Happy Holidays from Natural Vision Photography!

Gray Wolf, West Yellowstone, MT

It has been a long time since our last post but we did not forget about our fans. We wanted to take this time and wish you all a safe and happy holidays!

Yellowstone Bull Elk

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 300mm f2.8 w/TC14e II @420mm, ISO 640, f4, 1/800

Last weekend I watch Yellowstone Battle for Life on TV. I couldn't begin to tell you how many times I have watch that documentary. Every time I do watch it, I get the itch to go back out west. So instead of jumping in my car and driving 1,200 miles I sat down at my computer with a big cup of coffee. I wanted to do something different with the current image in my collection.

My last trip to Yellowstone it was snowing for much of my time out there even though it was early fall. I wanted to capture the snow and the warm colors of fall at the same time. I set out to change my "normal" editing process and set out of my comfort zone. I watched a couple "how to" videos on YouTube to see if I could come up with something of my own. 

Above is what I was able to come up with. Here is the older edit which I still like, however, it doesn't accomplish my goal of showing the warm fall colors.

Minnesota Loon

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 300mm f2.8, f6.3, ISO 400, 1/2000

I took a quick break while fishing in central Minnesota last week. Every time I go fishing loons seemly circle boat. On this fishing trip I had my camera next to me in the boat hoping for a close encounter with a loon. I thought this would be an easy shoot, but once again I was wrong. Every time I pointed my camera at a loon it would dive down and emerge 100 feet away. I managed to snap off a few quick frames before this once dove under the water.

Hayden Valley, Yellowstone National Park

Nikon D7000, 12mm, f13, ISO 500, 1/125

Since I'm on this black and white kick right now, I thought I should share this photo. Hayden Valley is a place inside the park that I have alway wanted to visit. Due to wild fires in during my first visit to YNP I wasn't able to go. Last fall, I was able to spend some time there. It didn't disappoint! Beautiful landscapes, wildlife, and geothermal area's all over. I highly recommend making a stop next time your in Yellowstone!

Oxbow Bend, Grand Teton National Park, WY

Nikon D7000, 24-70mm @48mm, ISO 200, f10, 1/100, Three shot HDR

Every time I get an inch to go back out west I open up my Lightroom catalog and look through my previous trips. Each time I do this I find another photo that I really like and wonder why I past it up the first couple of times. This image is of Oxbow Bend in Grand Teton National Park, WY.  I have many, many shots at this location, however, while processing images I look for something to make it my own, whether it's a pano, black & white or an HDR. I want something that I haven't seen before.

This is a three shot vertical HDR image, the two images were stitched together in CS5.  I was happy with the original image in color, but it was so similar to everything else I had from this location. I experimented with many different presets in Lightroom with minor tweaking. Eventually I settled on this one. 

Mt. Moran didn't make much of an appearance while I was in town, but none of the less it's a great place to put your skills to the test! By doing this, it only makes me want to go back out west that much more. 

Happy shooting!

Man's Best Friend

Nikon D7000, 12-24mm @19mm, f8, ISO 200, 1/640

Here is a photo of my best bud Dodger on his 4th birthday! Every year I take Dodger to his favorite park on his birthday for a photo shoot. It never takes me long to get a shot that is different than the previous year. Dodger has a personality of his own, if Dodger were in school he would be the class clown for sure! 

Since my "Gone Fishing" post to mark the bringing of the summer I have done to photo shoots for one year old kids! Wow, that is a difficult subject to shoot, but when you include the parents it makes it much much easier. 

That's all for now!

Nikon D7000, 12-24mm @12mm, ISO 200, f10, 1/320

Memorial Day

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the American holiday. For other uses, see Memorial Day (disambiguation).

Memorial Day
The gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery are decorated by U.S. flags on Memorial Day weekend.
Type	National
Date	Last Monday in May
2011 date	May 30
2012 date	May 28
2013 date	May 27
Observances	Remembrance of American war dead

Memorial Day is a federal holiday observed annually in the United States on the last Monday of May.^[1] Formerly known asDecoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War. (Southern ladies organizations and southern schoolchildren had decorated Confederate graves in Richmond and other cities during the Civil War, but each region had its own date. Most dates were in May.) By the 20th century Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died in all wars. Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.^[2] As a marker it typically marks the start of the summer vacation season