Fledgling Osprey

A family of osprey built this nest along the roadway, using everything they could find, including baling string, which you can see hanging down. On this particular day, we stopped to observe and found the two chicks in the nest.

Before long, one of the parents came along with this fish in its claws.

She hangs out for a few minutes, but doesn’t give up the fish. In fact, she flew away with it still in her claw. It was then we realized she was tempting the chicks to follow her in flight.

We watched as one chick did indeed fly after her, in a large circle, and came back to the nest.

All the while, the other parent had been sitting on this power post, watching, completely undeterred by the fake owls that I guess were put up to discourage nesting in this particular location.

The adult came back after a few minutes. The second chick wasn’t quite as brave, but did flap its wings and hover above the nest for a few seconds. Two days later we drove past again and they had all left.

Milky Way

During the Wind River Photographers’ Retreat, a few of us photographers got together for an impromptu Milky Way photoshoot, since we could not pass up the incredibly clear skies of Wyoming. The sky appears to be two different colors in these images, and that has a lot to do with the direction I was facing and the light pollution that was visible. The top shot I took looking straight up at the sky. The second was a much lower angle, facing a mountain side. I think it’s that residual light that made the sky appear amber as opposed to blue. Of course in Photoshop you can accentuate any color you want, but I really keyed off of what the camera captured in these two cases.

Dubois Badlands

Before this summer, when I visualized northwestern Wyoming, I saw creeks cutting through mountains blanketed in evergreen trees. But Dubois is special because it’s where that preconceived notion meets multicolored badlands that stretch out in waves. There is a fantastic over look that lets you take it all in, on the western edge of town. We could see for miles in all directions.

Horse Ranch

We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise at a ranch near Dubois where they train horses for pack riding. The cowboys ran the horses through the sagebrush and below the badland cliffs and we tried our best to keep up.

The Pinnacles

Our very first shoot at the Wind River Photographers’ Retreat was an area I had visited before in our wanderings around the Dubois area. These are the Pinnacle Buttes, which reach above Brooks Lake Creek. The area is popular with campers, fishermen, and bears. There had been a bear sighting in the campground earlier in the morning, and we drove around a bit to try and spot it, but it had moved on.

Wind River Photographers' Retreat

Ok, y’all, I can’t wait any longer, I am so excited to show you pictures from the photographer’s retreat that I went to recently. The program was presented by the National Bighorn Sheep Center, and we spent the week at the Whiskey Mountain Conservation Camp near Dubois, Wyoming.

One of the rustic cabins that served as lodgings for participants.

A view from the Torrey valley, where the camp was located.

Isn’t this place super cool? We got to spend the week here, surrounded by the beautiful landscape. Every day our intrepid instructors, Bill Sincavage and Sandy Zelasko led us on morning and evening shoots around the area. Some of the highlights were visiting a working horse ranch, private access to petroglyphs, watching an osprey fledge, sighting moose (more than once!) and chasing so much beautiful scenery. I’ll post pictures from the retreat soon.

Lawn Mowers

One of the summer’s unexpected delights was the appearance of these two horses next door. The neighbors borrowed Monty and Jack for a few weeks so they would effectively mow the lawn through grazing. My daughter was enthralled with them, of course, and they seemed to feel the same. They would meet at the fence nearly every day. She would talk to them and feed them carrots. We aren’t horse people, so it was a treat to look out the window and see them in this beautiful afternoon light.