Steve and three friends (Cliff, Don, and Randy) took a week long trip to photograph in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons National Parks under fall weather conditions. The goal was to photograph the wildlife plus some of the scenic landscapes of these two renowned national parks.

We ended up staying the first two nights at the Gros Ventre campground just south of the Mormon Row area of the Tetons. That set us up close for capturing the famous barns on that road in both evening on morning light. During the day we explored some other locations for the golden light while also looking for wildlife opportunities. We encountered plenty of bison, antelope, elk, and a few moose. The elk tended to be more present in the evening off of Teton Park road between the highway and Jenny Lake (look on the open plains to the east of the road). Moose were seen along the Snake river and the creek running through the Gros Ventre campground. Antelope tended to be on the open plains visible from the main highway through the park, but distant enough to not yield high quality results. Bison seem to very prevalent along the plains near Mormon Row. In fact while photographing one of the historic barns at this location, Steve got into a precarious situation with one large bull when it wandered into the area. It was acting aggressively, rubbing its horns against a tree, and threatened his return path from the barn area back to the car.  He was able to get by it without incident by walking gingerly and avoiding direct eye contact, while contemplating what would be his escape path if it decided to charge him.

Due to the limited good lighting on this particular trip, of the wildlife Steve was only able to get some reasonable shots of the bison and elk, while many others suffered from the mid-day lighting syndrome.

While at the Grand Tetons we also shot at Oxbow bend at first light in the morning just north of Moran Junction before you get to Jackson Lake Lodge. This is a popular location with other photographers that kind of reminded me of the Tunnel View location at Yosemite. But given the lighting that morning, it did not disappoint and I can appreciate why it is such a popular location. Although it seemed most of the throngs of other photographers were shooting closer to the road, the best photographic opportunities seem to be down along the river.  Along the water we were able to capture more of the reflection of Mt. Moran on the Snake River while it is still glassy at first light. It was quite amazing to see how the color of the sky and mountain changed from about 15 minutes before sunrise to about 15 minutes after. In addition, if you wait another 45 minutes after sunrise at Oxbow bend, the light also starts illuminating the trees along the river. This can make a nice composition with Mt. Moran in the background (especially in the fall), however in Steve's opinion, waiting that long results in lighting that is not as nice. The exception would be if you had some good clouds closer to the eastern portion of the sky to mute the brightness of the sun and reflect some more color down to the landscape.

After shooting Oxbow bend at sunrise, the next stop was the Snake River overlook with the Grand Tetons in the backgroun made famous by the popular black and white image at this location by Ansel Adams about 50 years ago. We scoped this location out earlier and concluded that being down in a shallow canyon the foreground does not get lit until about 2 hours after sunrise. Since Ansel's famous photograph, the foreground trees have grown substantially taller.  Apparently there had also been some fires prior to Ansel's photograph that provided a more open view of the terrain at the time that photograph was taken. To work around this obstacle from the viewpoint we explored off the pavement via some bushwacking off to the north end of the parking lot.  After working through some of the dense woods we were able to find a small opening on the edge of a fairly steep slope that provided a clearer view for a more open composition, albiet at a somewhat lower angle of the Snake River. Even with the delayed photography after sunrise, in order to get more shadow detail of the foreground, Steve utilized a graduated neutral density filter to better balance the exposure. 

Continued: See the link at the bottom for page 2 to continue the story for Yellowstone.