Springtime in Grand Teton National Park (part 2)

Sunrise over Jackson Lake

This view is from the picnic area that serves both the cabins and the campground at Colter Bay on Jackson Lake, and is located only about 100 yards from the Visitor Center.  For those planning a future trip to the Tetons, this is our favorite spot to stay- certainly more convenient than staying at a motel in Jackson.  This spot is literally within easy walking distance from either the campground or the cabins.

Colter Bay Panorama

In a previous post, I mentioned that I'd photographed the entire bay as a panorama one morning.  I'm not sure that the resolution on this blog will show off a panorama format to very good effect, but we'll give it a try, I guess.  (I think I might try making a large print of this one for a church auction this fall, if it generates any interest.)

Tetons & Wildflowers

I found this good stand of wildflowers right beside a park viewpoint area along the inner road near Jenny Lake on the first morning of our stay in the park.

Lupine Meadows

Just to show that not all of the flowers blooming in the park this spring were yellow balsam root, this nice stand of lupines was found along the road that goes to the hiking trail called- you guessed it- Lupine Meadows.  On the morning that I photographed these, a large herd of elk were grazing at a distance in the meadow behind me.

Mr. Cunningham's View

Cunningham's Cabin is a historic spot in the park named for an early settler to the region.  Visitors are able to step inside his cabin, where I took the above photo showing the view that he had from his back window in the springtime.  I'm pretty sure that a winter in this cabin would be harsh!

Springtime in Grand Teton National Park

Sunrise Over Colter Bay

I've always found that sunrise is the best time to photograph in the Tetons, and the morning that I took the photo above treated me with generally clear skies in the east, along with a bank of clouds over the Teton Range.  On this trip, we stayed in a log cabin inside the park at Colter Bay on Jackson Lake.  This photo was taken from a pebble-lined beach that serves as the picnic area for the campground and cabins.  (I also took additional photos of the remainder of the range to allow me to produce a panoramic image of the spot above.  Perhaps I'll post an additional panorama view later.)

Tech info:  Canon 5D Mk II, 50mm lens

Wildflowers #1

While I had previously photographed Grand Teton National Park in the Summer and the Fall seasons, this was my first trip to the Tetons during the Spring.  We were there from June 10 to June 14, and I was pleased to find that wildflowers were blooming profusely in the park at lower elevations.  This was a lucky break for doing photography, because the skies were generally overcast for most of our visit this year, and some color in the foreground was helpful to avoid boring compositions.  While I'm no expert on identifying wildflowers, my spouse informs me that these yellow flowers are called balsam root.  They were the most widely found variety in the valley during our mid-June stay in the park.

Wildflowers #2

Another reason that I'm glad the wildflowers were blooming in the park during our stay was that my previous favorite spot for doing photography in the park, Schwabacher Landing, was closed due to the budget cuts associated with sequestration.  When I first read about this closure in the park newspaper, I was definitely not a happy camper, and spent a few hours considering sending a nasty letter to my congressman blaming him for messing up my vacation.  My anger over the politics of this situation gradually subsided with each successive find of good patches of wildflowers.  I found this patch was along the inner park road that goes past Jenny Lake.

I have a great many additional photos to sort through from this visit, so stay tuned for some additional posts over the next few days.  I hope you enjoy viewing these shots of this fine park!

Bill 

Old Barns of Grand Teton National Park

Barn & Bison

On my first visit to Grand Teton National Park, back around 1992 or 1993, my daughters and I were traveling with my Mother and Father in their motorhome.  We had picked up a small pamphlet in Jackson that explained where to find all of the iconic photo locations in the park.  Dad tried so hard to convince me that we should go to the barns on what is called "Mormon Row", but I wasn't interested!  Somehow I had this peculiar notion about what I did and didn't want to photograph in the Tetons, and it probably ran mostly along the lines of Ansel Adams' famous black and white image taken from the Snake River Overlook.  (You can see my previous post of a couple of weeks back for my images taken more recently from that spot.)

Thankfully, I guess that I've become slightly more open minded over the last 20-something years, or at least I've learned to enjoy photographing a few more spots that I stubbornly resisted back then!  Now I always enjoy coming to this spot, even though I've been there many times before.


It is not unusual to find Bison grazing in this area of the park, sometimes in large herds.  On this particular morning, several passed back and forth through my view, but this one fit my composition best.

Sunny Morning- Grand Teton N.P.

Both of the barns above are located within a quarter mile or less from each other.  I've photographed this spot at sunrise before, but I really like it better later in the morning when all of the detail in the barn is well illuminated.  In retrospect, perhaps a few puffy white clouds in the sky might add to the composition, but this just gives me a reason to come back again sometime to this park.


I hope all of my friends will enjoy these images, and that you'll also get a chance to visit this spot.
Bill

Patriarch Tree

Isn't technology wonderful sometimes?  I'd tried to find this tree on two previous trips to the Tetons, but the directions that I had on those two previous trips just weren't quite adequate to enable me to find it.  This trip (fall of 2010) I arrived with a much better set of directions courtesy of- you guessed it- a Google search on the internet!  If at first you don't succeed...

Tech info:  Canon 40D, 18-55 IS @ 35mm focal length.  Not much post-processing other than usual sharpening.

Oxbow Bend- Fall 2010

I tried to time our ten day trip to the Tetons for the peak of the fall color.  As it turned out, we were a little too early to hit the peak color at many of the the lower elevations.  I made the drive in the dark to Oxbow Bend for several days to catch the first light of sunrise.  Somehow, none of those images really appeal to me quite as much as this one, shot late in the morning.  Another difference between most of my other shots at this spot and this one is that this image was captured on film with a Hasselblad on Fujichrome Velvia. Perhaps it's just me, but sometimes I find it hard to get quite the same look on digital as you get with good ol' Velvia.

Snake River Overlook

   I arrived At Snake River Overlook one morning with every intent of photographing the first rays of sunrise as they lit up the tops of the Teton Range.  In the dim moonlight, I could see that the valley below was filled with fog, partially obscuring the river as it winds its way downstream.  One of the advantages of digital imaging (as opposed to when I used to shoot 4x5 film) is there is much less expense involved in shooting "extra" frames that might be very differrent from what one initially had planned.  This image didn't appeal to me much in color, but converted to black and white I like it better.

Tech info:  Canon 40D, 18-55 IS @ 18mm.  Converted to B&W in Photoshop and contrast increased.







Same spot, much later in the same morning. Two very different looking images of a spot that I've always considered special.