Glacier National Park

After many years of talk we finally make it out to Glacier for our friends Eric and Melissa's wedding this summer.  Eric and Melissa both work for Natural Habitat Adventures and had some time off from their busy guiding schedule to do some hiking, photography, and fine wine.  I also borrowed a D3x and 24PC-E tilt shift lens from NPS to try out as a landscape setup. 

After waiting out the rain for a couple days and driving the Going-to-the-sun road in a complete fog bank we had several great days on the east side of the park with our friends.  While the girls slept in Eric and I went out for some amazing clearing storm sunrise light.  After the morning shoots we put away our cameras and hiked, told stories, and laughed more than I thought possible.

After several days on the East side of the park we headed back over to the West side because Eric had to leave for Alaska.  After a couple days on the West side with Melissa and our friend Keith, Jen and headed east again for several days on our own hiking and photography. 

We got some great advice from our friends who run the park cafe about their favorite day hike out of Many Glacier.  The hike follows a popular day hike trail for about mile before setting off cross country and climbing steep benches next to a waterfall.  Eventually reaching an isolated alpine bench called Shangri La.  The hike ended with a ski down a marble sized scree slope to Iceberg lake and then a 4.5 mile hike back to the trail head. 

Jen and I continued to hike and explore the East side of the park for several more days and had several opportunities to photograph Black Bears in their habitat rolling rocks searching for insects. 

As our time in Glacier was drawing to a close we again headed to the West side of the park to meet Keith and spend a wonderful evening in the small community of Pole Bridge having dinner and a bottle of wine.  After dinner we headed to one of Keith's favorite spots on the Flat Head river to watch a thunderstorm rolling in over the high peaks of the park.  In the ten days we were in Glacier we had everything from spring flowers to winter snows and found the park to be incredible.  Now the only issue is how soon can we head back for more. 

 As far as the borrowed D3x and 24PC-E I am totally sold.  Between the higher megapixel and more importantly the ability to tilt the lens I came home with the sharpest files I have ever worked with.  Now if only Nikon would make a smaller version of the body that would work for my backcountry adventures I would on the phone with B&H right now! 

Costa Rica

I am just home from a great summer of shooting and adventures.  Jen and I lead our Costa Rica trip again, with 13 participants.  We did the Northern Loop through Costa Rica in 10 full days.  With stops at Tortuguero, Salve Verde Lodge, Arenal Volcano, Monteverde, and the Pacific coast.  While this was more of a guiding/natural history trip I of course was not without my camera.  

 

We had several great opportunities at Tortuguero including a very playful Neotropical Otter that kept following our boat.   The Red Eyed tree frogs were great in the coastal lowlands, and of course the Monkeys are always fun.