Jake Peterson’s Blog

Whenever I go to Yellowstone there is always the mental preparations to be made. See i know that the sheep will be there waiting and always fun to work with. As i said they are not only interesting but comical at times. Everything else species wise is a gamble. Even something as common as a Raven or a Magpie is a gamble for getting a decent shot of. Normally this wouldn’t mean much because wildlife photography is basically just that, a gamble, we area out to photograph subject matter that may or may not be there when we arrive. We go to areas that better our odds of viewing and photographing species but there still isn’t any guarantee. One of these opportunities arose Sunday which is why i bring this up. Down in the depths of Lamar Valley where there are no settlements, no roads but one, and the only visible thing is the open country, we found a pair of Coyotes.

Now i really like working with Coyotes, cuz most individuals have that great rufous color to them that just looks great against the snow. Unfortunately when in a place like Lamar Valley two Coyotes don’t get a whole lot of attention, and i can remember a time last year sitting on a wolf kill after the wolves were gone and the Coyotes came in and everyone just stopped shooting but me. Anyways before i rant anymore, these two individuals were sticking together pretty close and our best guess was that they were probably gonna go off to mate sometime soon, since they were sent marking on offly lot which is a good indication of setting up territory. Dad and I were shooting out the car window just like old times, o that lovely pain in the neck feeling from holding the 600 was coming right back to me as i was trying to follow the Coyotes as they moved across the hillside, scent marking, sitting down and of course watching us. It was good. They eventually crossed the road which was what they were looking for the whole time and we knew it was time for us to go.

Images captured with D3, 600f4, TC-14e, on Lexar UDMA Digtial Film

This past Sunday was filled with a great day of shooting down in Yellowstone with the folks. For some time now i have been unable to go out shooting with Dad when it comes to wildlife. Sure it’s fun going out and doing landscapes and video projects now and then, and the T6′s were just a blast but blasting critters is just an area where we both have fun and truly enjoy. It was a nice change of pace. When i get asked where i go out and i tell people Yellowstone, they always reply, “O gonna find some wolves!” Well we looked, found the group of followers that track them and the remnants that they had been around but didn’t see them that day. From the time I’ve spent looking for them I’ve learned two things, one they don’t like cars or people and two they don’t work weekends. They seem to be like most dogs and hide on the weekends or sleep. I know my dogs back home are always sleeping on Saturdays.

No, Sunday was a great day partly because we got to have fun with these big guys. The Bighorn Sheep that inhabit the park are always there and normal pretty cooperative. For me i can never tire of working with them. These are also the first files of them captured with the D3 for me, because i didn’t have a D3 in South Dakota when we worked with Sheep in the Black Hills and since i didn’t work them this past fall. Needless to say i was having fun. The big guy up top was from the morning. A bit of loaner munching on some grass while listening to the herd who was around the hill in a gully on the other side. He was slow moving and friendly. Then there was this a group of Ewes and Rams that we ran into that afternoon just south of Gardener, and this particular Ram was being well rather youthful. Running around smelling the sent of the Ewes basically being a lets say “energetic male.” Well i managed to get him sticking his tongue out at me as the one Ewe was going over the ridge and into the gully on the other side and it just seemed to me like he was bragging. Gotta love when sheep have a sense of humor to them. Of course i think Dad’s Hafe was better but then i have a demented mind.

Images captured with D3, 600f4, TC-14e, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

Well the blog post of Bear River set me back a bit so I’m just now getting up to date with some of my other posts. This past week, as you probably are all aware, Dad and his gang were out in Yellowstone having one heck of a time in the middle of no nowhere. Quite literally too, Yellowstone upon seeing, one gets the feeling of being out in the middle of nowhere. That calm feeling with no sounds, no cars, no people, no noise except the wind. It’s actually not only enjoyable but rather intoxicating. One of the many reasons i moved up to this area o so many years ago. Well i was lucky enough to be able to join his group of fine photographs on Monday, and even though the wildlife shooting wasn’t spectacular that day, i did get shots of Grand Prismatic that I thought were really cool.

Grand Prismatic is one of the highlights as far as geothermal vents go, due to it’s overwhelming color configuration. Of course most of it can’t be seen except by aerial photos because of the amount of steam rising from the vent. Well i thought it would be interesting to see what would happen with all the micro organisms in the water, and yes that is what gives it its color, and cranking up the contrast a bit, what the shot would look like in black and white. Part of why i did this was just cuz I’ve done the other way quite a few times and i just didn’t want to again. The B&W version turned out to have some unique depth to it that i liked along with more visual character in the steam and the clouds that otherwise would not have been there in the color version. It was truly just another way to have fun with a familiar place I’ve been too, which is something to think about when going out to familiar haunts that you love but don’t want the same shot again.

Images captured with D3, 24-70 AF-S, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

Finally!!! For the last week I’ve been wanting to get this blog out there but have been unable to due to a couple of technical problems that have been driving me nuts. So this post has been rattling around in my head just itching to get out for everyone to see and I couldn’t do anything about it. Well here it is out of my head like an over wound jack in the box. Over a week ago i drove back to Bozeman and along the way, as mentioned in my last post, i visited my old haunt of Bear River Wildlife Refuge to see not only what the birds were doing but to spend some time away from own conversations. I don’t know about the rest of you but after driving for 10 hours, talking to yourself gets old. I was not only amazed at what i saw when i got there but the shear sight made me realize just how much more there really was to this refuge that i hadn’t known about before. If anyone of you have traveled through Salt Lake City you might have noticed that it gets a layer of fog that is pretty thick, well i noticed too but i didn’t notice what else it did.

I rolled down the usual dirt road with the D3 and 70-300 AF-S VR on  my lap ready for the bird on the wire or post shot and too my surprise all i saw was frost. Left and right nothing but frost. The houses, grasses, shrubs and what few trees there were were covered in frost. The skies were an icky gray as you can see above, but everything below was just a perfect icicle of white like someone ran over it with a paint brush the night before or candy coated it with sugar. The fog that i was cursing at the night before while driving down the interstate, that was dangerous and tiring on the eyes, had created this wonderland of images ready for picking and i thought maybe that was the reward for the journey that weekend. Funny, i seemed to pay less attention to the raptors in the area, even though they were everywhere, and more into just the landscape. It was just that alluring and that much fun. That and the raptors just hate the sound of my truck, Toyota’s what can i say. After many hours i had to leave, it was getting late in the afternoon and i had to get into Bozeman that night. It was a small distraction from the realities of life that lead to some real treasures not hard to acquire.

Images captured with D3, &0-300 AF-S VR, 24-70 AF-S, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

I’m sorry to say that i am a bit behind in my blogging and still trying to get caught up. This past weekend when i was driving home i stopped at one of my favorite haunts, Bear River, and did some shooting. It was great, the weather was its usual greyish sky look but the ground and bushes were just covered with snow and hoarfrost. The raptors were out with full force, i couldn’t go very far without flushing one. Then there was this little guy. Now i knew they were there but i never had seen one before and had definitely never gotten glass on them before. This is a Northern Shrike, a really cool little bird that is wicked fast and damn sweet to photograph. They have a curved tip on there bill which is perfect for small insects. This particular one was doing a great job of pissing me off by landing on these poles with pink ribbons tied on them. I’m guessing it was a female shrike by this behavior. She made me go back and forth with the truck, window down 600 hanging out in order to get the shot. Unfortunately i never did get any shot with the 600. This was the 70-300. I know it’s not a great shot but hey that’s half the fun, i still felt like sharing, still a great bird to add to my files. Better yet it gives me another reason to go back to the refuge.

Image captured with 70-300 AF-S VR, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

For years i have had the privelege to call Joe McNally a friend and even have the honor to work with him on occasion. He has yet again left me speechless.Thank you Joe

Everyday time seems to slip by a little faster in ways that we don’t seem to notice the day before. Little cracks in the floors and in the walls, the spare minutes we use to get a cup of coffee or the extra seconds spent on reading comics in the paper. How much time of how many lives have spent walking through this hallway in Fort Point? This dark, faded, old hallway that echoes with time but reveals not to us the shoe prints of its existence. My Dad keeps telling me not to count time that every second counted is a second wasted, i was thinking about that a lot at the end of the workshop.

Well here we are overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge for the last time at this event and with our friends. Yea i know kind of a sad thought but it’s the truth. Back at the room, we spend our last night tonight huddled together watching the progress of a weeks worth of work being shown on the big screen. We rise in celebration of each others achievement as we all have images we like, love and treasure and the memories and stories to go with them. As the images run out we shake hands and part ways leaving one last inevitable thing, break down and goodbyes. Never knew which was harder. Slowly the room empties and the stories of past events comes out, just a group thing. I know goodbye’s are coming when Mom starts crying, for good reason, we’re all family. The old faces smile and look one last time at each other before leaving.  Slowly they pass beyond the doorway till only one hand remains waving goodbye and then they’re gone. Now just the six of us and even that won’t last long.

It’s always hard saying goodbye at the end of these long breaks. Each time  it seems to get harder and harder. More is crammed into them so as to not waste time and yet by doing so it seems to just go by faster. I seemed to have particular trouble letting go this time around, my usual moodiness yesterday was replaced with a more sorrowful one, i kept getting choked up; saying goodbye to certain people was just that much harder. I came to the realization that it hurts more this time because of everyone that made it such a wonderful break more so then any break before this. My thanks go out to just a handful of those people; my brother Brent and Katt who play games with me, ski and basically act like a brother should, to my big Sis who, makes us all smile, because of her big heart continually tries to teach my stubborn ass new things and who i already start to miss, to Mom just for being there like you always are taking care of us, I’m sure things would be up in flames if you weren’t and Dad my mentor and shooting buddy thanks for the continuing faith, guidance and for sharing your adventures with me. Thank you all for making one hell of a start to this new year. As this goes up I’ll be rolling down the road, the light on my shoulders the wind guiding my tail. The Sierra’s behind me and the Rockies in front of me. Just another day of life.

Images captured with D3, plane D3s, 24-70 AF-S, 70-300 AF-S VR, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

The final shoot is here already and it is a great one. We went up to Marine Headwaters and shot down on the Golden Gate Bridge with the fog rolling in and the light filling the bay with its beauty. We stood and watched for hours as the multitude of cars went by and the images flooded in. The angle of the light to the bridge never changed thus we never, so basically the whole night was standing shooting the bridge form one angle with different variants of light. The only difference is the compositions and that way we all decided to edit the image in post.

With this in mind, you  might be asking why i posted these two images. Well i wanted you too see the differences in the light on the bridge, one of the shots is with natural light and the other is the light emanating form the bridge itself. The cars are giving off light too but are too blurred out and are only seen as streaks. It may seem like a simple comparison but its key to start noticing these things now, for greater purposes later.

Images captures with D3, 24-70 AF-S, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

Wednesday morning was spent in Muir Woods, a really cool place with many spectacular opportunities if one knows where to look. The challenge with the woods is the range of light varies dramatically between the highlights and shadows and in order to capture that light with losing information HDR or flash on close subject matter is normally best. Now to be honest i haven’t ever composed an HDR photograph, so far everything has been straight shots. These two images are just that.

It’s nothing against that style merely a tool that i don’t know well enough to be using effectively nor to be trying to teach to other people. What i can teach is how to pick out subject matter that looks engaging that doesn’t have that wide range of light and can be taken in one shot. Anything that is not to dark or to bright with dark backgrounds is going to turn out fine without losing information. In the first shot you can see information lost in some of the tress but not the main ones i wanted to emphasize. In a forest like this one being selective is crucial.

Images captured with D3, 24-70 AF-S, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

Last night we had the honor and privilege to be able to photograph the SFFD #34. Two trucks and a cliff and surf rescue truck. Along with the vehicles was the staff of hard working individuals that look out for the people here in the bay area. This type of shoot even with its unique setup is still not my style. I just can’t wrap my head around where to start. Maybe a few more workshops of listening to Joe’s stories will inspire me to get in the right direction. I instead helped out those that i could, setting up stands for Joe, holding flash’s for Dad, and anything else that came up. I found this Bell on the front of one of the trucks and it just stood out as an interesting B&W to me.

Image Captured with D3, 70-300 AF-S VR, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film