Since, until recently, I hadn’t posted anything new, I’ll go back to the winter for this one. With the low snowpack we had, I actually didn’t do any photography until March when I encountered this red fox relaxing in the snow. For wildlife photography regardless of time of year, I’ll expose the image for the subject, in this case the fox, and let the background exposure go where ever it ends up. With snow that’s not a bad thing since it’s white and if it overexposes that’s not a bad thing.

Back in May much of North America experienced a very strong solar storm that produced some nice aurora displays. I had to be in Bozeman that night so decided to hang out in Yellowstone National Park between West Yellowstone and Big Sky to witness the event. Typically this far south, any type of light source, including the moon, can really hinder viewing but on this night I was even able to use the moon in an image as seen above.

As the night went on, the display weakened and strengthen, as is normal, and I moved around to different areas to capture different scenes. This side channel of the Gallatin River made an interesting foreground for some of the best color displays of the evening.

This was probably about the peak of activity that I recorded with the pink sky and purple columns dancing among the green waves. The pink really drowned out the green at this point however. As it turned out, I had wanted to photograph the aurora up here, so this worked out well but I do have some potential locations in the main part of Yellowstone that I want to use for the next aurora event. I’ll do one more post from the May event with horizontal compositions next week.

When I do book/print signings at Old Faithful, I enjoy arriving early to spend time wandering the various geyser basins. Lion Geyser has always been one of my favorite geysers, whether from up close on the boardwalk or from the paved path that runs in front of the Inn. I think I prefer photographing it in the morning from the pave path with a telephoto lens. I love compressing the scene with the geyser in eruption backlit by the rising sun. Lion Geyser doesn’t have a prediction posted so it’s highly variable if and when one might see it. I’ve photographed a few eruptions under these conditions, now if only I could get a herd of bison to graze in that meadow!

I am rarely using social media anymore and recently removed the Steve Hinch Photography facebook page. I am still shooting, though mostly landscapes, and I do intend to start posting again here on my blog on a regular basis. The image above was taken a few days ago and shows Jewel Geyser in eruption in early morning light.

This was an interesting moment back in August as I was checking out the Upper Terrace Loop Drive near Mammoth Hot Springs. I’ve lived in or near Yellowstone National Park for almost 20 years and had never seen mule deer actually walking through the terraces. That of course doesn’t mean it’s never happened or isn’t common, just that I personally haven’t seen it before. The adults were licking the moisture off the dead trees, presumably to get minerals deposited by the steam. The fawn wasn’t too sure about walking around all the steaming water but followed its mother as she did her thing.

I recently added over 30 new images to my website, all photographed in 2023, including this one. That also means I took off over 30 old images in order to make room. This image was taken in July at sunrise from above tree line in the Centennial Range of Idaho. The backlighting on the wildflowers was beautiful and fortunately there were some nice clouds in the sky to balance out the image. Even though I was using a tripod, I was still down on my belly to photograph this scene. I had to be very careful with where I moved so I didn’t crush any other plants nearby. It can take a decade at this elevation for a plant to get to the stage where it can grow flowers so the last thing I wanted to do was destroy the very thing that drew me to this spot in the first place.

Stop right there! Today’s the last day to get in orders for Christmas! Actually marmots can’t talk, but it’s still true. This image was taken back in August and this fuzzy guy, while sunning him on a boulder, had a big yawn and stretched out. That sun sure can feel good and helps one to relax. He went back to napping after this which doesn’t provide any great photos but this one sure was fun. And look at those teeth!

I almost forgot about this image taken back in May. I had hiked out to a location I had scouted previously in the hopes of photographing some dramatic landscapes. But the clouds and fog weren’t quite cooperating. I had noticed a bald eagle perched in a tree closer to where I was but didn’t notice this eagle. When I finally did, I didn’t realize it was sitting next to a nest until I looked through my lens. The light was low and since I was hiking and looking for landscapes, the longest lens I had was a 100-400mm. Fortunately I did have my tripod and was able to shoot a relatively low ISO image which meant the noise levels would be low and I could crop the final image into a usable photo.

This time of year I like to go back through the images taken over the past year and see what I’ve not included either in posts or as additions to my website. I used to a do a “best of” series of posts but gave that up a few years ago since “best of” is highly subjective. This image was taken in February 2023. The fox was walking past my parked car and made it’s way behind the plowed snow. One nice thing about shooting with the Canon R5 is that I can crop an image quite a bit and still have a very usable photo for printing. I cropped this one in to focus on just the eyes as the animal peered over the snow. After this image the fox disappeared behind the snow and continued on it’s way. And just a reminder, only five days left to get in orders for Christmas.

I updated my website earlier this week by adding twelve new images including this one which was one of five from Glacier National Park. My website can be found linked on this page or by going to http://www.stevehinchphotography.com. This image shows Going to the Sun Mountain along Glacier National Park’s famous Going to the Sun Road. This peak, at 9,647 feet high, dominates many views from the popular park road but the colorful stand of aspens made this point of view on of my autumn favorites.