24 October

We may be surrounded by wildlife in Wyoming but there is no guarantee they’re going to be willing to pose for photographers. Tuesday was unbelievable, and Wednesday was spent searching my favorite spots but not a shot all day. I was lucky enough to witness the most beautiful rainbow I ever saw. For several minutes the Tetons were totally framed by a bright, beautiful rainbow. If I can find a photo of it that I like I will add it to the gallery….those shots are among the many I still have to review.

I wasn’t able to get out Thursday and I had to return the rental lens Friday morning. Friday morning turned out to be epic …no wildlife opportunities but the Tetons were popping in and out of the fog and clouds with illumination by the sun for brief periods. As many times as I’ve been mesmerized by them this one ranks at or very near the top. Stunning! I just added a few shots from Friday morning that hopefully do a little justice to what I witnessed. Unreal scene.

I hope you enjoy my recent additions to the gallery. As always any comments or criticism is welcome.

Cheers….Bud

20 October

What a day using the rental 400mm lens I mentioned last week! Jumped out of bed at 0500 , filed the truck with some gas (more like liquid gold!), grabbed a coffee and headed for a spot Pat and I discovered in the Teton National Park last summer. Unlike my trip to Schwabacher’s Landing a few weeks ago there was no one else there..perfect. I arrived 45 minutes before sunrise and stopped a short ways onto the side road to see if I could spot any elk with my binoculars. A single bull was meandering through the sage brush but it was still way to dark to get a photo even with my ISO cranked way up. Still, a good start. Another 1/4mile down the way the road went down a steep incline…..a good place to stop and see if anything was down on the open spaces. 2 black figures (moose) were pretty obvious but they were several hundred yards away. To my left and several hundred yards away a nice bull elk was doing his best to keep his harem of 7 cow elk from a smaller bull who was doing his best to convince a few of the ladies to join him. The last I saw of this show was the entire herd moving north away from me with the big guy going crazy chasing the smaller bull from his group. Jealously versus persistence was something to witness!

After they left, I worked my way closer to the 2 moose I mentioned earlier and waited to see what they would do. In time they slowly walked past me, giving me the opportunity to get a couple fairly good shots. With that I drove to another part of the park and as luck would have it 2 real nice bull moose were working their way through some woods near the road. I did get a couple shots but not the composure what I would prefer.

Heading home I encountered 2 nice mule deer bucks, a small group of antelope and a bald eagle. All in all, not a bad morning out with the Nikon. Photos or no photos seeing all these creatures in their environment was pretty special!

I did post a couple shots on my gallery. Let me know what you think. I’ll be back out there again tomorrow morning so check back for more (I hope).

Cheers….Bud

27 September

Finally, the “hotter than I like them” days of summer are behind us and my favorite season is here. Cooler days, colorful foliage and best of all, smaller crowds and less traffic everywhere…or so I thought. Last Wednesday the 23rd, I got up before daylight and drove up to Schwabacher’s Landing, a few miles north of downtown Jackson. The weather forecast called for morning fog followed by bluebird skies and I thought there would be some opportunities to take advantage of the morning light for a few nice shots of the Tetons peaking out of the diminishing fog and a colorful foliage foreground. Not so fast, Buck-O! Even though Labor Day was a few weeks behind us the summer crowds were still in the area and, to make a long story short, there were so many cars on the access road to Schwabacher’s that it was impossible to get anywhere near the spot I planned to go to. Traffic was not moving, people were stopping everywhere (yeah, I get it..this may be their only chance to visit the beautiful Jackson Hole area, but a little courtesy and common sense would be nice). Great, up while it was still dark out, only a coffee for breakfast, who knows what the value of the gas I burned to get here (don’t get me started on that one!), and now I need a new plan.

Deadman’s Bar, a popular launching point for Snake River rafting trips, was only a few miles further north and I doubted anyone would be there… so off I went. As expected, the fog was still quite thick and there was no one there...perfect. The sun was beginning to burn off the fog and I decided to walk a little ways down the Snake to checkout compositions. Just a hundred yards or so down the river I encountered a large bull moose, grunting like crazy and slowly crossing the river. Unfortunately, the fog was such that I could not get a good, focused shot of him, but just being there to see and hear the big guy made my day. I did get single shot down the river (the background to this blog and also displayed in my gallery). Eventually, I drove back to a way less crowded Schwabacher’s and even managed to take a couple pretty nice shots of the Tetons. I know there are literally thousands of photos of the Tetons out there, but it is nice to take a couple that I like myself. They are also posted to my gallery.

Please take a look and let me know what you think.

Have a good one….Cheers!

Bud

Overcoming retirement boredom

14 Sept 2026

32 years in uniform, countless deployments, more than a few missed events at home, a few (OK, a lot ) relatively long and uncomfortable rides on red fabric aluminum framed seats, a ton of  adventures and great memories that I sometimes misplace in my mind…. I truly miss those days. So many friends, some no longer with us, but all securely etched in my mind .   It seems the more that time passes the more restless I become.  My movements aren’t quite as effortless as they once were.  My endurance has suffered the same fate as my flexibility, but I somehow still feel like there is work left undone and challenges to meet and defeat.

It took a while, but the answer is a pastime I’ve enjoyed since the 3rd grade and has been waiting in the wings for me to wakeup and bring it to the forefront …photography!  I am trying hard to record the travels and experiences Pat and I are fortunate enough to experience in a style or fashion that is more than a nice photo of a pretty scene.  I am focused on producing quality photos such that they are fitting to frame and hang in my home, or your home or office.  One of the photos I captured,  2 wild stallions racing toward Pat and I in southwestern Wyoming (I call it “Running Free”) now hangs in our daughter-in-law’s doctor’s office.

There is so much more to me bringing my old hobby back to life than meets the eye…new and vastly improved equipment (my Nikon Z8 is great and a project in and of itself!), photo editing on the computer ( geez, in the old days I remember just having to be careful controlling how prints were processed), composition, lighting, shooting in the rain, and on and on.  I love it!

Rather than rambling on endlessly, I will wrap this up with a few closing thoughts.  I know my work has a ways to go , so please, if you care to comment or make some constructive criticism of my work please send an email and unload on me.  There are a lot of ways to improve and getting some good constructive criticism is one I welcome.  I plan to regularly add photos to my gallery, so please check from time to time.  And, I plan to add to this blog frequently if the proper words come to mind.

Thanks for stopping by…Have a good one!

Bud

13 October

My roaming all over the local region has been pretty much curtailed the last week or so as the autumn colors have begun to fade and the leafs are falling from the trees . On top of that change, I’ve been busy getting my summer equipment winterized and stored and the winter machinery (Snow blower) ready for the coming snow. The arrival of snow on the higher elevations seems to be a week or two late but unless the weather actually turns crazy, it will be here soon enough. We did see the mountain tops covered in white last Friday so I guess it’s just a matter of time.

Snow up high means the elk will be moving to lower elevations so my goal for the week of 19 through 23 October will be getting out early and spending morning and some evenings (let’s make that all day) photographing elk. Earlier today I ordered a rental 400mm lens for my Nikon, so with just a little luck I will be posting some pretty nice wildlife shots by the end of the month. Check back to see them.

While backing the pickup into our driveway a couple evenings ago I was startled by some movement in the rearview mirror. It turned out that the movement was 2 fairly nice mule deer bucks. It seems they really enjoy snacking on the lawns and flower beds in our neighborhood. I did my best to get a few shots of them with my iPhone….the results are in my gallery. Not the same quality as Nikon shots but still nice to see.

That’s it until next week. Thanks for visiting!

Cheers…..Bud