Day 40, Back in the woods
09/June/2009
Today turned cold and wet — like June usually is in Glacier. Rocky Mountain Maple, unlike its eastern cousin, which grows into fabulous trees, is no more than a bush in Glacier. But it's an important bush, providing browse for a host of ungulates.
Support this effort: subscribe to GPM here.
Day 39, Mr. Follett
09/June/2009
Doug Follett shows off his purple socks to a crowd of more than 200 as he enters the West Glacier community building for a celebration of his 50th year with the Park Service on June 8, 2009. Purple is his favorite color. "It matches my veins," he joked.
Day 38, A favorite tree
07/June/2009
T. J. Hileman, one of the Park's first photographers, had a couple of birch trees cut down after he took a coveted picture on Lake McDonald. This is my favorite tree at Two Medicine Lake. I have no plans to cut it down.
Day 37, Disregard the calendar
07/June/2009
After two weeks of summer-like weather, snow arrived in Two Medicine. I was probably the only guy in camp welcoming it. I like snowy shots. Climbed about 500 feet above the trail to get this photo of a bighorn ram overlooking the valley. Climbing with a 400mm on your back is challenging, even if it's just a scramble up some scree. The snow got so hard it became difficult to see anything. The weather said two to eight inches, but it ended up being a dusting, but frigid. My water bottles froze. The next morning I would completely forget that I left the 400 and the camera and the monopod sitting on the picnic table at camp. When I realized what I had done I almost threw up. Leaving the 400 and the camera behind is like losing a child at a rodeo (which I've done). I raced back to the campsite and it was still there, on the table and a fine lady from the Park Service was yelling into the trees, looking for its owner. Bless her heart.
Day 36, Jackson Creek
06/June/2009
Finally had some success with the 8 by 10 camera. My friend Ed Gilliland, who loaned it to me, went out with me the other day. I was getting blank film — it was overexposed. He discovered I wasn't putting the film holder in all the way, which resulted in a huge light leak. So on Day 36, I went out and took two more pictures. This is one of them. The print is 35 inches wide.
Day 35, An ode to snags
05/June/2009
"What good is that dead old tree?" I hear that over and over again from people. Ask the birds and they'll tell a different story. I can't even count the number of birds that nest in old snags. Bluebirds immediately come to mind. Spent the evening with them by complete accident. Was trying to photograph one thing, and the bluebirds were nesting in the snag above my head. There is nothing finer than having mountain bluebirds flying around your head. So here's to snags. This one is more than 20 years old.
Support this effort: subscribe to GPM here.
Day 34, Something moving in the leaves
04/June/2009
I was in a thicket of hawthorn bushes when I heard something rustling through the leaves. I suspected a squirrel, then a chipmunk, but saw nothing. Then I caught just the glint of its eye. A boreal toad, the size of my hand, sunning itself in a shaft of sunlight. All, on this day at least, is right with the world.
Day 33, Not an ordinary woodpecker
04/June/2009
The Lewis's woodpecker is different from other woodpeckers in Glacier. It soars like a jay or a crow and actually looks like one from a distance. It has beautiful plumage, but getting close to one is tricky — they're flighty birds and they spend a lot of time in the tallest part of dead trees. I took this photo using a remote control. This is its nesting tree, but the birds actually spent more time on the top of the tree than in the hole. Look for them in old burns up the North Fork.
Day 32, Wile E. you're not a chickadee
02/June/2009
The black-capped chickadee is one of the most common birds in North America. As of Day 32, I have yet to successfully photograph one on this journey. There are no bird feeders in Glacier and black caps, for all their charms, refuse to sit still. So last night I was trying to photograph one in a lodgepole pine when this coyote appeared. Never even ran, just looked at me, and sauntered away. Took 15 to 20 frames. By then, the chickadees were gone. Sigh.
Day 29, Film from Day 28
30/May/2009
Day 28 was pretty much a disaster. I got to the Park and the battery was dead in the digital backup camera, so I went back to town and grabbed another battery but that battery wouldn't hold a charge so I charged the other battery and while I was waiting I loaded up some new black and white 4 by 5 film. Got back to the Park about an hour later and took several frames with the Speed Graphic, including the man with his dog, above. It's a pain in the ass camera. You take a meter reading. Then focus. Then set the aperture and shutter speed. Then load the film. Then pull the dark slide that covers the film. Then take the picture. Then shove the dark slide back in flipped over (so you know which film you've shot). Then hope you didn't screw things up. Then you have to develop the film. That's the part I'm having problems with. The negs are little too grainy and flat for my liking. They need to be sharp and contrasty. Still, the wife liked this picture of the man and the dog, grain or not. I like it, too.
Day 29 was actually cool. I was at Big Creek working on another assignment and two harlequin ducks splashed down right in front of me and I got the best photos of harlequins yet as the male did a funny little dance for the female. Big Creek is juts outside the Park in the North Fork. Then in the evening I went back and refound the calliope hummingbird and got much better photos of it, as well as several other cool shots. The weather for the past week has been stellar. Warm days, cool nights. Lots of sun. That's all supposed to change next week as we head into June. June is a wet month.
Day 28, A different reality
29/May/2009
Forget-me-nots are small blue flowers common to the Apgar area. When photographing flowers, I try to bring a different reality. These flowers are low to the ground and very small, half the size of a pinky nail, so I use a macro lens — an old Nikon 55 mm I picked up for all of $35. It's a great lens. You would never see these flowers like this. But through a camera lens with a wide open aperture, they look huge and dreamy.
Day 27, Take what comes to you
27/May/2009
A shipment of new 4 by 5 film came in today and I shot several frames of it. It should be better than the 33 year old film I was trying, without much success. I worked around the shore of Lake McDonald, trying to take "old time pictures" since it was sunny and warm and people were out and Boy Wonder had been begging to go to the waterslides. The waterslides are closed ( or at least empty) and it's too cold to swim anyway, so I took him to the lake, where he could play in the sand the the water. The bird bug caught me as five western grebes just floated along the dock at Apgar. I've been hanging around Lake McDonald for 12 years and have never seen grebes so less concerned about humans. One guy even jumped off the dock and they didn't flinch ( he made an audible gasp and his friend pulled him out, the water, at best, is 45 degrees). I'm sorry. It's another bird picture. But a bird with red eyes and a graceful long neck and quaint song. Here, one plays with a stick. In the end, you take what comes to you.
Day 26, The smallest bird in N. America
27/May/2009
Photographing calliope hummingbirds under ideal conditions is difficult. Sprinkle in mosquitos the size of houseflies, a stiff wind and failing light and I was lucky to get anything at all. Calliopes are the smallest bird in North America — slightly larger than my thumb. They're pretty common in town, but this was the first one I've seen inside the Park boundaries. This year the serviceberry bushes have incredible numbers of flowers, which is a good thing for hummers and if we have some timely rains — bears. Bears love serviceberries. Calliopes do have one habit that makes them somewhat easier to photograph, if they have a perch they like, they'll come back to it over and over again.
Day 25, The backcountry
26/May/2009
On the weekends I like to get into the backcountry. You can relax and shoot a bunch of stuff. Shot several different species of birds, but saw no big mammals, save for a red fox on the trail, which was going rather fast in the opposite direction. Here, the sun rises over Logging Lake.
Day 24, The big picture
26/May/2009
When photographing critters in Glacier you always like to get the mountains in the background. Ditto with frogs. Nearly had my face in the water to get this photo of a Columbia Spotted Frog. Flip the adult over and it has bright pink legs. The water in this spring-fed pond was so cold the frogs were crawling out on the logs to warm up. Yep, the sun has been shining.
Day 23, Find the eagle
23/May/2009
I spent a cold morning shooting sparrows and then on the way home, spotted a bald eagle on its nest. Took two photos. This is one. The digital camera is dying on me. The autofocus works when it feels like it. Too much rain, I suppose. Now we're supposed to have a week of sunshine.
Sigh.
Day 22, Glacier icons
23/May/2009
The Glacier lily is the iconic flower of the Park, blooming from the valley floor to mountain passes as the snow melts. I shoot at least one flower a day. I like to work in shape and color with flowers. Flowers are enjoyable. They don't run or fly away. I also had a much better duck day. The ducks were very cooperative and lo and behold the sun shone!
Day 21, The duck
21/May/2009
Finally, the ducks. Was looking and looking and this harlequin male duck swam under my feet on McDonald Creek. Not the best photo of the 21 days by a long shot. But finally, THE duck. Harlequins are unique in that they migrate from east to west. The males don't stay in Glacier long. They mate, then head back for the west coast. The females stay, raise the young, and then head for the coast as well, usually by September, or earlier. The name harlequin comes from the male's clown-like appearance. the females are drab brown and can disappear in the brush like a ghost.
