What have we been up to?

It has been a long time since posting to the blog, and I will admit it is a bit of an excuse, but we have been really busy. I know that we make some beautiful photographs, but, we are fiscally conservative enough that we are not going to leave our engineering jobs at this time to pursue photography full time. 

Along those lines, we have been busy though. 2013 saw us ending our 3 year project of landscaping our property. We have set up some very nice natural areas within our yard, including a small pond, and several automatic filling water features, as well as some nice perches and boulders. We will be bringing you a series in the near future about the birds in our backyard. 

 Say's Phoebe perched on a Staghorn Cholla

My professional career has seen me traveling to Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand in the last year. I spent almost 2 months in Asia in 2013, so if I can, I take my camera with me and try to get out and see some of these areas. 

We use a company called Smugmug to actually host our photography website, but we host our blog on Google's Blogger system. Unfortunately or fortunately, however you may look at it, Smugmug unveiled a new design method for developing our website. We loved the new look of the system and how it is easier to work with, but unfortunately, trying to get the blog to match with the website was more of a headache and continues to be a work in progress. This is the first blog post on the newly unveiled blog, so we would love your feedback. To return to the home page for the website, simply click on the Western Skies Photography logo at the top of the page to return to the main site. 

We continued to offer photography classes at Usery Mountain Park. Dori is now offering a class on wildflower photography in the spring. (Hint, it is coming up on 1 March 2013 at the park.) I am still hosting the desert photography walk a couple of times, plus we now have a beginner, intermediate, and a more intermediate photography (I really do not feel qualified to call it advanced).  

Saguaro Cactus Blooms

I also decided that I wanted to become Marlin Perkin's (you youngsters who do not know who he is should look him up, and you older folks know what I am talking about) replacement. Wild Kingdom announced a contest to search for their next web host. This was a great experience in learning about videography and video editing. Much more trying than straight photography, because you have to worry about sights and sounds and actually telling an interesting story. Needless to say, I am not the next host, but the young lady that was chosen, Stephanie Arne has done a great job. Check her videos out at wildkingdom.com . Here is my video, I am still proud of it, but it took six weeks to produce this 2 minute video. 

 

Steven's Wild Guide Entry

 

On the photography front, we were not that active. We had a trip to Mesa Verde, documenting the Anasazi cliff dwellings. We were fortunate to also see some wild horses in the area. We also spent time on Mt. Evans in Colorado looking for mountain goats and pikas. Near the end of the year, our big adventure was a trip to Thailand. I had to go on business, but Dori was able to come along. She toured Bangkok and saw many of the sights, including the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the Red Cross Snake Palace, and the sleeping Buddha. We hired Tontan Travel to arrange a private guided tour of Khao Yai National Park, where the highlights included seeing a Binturong and the top of the trip, a wild Asiatic Elephant Cow and month old calf. 

Longhouse Ruins in Mesa Verde, NP

Binturong in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand

Temple of the Emerald Buddha,  Bangkok, Thailand

So in closing, we hope you continue to check out our website and blog. Here are a few of the things we intend to talk about in the coming weeks. Khao Yai, a wolf hunt, Great Horned Owls, Mesa Verde, Mount Evans, Pika, Curve Billed Thrashers, Cactus Wrens, Gambel's Quail, and more, including some discussions about photography equipment, techniques, and digital darkroom items. 

 Asiatic Elephant and calf, Khao Yai National Park, Thailand

So get out there and shoot. 

I hope to see YOU, under the Western Skies.

It's Been Awhile

Well, I just wanted to apologize for not keeping the blog up to date. It is not that I haven't been out shooting wildlife and landscapes, but I have been very busy with many other topics. Unfortunately, I cannot yet support myself with the wildlife photography, and the job that pays the bills has often gotten in the way, especially since my last post.

Since that post, I have traveled to Malaysia (3 times, plus day trips into Singapore), several trips to Colorado Springs and various outings up to Western Nebraska, one trip to San Jose, quite a bit of time in Pocatello, a week in Manila, a week in Ontario, and a week in Japan. Probably the best of these paying trips was the 5 weeks I spent in Pocatello, allowed me to travel on weekends up to Yellowstone.

For personal trips, Dori and I spent a week in the Virginia area in June, and two weeks in Yellowstone in July and September.

On the home front we have been very busy. We decided that we needed a bigger home, and a bigger lot, with the goal of developing some outdoor habitats and areas that we could photograph the fauna of Arizona in our own "studio". With all of the travel for work, and all of the flux of moving into a new home, that had it's issues, it has been tough to get out more pictures. We are still working on developing the outdoor studio, but we are getting some time to work on our photos and get some more stuff out there.

In October, I received exciting news that two of my photos had been chosen as finalists for the 2011 Cowboys and Indians Photography Contest. We still have not been notified, but I am confident that at least one of them will be published.

As for shooting opportunities, I finally made it to Mt. Evans outside of Denver, CO and was able to get some really great shots of Mountain Goats and will hopefully post some in the near future.

Dori and I had an opportunity to go on an Arizona Game and Fish program to observe Desert Bighorn Sheep at Canyon Lake in the Tonto National Forest.

Dori and I have also found a new area that we are really enjoying, Usery Mountain Regional Park, which is very close to our house. They offer some great programs and some really nice Sonoran Desert settings for us to get some photos.

In Yellowstone, I had some great stories come about, that I will hopefully post at a later time, but the most fun was seeing what I have come to call the Dunraven Sow with her two twins. I felt bad for the rangers, because she spent so much time close to the road near Dunraven all summer. I saw her and the twins probably 10 to 12 times this years.

Well for now this will need to suffice for a quick update. Keep an eye out on the blog, and we will begin to pose more of our adventures soon.

Thank you for your support.

Well,

This weekend should see the website go live. We know, it has been live for six months, but we think we have it the way we want it to look, along with branding for Western Skies Photography.

Tonight and tomorrow, we will be uploading new pictures from some of our trips. Our goal is to provide between 40 and 100 photos at any time online, so that it does not become too cumbersome.

Steven is now getting ready for his summer photography safari to Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, Little Bighorn Battlefield, Pryor Mountain Horse Range, and Glacier.

In getting prepared for this trip this year, Western Skies Photography has invested in some new gear with the hopes that it will provide better reach and stability for our images. We have purchased the Canon EF 600mm f4.0L IS lens along with a Gitzo 5541LS tripod and a Wimberly Tripod Head. Also, we have invested in Really Right Stuff ballheads and their ArcaSwiss style plates. We also purchased the Canon EF-S 60mm f2.8 Macro Lens. We had seen pictures produced with this lens and we were impressed, even though it was the EF-S lens, but it will save weight and is well matched with the EF-S 55-250mm f5.6 IS lens.

So if you see us in the parks over the next month, feel free to stop and chat. We will be spending most of our time in Yellowstone in the Lamar and Hayden Valleys, looking for bears and wolves. We will only be in Glacier for two full days, 26 and 27 June. The trip to Glacier will be a scouting trip for future projects.

Steven will attempt to provide trip reports here, but he will not have consistent internet access. He will attempt to post abbreviated reports with his telephone, if he finds a good signal.

We hope to see you under the Western Skies.