Have you ever been to Banff National Park? If so, did you make it here? Moraine Lake is one of the most, if not the most, iconic location in Banff. But it’s not easy to get to as the parking lot is relatively small, especially compared to the parking at nearby Lake Louise which also gets packed. Reportedly, the parking lot at Moraine Lake can fill up as early as 4 am. I did one more morning at 5:30 am but the road was already closed so I opted to use the shuttle. The shuttle arrived too late for sunrise but since there weren’t any clouds in the sky, there wasn’t a chance for a colorful sunrise and I still had to wait just to get this much light on the surrounding peaks. Early summer would provide a much better angle from the sun but I was still pleased to come away with this image though some nice clouds to complement to the light would have been good too.

This one is from last winter as I still haven’t really been out to photograph since Yellowstone closed. I was watching this coyote as it was moving through the snow and then disappeared behind a snow bank. I could still see the top of it’s back as it walked along. It stopped to sniff something in the snow and then peered up over the snow bank. I was able to take a couple of photos before he popped back down and continued on his way. So many of these encounters are brief and I’m fortunate to even capture a handful of photos, but the moments spent watching wildlife are rewarding no matter the duration.

I wish everyone in the U.S has a very safe and happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. I hope your day is like this otter and you can roll on your back, lick your lips, and pat your full tummy once it’s all done! This is from a few years ago but I thought it might be fitting today, especially since the otter is lying on an ice covered lake and we have more snow falling right now. Again happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US and I hope it’s a great day regardless where you live!

While winter has set in now, I’m still going through autumn photos. As I mentioned previously, Glacier National Park isn’t known for it’s fall color, but there certainly are areas where the color comes through. Many things came together perfectly the morning I photographed this scene. The aspens in the foreground were at peak color, there were nice high clouds that were beautifully colored at sunrise, and the angle of the sun to the mountain was perfect for capturing the morning color on the peak. Honestly, the morning was so incredible, I found myself shooting in several directions, using different lens and focal lengths, working quickly to capture the beautiful light as it changed over an hour or so.

To follow up on my last post with order deadlines for the holidays, I’ve updated my website to include some of your favorite images that I’ve shared over the last year as well as a few of mine that I haven’t shared yet, including this one from the Icefields Parkway in Alberta. I drove by this scene several times but with only one small pullout available where I could photograph from, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to try to capture it. Ultimately I did and shot the scene at 100mm in order to frame it with the pines in the bottom while keeping the distant peaks prominent enough since they were the focus of the image. The light was gorgeous and as I added 30 new images to my website, this one did make the cut. Along with adding the new images, I also removed over 100 older images. You can view the newly added images here.

Snow has covered the area with about 25 inches of snowfall occurring from Saturday through Thursday morning this past week. It’s turned everything into a winter wonderland and is quite a contrast to last year when we didn’t have snow on the ground until after the first week of December. I’ve been determined to find a good subject to convey the feeling of winter’s arrival and ultimately found it in the backyard. My sunflowers didn’t bloom until late this year and barely even opened before the first frost hit. I have five or six that look like this one. I’ve been waiting to see if the right opportunity to photograph them might happen and Wednesday morning, as the snow continued to fall, seemed the right time. On a side note, I posted on my website that December 9th is the last date I can accept orders and have them out to you in time for Christmas.

Chief Mountain sits on the border of Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, partially in both locations. At 9,080 feet it’s certainly not the tallest mountain in the area, but it’s rugged shape certainly define it as a dominant landmark and one that was used by Native Americans and early explorers. Glacier National Park isn’t really known for it’s fall color but there are areas where some brilliant stands of deciduous, mostly aspen, trees can be found. I used a telephoto lens to create this image, showing a different angle on Chief Mountain and where the morning light added nice warm tones to the colorful autumn aspens.

This is another image from the last couple of days before Yellowstone closed for the season. The road from Gardiner, Montana to Mammoth Hot Springs and out through Lamar Valley to Cooke City is open year round but all interior roads, including those to Canyon, Old Faithful, and Yellowstone Lake, are all closed to vehicles until spring. A lot of Yellowstone above about 7,500 feet had snow on the ground but the west part of the park was mostly snow free, though that has likely changed over the past several days. Even though there was no snow where this bison was hanging out, it was still cold, about 20 degrees Fahrenheit. That, along with the fog, left many of the bison sporting a little frost on them.

As of yesterday most roads in Yellowstone National Park have closed for the 2022 summer season. In less than two months they’ll re-open to guided oversnow vehicles for the winter season. Back in May I had a pretty cool viewing of a wolf and my season ended with another pretty cool encounter a few days before the park closed. The light was pretty low with clouds and fog and the wolves were a bit too far out for even my longest lens, so the quality on this isn’t that great, except for viewing on the internet, but the moment was pretty cool so I had to share. Seven members of this pack (six seen in this photo) had regrouped and had a howling session for several minutes. Once they were done greeting each other, they quickly moved off into the trees behind them.