hood of my truck.

I took a walk around some old buildings on the mountain.  This thermometer read 43 degrees.  It was July 13th.  

Alpine SummerThermometer at the top of a Colorado 14er read 43 degrees Fahrenheit on July 13, 2018.

Finally, I ended my mountain goat quest and promised myself to come back again soon to try again.  I started the truck and just as I was about to pull out of the parking spot, I noticed a rainbow!  I turned off the car, changed the 100 - 400 mm lens to a wide angle 15 - 30 mm lens, and hurried outside to photograph the rainbow as fast as I could.  The results were amazing!!!  

Alpine RainbowYep, it really looked like that! Aside from how darned exciting it is to see a vibrant rainbow, what I love about this scene is the huge scale of the photo.  For a big view like this, I used a wide angle lens and shot this at 19 mm.  I also told the camera I wanted as much of the landscape in focus as possible, which means I set the aperture (also called F-stop) to F22.  If I used a smaller number such as F8, less of the photo would have been in focus -- not what I want to do for a big scene like this one!

The weather geek in me finds it exciting because, although the sun is behind my back, the rainbow seems to have refracted the light passing through it so that it appears rays of sun are emanating from below the hillside.  

Another thing I adore about this photo is you can see the movement of the raindrops falling through the scene.  You can even see a mini prism in the rain drop just to the right of the "r" in the Outsider watermark -- how cool is that?  To get the movement of the rain through the photo, I set the shutter speed at 1/400th of a second.  

So, while I was unable to get pics of my mountain goat friends, my patience paid off with this gorgeous scene.

Although the web site has been up for a couple of months, I've spent a bit of time pondering what to say in my first post!  After all, it's the post that sets the stage for everything to come and that's a daunting thought!  

I want the Outsider to give you three things:  learning, inspiration, and photography.  I'm gonna' break it down . . .

Learning

I have created this source for learning photography using an approach that is unlike anything else you've seen or experienced before.  It is fun, fresh, straightforward, goal-directed, and step-by-step easy.

Inspiration 

Each time you learn, I hope you'll feel inspired to try the things you just learned.

Photography  

I want you to make amazing photos.  I want you to feel the thrill of perfectly capturing a moment with your camera and the joy of sharing that moment with others, just as I am doing with you.  

Male Red Fox in Morning LightThis male Red Fox was trotting through the freshly-fallen snow in the beautiful morning light.

I can't wait to share with you all the learning, inspiration, and photography I am creating just for you!  Thanks for reading!