Ice Patterns – Winter Resolutions Workshop

Sandi Gliech from Photos by Sandi and I headed out to Moraine Park this morning for sunrise and to shot macros of ice after leading the Winter Fest Photo Tours taking folks to the same spot.

Sandi and I are leading the Winter Resolutions Workshop this Friday – Sunday, for more details visit: http://www.ywguiding.com/winter_resolution_workshop.html

aywguiding.com/winterfest.html Estes Park Winter Festival Photo Tours

The Estes Park Winter Festival starts tomorrow. A few newspapers have typos for the link to register for the Photo Tours being held Jan 16th & 17th from 8am to 1pm each day. The link provided was aywguiding.com/winterfest.html

The correct link to the event is: http://www.ywguiding.com/winterfest.html

It will be a fun event and a great way to learn about photography both in the field and by presentations from four Estes Park photographers.

Estes Park Winter Festival Photo Tours

This Saturday and Sunday myself and 3 other great Estes Park Photographers, Erik Stensland, Sandi Gleich, and James Frank; are leading winter photo tours in Rocky Mountain National Park. Come learn about photography and your camera and enjoy the nice winter weather here in Estes Park. For more information visit: http://www.ywguiding.com/winterfest.html

Robert Smith The PhotoBiologist.com Safari

Back on Dec 21st I took Robert Smith from the photobiologist.com out on a Photo Safari, to give him and his wife a lay of the land, where to go to get some great wildlife shots, and other info for their stay. Robert got a few great shots, here is a nice portrait of a coyote. More shots to come.

Happy New Year with Elk

The New Year started with a good number of tours, Jan. 4th Jennifer and Josh Stern from Miami headed out for a Photo Safari. The elk were more than happy to pose and we had a great sunrise over the Mummy Range.

Lia’s 1st Snow

Had a great few days with Lia from Columbia, as in South America. The first day out was her first time in the snow, seeing plenty of elk, coyotes hunting and lots of Mule Deer. We toured most of the park under blue skies and a bit of wind. We wrapped up the day snow shoeing around Bear Lake checking out the great ice, tons of animal tracks like snowshoe hares, and watched a pine squirrel do its thing in the tree. We spent the next two days looking for Big Horn Sheep, Coyotes, and other wildlife as well has taking some great walks through the snow in the park. We never did see the sheep, we were offered plenty of Elk, Mule Deer, Coyotes, and at the very end of the last day a Red Fox to wrap up our extended weekend in snowy Rocky Mountain National Park. Here’s a shot of some of the Mule Deer we saw.

Big Horns in the Snow

Today was not just cold, it was frigid at best, -2 F. It was so cold that each breathe was freezing to the camera back. My nose almost froze to the camera a few times. After the snow the Big Horns often head down to the roadways to lick up the salt, and this time of year is the end of their rut so there was a nice mix of males and females out and about. Unfortunately I found them late while they were heading back uphill for the evening rest.

Deleo’s Deli Videos

Its been a quite cold and somewhat snowy week here in Estes so I’ve been busy preparing for various workshops and other projects. One of them was producing some videos for my friend Tom Deleo. The Food Network found Deleo’s Deli in 2001 when he was featured on “The Best Of: Picnics” and then in their book “The Best Of: The Best Of” as well as being selected as one of the top 5 delis in America, coming in at #2. If you have been to Estes Park and not visited Deleo’s Deli its a must stop for your next visit. Check out the videos and see why.

Video #1 Deleo’s Deli in Estes Park

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QSYFxrW1Ns

Video #2 Tom Deleo’s Deli Diaries – some really funny stories

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4oPlG-PBa0

Abert’s Squirrel Conquest

After 4 years of trying to get a good shot of an Abert’s Squirrel it was the OTulloh’s photo safari where everything came together. Abert’s Squirrels are not rare, but they are not commonly seen in the park due to their large territories of 10 acres or so.  These squirrels are very dependent on ponderosa pine, and with their large ear tassels they are a very unique tree squirrel. I see them a few times a month while on tours but all I get to photograph is their tails bouncing away. This is Rob Otulloh’s shot using a 300mm f4, and our subject just sat in the tree a few feet away obsessing over the cones. It was a very cool opt to share with clients.

Flying Coyotes

This week the coyotes have been very active in some open and not so open areas of Rocky. This time of year the coyote packs are spending their last few weeks together, the pups of the year will break off on their own, and some will stay with their parents and act as helpers for next year’s pups. While they hunt rodents coyotes will stop, ears erect and all of a sudden pounce, jumping a few feet in the air to catch cute fuzzy things. This shot is by Chris Sprangers while on a Photo Safari. It was edited with an Antique Sepia appearance as the light was a bit harsh. With the bad light the effect hides the shadow and noise.