Day Four

On Sunday, we were up at 4:30 am for a sunrise session on the Lamar Valley. We headed out to a spot that I had scouted the night before. There were some nice thermal ponds, grasses and glacial boulders littering the landscape. We spent about an hour shooting and then headed further into the valley. At one point we ran into a welcome bison jam as a giant herd of bison and their calves made their way across the road. On our way back to the Roosevelt Lodge, we were treated with four black bear sightings! Two of the bears walked right next to the van.

After a well-earned breakfast at the lodge, we continued our grand tour of Yellowstone. On the itinerary were stops at Mammoth Hot Springs, Norris Geyser Basin, and Old Faithful. It was a day full of thermal features and wildlife sightings, including a roadside bull elk with an enormous velvet covered rack, a couple of coyotes, and a gray wolf. We left Old Faithful at 4:00 anxious to get back to Jackson and our comfy cabins at the Cowboy Village.

Day Three

We got an early start on Saturday morning anticipating a full day in Yellowstone. Our destination for the evening was the Roughrider Cabins at Roosevelt Lodge in the northeast corner of Yellowstone National Park. The light was nice all day and we made several stops along the way including: West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Lake, Hayden Valley, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, Yellowstone Falls, and Dunraven Pass. Even with all the stops, we arrived at our destination early and were able to kick our feet up for a while and relax on the front porch of the Roosevelt Lodge. By 4:30 we were all famished and headed inside for a satisfying meal of bison steaks and elk burgers. After dinner we went out on the Lamar Valley for an evening shoot. Also known as the Serengeti of the East, the Lamar Valley is full of bison, elk, wolves, bear, etc. We were treated with some dramatic light and herds of bison in every direction. We also witnessed a wolf hunting two pronghorn antelope. Visiting the Lamar Valley is like stepping back in time hundreds, if not thousands, of years. You get a sense of the primordial. We all tipped our hats to our forefathers and their vision to protect places like this.

Day Two

On Friday morning we took a group grocery shopping trip for some basic provisions. Then, I lectured in the pavilion room at the Cowboy Village Resort about camera operations and the history of landscape photography. Following the lecture, we headed up to Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park for our first official field shoot. It was a beautiful sunny day and just the right temperature for hiking. Nearly all the students made the 4.5 mile round trip to Hidden Falls and back.

Day One

Thunder rocked the airplane as I descended into Grand Teton National Park. The stewardess announced, "If we have to do an emergency evacuation please leave all carry-on items behind". That was reassuring, I thought. With a great piece of flying, and a fortunate little opening in the clouds, we landed safely. On the tarmac it was pouring rain. Thunder and lightning filled the cool air. I was wet in seconds as I made my way into the shelter of the airport, but grinning ear to ear. I was thankful to be back in the valley I've come to love.

John, who had made is way via car from Washington state, met me at the airport and we headed into town to take care of a few things. By morning of the next day it was snowing and temperatures were below freezing. Fortunately, it didn't last long and never really accumulated. John and I met with the new Director of the Photography Program at the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts and spent a few hours organizing all our gear. By noon, the sun was beginning to peak though the clouds and we decided to get out for a while. We hiked straight from our cabin at the Cowboy Village Resort to the top of Snow King Mountain, a local ski area. 1,571 vertical feet in about an hour. We hit the hot tub afterwards, and then finished our list of things to do before the students arrived.

The students landed in much better weather, and right on schedule at 6:30 pm. We were all relieved everyone had made it safely and all our luggage was accounted for. We crammed the van and John's car and headed into town for dinner.

Our last full day in the valley was a beautiful one. We had plans to go whitewater rafting on the Snake River and do some final shooting in the park. We woke up to some thick fog and a cool temperature. Not the greatest weather for a raft trip, but by 10:00 the bright sun had burnt the fog off and nothing but deep blue sky remained. This has been a particularly wet spring in the Tetons, and the rivers are incredibly high, not to mention very cold. The temperature of the Snake was only 44 degrees! We were all required to wear wet suits, as you can see in the photo, to help stay warm. No matter what you were wearing, when that water splashed you it was a frigid wake up call. If it wasn't for the sun I think we all would of been blocks of ice by the end of the trip. The biggest rapid on the river was Lunch Counter, which is a class 4 rapid. The waves were far larger than I can ever remember, and we had a wild ride. By the time we got through it everyone on the boat was soaked and screaming with delight. We forgot about how cold we were for just a few seconds.

The students had most of the afternoon off to finish up any last minute shopping and pack their bags. Then at 6:00 we went to a final group dinner in town at a restaurant called Sidewinder's. After dinner, a group of us headed out on the National Elk Refuge just outside town to catch the sunset from a bluff above the valley called Curtis Canyon Overlook. The overlook is one of the best views of the area with the Teton range in clear view across the stream filled valley floor. We were treated with a beautiful sunset and lingered on the bluff until well after dark.

When we got back to the cabins, the students surprised John and I with a framed picture of our rafting trip and a nice thank you card signed by everyone. It felt great to know how much they appreciated all the hard work and energy we had put into the workshop. We ate some delicious campfire smores and laughed and joked until after midnight, cherishing our last few moments in the vallery, and ignoring the early wake up call on Sunday morning to head back home.

On Friday morning we woke up at 4:30 am for one last sunrise shoot. John and I stepped outside the cabin to gauge the weather. It was dark and cold, and there were no stars visible. We also couldn't make out the silhouette of the mountains. It didn't look promising, but amazingly there were students walking towards the van at 4:45 am ready to go. We were up, so we decided to go for it. Unfortunately, the light never really broke through the clouds, and after an hour or so it started to rain. We headed back to the cabins and decided it would be a good day to get some serious work done in the studio. From 9:00 am to nearly 9:00 pm we worked in the studio editing and backing up our images and making some final prints.

By the time we were done, the light had broken through the heavy clouds and painted the mountains in dramatic shades of pinks and purples. We decided to run up to the park and try to catch a few minutes of the remaining light. We headed to Mormon Row, which is a series of old homesteads and cabins from some of the first settlers in the region. The structures have been moderately maintained over the years by the park service. The images above are a couple of long exposures from the area. The exposures were several minutes long, which records the motion of the clouds. I also used a portable flash and light to illuminate the cabins and freeze the students in various poses.

On Thursday morning we held a studio session from 8:00 to noon. Then we headed to the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort for a ride up the new 32 million dollar tram. The tram takes you up over 4,000 vertical feet in 8 minutes to the top of Rendevous Mountain at close to 11,000 feet. This is the major ski resort in the area, and one of the best in the world. The air was thin and cool at the top, and there was lots of snow still around. We had fun throwing snowballs at John who was trying to take our group portrait. We spent almost 2 hours at the top just exploring the high alpine landscape and breathtaking 360 degree views. You can see seven different mountain ranges from the peak.

We were all very hungry after traipsing around for a few hours at 11,000 feet and headed to Nora's Fish Creek Inn in nearby Wilson, Wyoming for a group dinner. The tasty buffalo burgers were a popular choice.

In the evening, we had a visiting artist presentation by Jon Stuart, Director of the Photography Program at the Center for the Arts. Jon has a long history in the field, including being an assistant to Ansel Adams, and running his own camera store for over 10 years. He shared prints from a couple of different bodies of work and talked about his motivations as an artist. The students had lots of questions about technique and process, and it was nice to hear him say in the end that it wasn't the equipment, but the vision that makes a photographer successful.