People Photos in Yellowstone

Since most of my Yellowstone photos were of the wildlife....I thought I would share a few favorite people photos! The rangers were fun to photograph....at each "bear sighting" there were rangers that were part of the "bear management" program keeping the peace betweeen people and bears.....

One would have to have a sense of humor working all day long trying to keep tourists from approaching bears, leaving their cars in the middle of the road, or any other things us tourists tend to do around wildlife! And being in front of this line of big cameras all day would have it's challenges also! And every once in a while I got a feeling of being in Jellystone Park with Yogi the Bear and Boo Boo!








And heading out on a photo shoot with a bunch of photographer friends, how can there NOT be a lot of people photos? My buddies, Heidi Haas Williams and Barb Edeblute joined me on this workshop and we had some HUGE fun with these HUGE lenses!







Art was another participant in the class who has the patience of a saint, and a great attitude, with enthusiasm for photography that never ends! (Well maybe it ended at the wildflowers and scenic photos, but his enthusiasm for WILDLIFE photography is endless!) At the end of the 7 days, I had never heard him complain or even yawn once! Even when provoked!



Our fearless leader, Dale Franz, gets an A+ for a wonderful workshop and his endless energy.......even through long days, a bad cold, a car full of giggling women, and even one sick from the altitude! Dale has great skill in photography, willingness to share information, a great network of friends in the park that helped to locate the most interesting subjects, and he even knows a lot about Nikons although he's a Canon shooter! I would recommend this workshop to ANYONE! My friends and I rated this the best of all the workshops we've been on, and we've been on a LOT of photo workshops! So finding a workshop for next year will be very hard....we all want to return to Yellowstone with Dale!






Day 4 photos - Black Bear cubs and the Bear Papparazzi

First Day in the Park - Grizzly Bear and Cub

Day 6 in Yellowstone.....ends with a rainbow!

Another rainy cold day, but sometimes Yellowstone looks even better under these conditions! I was amazed by the stillness and beauty and how rich and green the landscapes looked in the rain! We even got some snow - some of the roads in Yellowstone were closed due to the snow covered roads! Even in June!

These mountain sheep didn't seem too bothered by the weather either!

Yellowstone Day 5

We are having the best time on this wildlife photography workshop. But up at dawn and out shooting until after dark can wear a person out! I had to "opt out" of the evening shoot & even a few of the daytime shoots to conserve my energy.

Carrying around a 15 pound camera/lens/tripod setup can really get old! Good thing I only rented this monster lens and didn't buy it! I guess I'm not suited for either wildlife photography or being part of the celebrity papparrazzi as they both require these monster lenses! But when I get home I'm going to look into buying a lighter smaller lens - the Nikkor 80 to 400mm VR lens. Only 2.9 pounds - ahhhhhhh.

But Yellowstone is full of photo opportunities no matter what camera and lens a person has - I did a lot of wide angle photos when needing to rest! And there are photo opportunities around every corner here!






Yellowstone Day 4
Yellowstone Day 3
Yellowstone Day 2
Yellowstone Day 1

Yellowstone Day 4 - The Bear Papparazzi

Day 4 was a rainy day.....we had thought that maybe that would limit the photo opportunities, but we actually had an amazing day of shooting in the rain! And I learned that black bears are actually better photographed in the rain! And I learned a little about photographer "etiquette" along the papparazzi lines where there are cute little bear cubs like this in sight! I found myself as fascinated about the "activity" on our end of the cameras as I was about the bears!

We spent almost 3 hours with cameras set up in this line....it rained on us, sleeted, hailed, but most photographers just stayed and put some rain protection on their cameras! What a riot!

This first bear and her two cubs (one brown and one black) is called Rosie - you can see she has red tags on her ears, and apparently the name came from those rose colored ears. The cubs are about 3 months old, and were just a hoot to photograph!

Oh yeah, and a couple grizzlies, moose cub.....just an average day here in Yellowstone!

Yellowstone Day 1
Yellowstone Day 2
Yellowstone Day 3









These last two photos are of my buddies, Heidi Haas Williams and Barb Edelblute. Sure is fun but we sure are out of our element! We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Yellowstone Day 3

Our third day in Yellowstone was full of geysers, baby moose, baby bison, and baby elk! What a wonderful time!

Yellowstone Day 2 - Bears, Moose, and beautiful landscapes!

Wow what an experience to have a full week of photographing one of our country's most beautiful national parks! We are getting such a lesson in wildlife and nature at the same time getting a wildlife photography lesson from Dale Franz of Cody, Wyoming. Sometimes I still have to pinch myself!








I would like to write more, but we have been up at dawn & photographing until after sunset, so everyone is EXHAUSTED! But who wouldn't be exhausted carrying around these big lenses! This last photo is of my buddy Heidi Haas Williams in the car waiting for a rain shower to stop! Obviously the size of the lens is accentuated by my fisheye lens! Looks like today will be a rainday which might help give us some downtime! But I have learned that black bears are great to photograph in the rain....maybe we'll go back & visit Rosie & her cubs!

First Day in Yellowstone - It's a photographer's delight!

WOW what a an amazing first day at my wildlife photography workshop! And it's only half over with! We go out again for another shot at wildlife at dusk! But I would say, 4 grizzly bears, one black bear, two moose, lots of elk, deer, bison, birds, and a ton of other wildlife I can't even name is an AWESOME first day!

This momma grizzly bear and her cub were an amazing sight - as you can tell by the photos, we were all quite close to them - and eventually the pair crossed the road. I shot most of these with only an 18-200mm lens!

What an amazing week this will be! Now to learn some from some of the mistakes I made today and to learn how to handle this crazy 600mm Nikkor lens I rented! Could you imagine being even closer to these grizzlies?










The workshop is being led by Dale Franz of Franz Photo - and after only a half a day I would recommend him for ANYONE looking for a great wildlife photography workshop!

Big Bad Nikkor Lens - 600mm!

Today I had to take some photos of this BIG BAD NIKKOR LENS that I rented for my trip to Yellowstone! The lens is a 600mm lens, and I have a doubler, so I shouldn't have to get too close to any grizzly bears to take a great photo! But I'm not sure it will fit in my carry-on luggage, and not sure I can carry this 10 pound lens! I had to buy a bigger tripod to hold this 11 pound lens, a bigger camera bag to haul it all - YIKES! Wish me luck!

The workshop that I'll be attending is lead by Dale Franz of FRANZ FOTO- based in Montana. I'll be doing blog entries along the way and hope to have some GREAT subjects!

To show some perspective on this 11 pound, $9,000, 18 inch long, 6 inch diameter lens, I thought the beer can might give it the right feel!