photo shoot-Glacier national park part 1

Photo Shoot-Glacier National Park prt.1-The West side 5/15/09

We visit Glacier a lot and for many reasons.

The Beauty of Glacier is just breath taking and to explain what it has to offer would take a very long time but many people consider this place Gods country and for good reason.

Summer brings the tourists,the bikers and those who love a challenge to hike it,s many trails and hope to see a huge variety of wildlife if just for a second.

I have done a lot of Photography here and it is on my list of favs to visit and to see the ever changing landscapes and spend some quality time with my guide-my wife who by the way is probably the most awesome guide ever.

On this day we headed up to the west side of Glacier to take in the sites and see what was going on at Avalanche.

The road is closed at Avalanche Creek due to the road crew working up ahead on Going to the sun road removing snow from the roads and usually the road going up to Logan pass is open around mid june depending on how severe the conditions are up there.

Before we stopped at Avalanche we stopped by Macdonald lodge which is shut down for the season and with good reason.The snow here gets to be very deep and when we were here last May the snow was about 10 feet high in sections and it was spring time.

The Lodge sits on the lake and the view is stunning as you can see the mountains all around.

The only people here are the workers spraying off the Lodge and fixing everythng that needs fixing from the cold Winter but they are visited by the birds that make nests up in the corners of the Lodge and the Gophers that don't make nests in the Lodge but rather wander the nooks and crannies of the area looking for hand outs and an ocasional photographer looking to capture the right shot-hmmm not sure where that cracker came from but this gopher was just tickled to munch away and my wife smiling from ear to ear as if I had just missed something...I did check to see if I still had my wallet.

With photo gear in tow my wife and I headed to walk of the cedars-a very popular spot where the cedar trees wind through the forest and if you get here on a sunny day the sun backlights the trees and creates a magical sight.Today we encounter overcast skies and rain but that didn,t stop us from the hike.
After spending a lil time at the Lodge we headed for Moose Pond-named for the moose that frequent this area.

Today the moose are no where to be found but as we were hiking around the marshy area we did stumble upon proof that Moose and Bear had been in the area which we already knew from visiting this spot often.

Avalanche campground and surrounding areas has many things to offer-hiking,camping,site seeing and great photo ops and being we are no stranger to all of the above-I decided to head past the road block and see what lay on the other side.

My wonderful guide likes to relax and take in a good book while I wander the wilds in search of Photos-now I have never ever seen anyone ever sell any photos out here in the wild but when I do..I will post it here...The Rain was more of a sprinkle at this point and as I hiked along the road I would scan the mountains and hills looking for anything that moved and every now and then I would pass a couple biking and/or racing away from what might be Bear!!

Today tho it was just them taking in a nice rainy day in the mountains.

I had hiked about a mile up the road and a group of folks had let me know that there were a few ducks in the waters ahead which I thought was funny because my wife and I were talking about such things earlier on our hike and how it would be neat if she ran across a harliquin duck and low and behold!! I spotted one and thought-wow...what kind of power does this woman have?

It was interesting watching the two ducks as they would coast along the raging river and then dive into the waters and swim along the bottom looking for fish and then pop back up a few feet down stream.

Of course I had to move rather quickly as wildlife never sits for a photo op and with the rain coming down- I was trying not to get the camera gear wet as it made for what I am sure was a site to see.

Photographing Wildlife is very rewarding as well as rather tiring-a lot of trial and error takes place and with todays digital media what may look like a great picture on your lcd screen can turn out to be nothing but a blur so you really have to have it all together and know some stuff to get great shots.

If I am out hiking I could spend hours just watching and waiting and in most cases I hike at a rather fast pace-not because I don't want to encounter the wilds but because in most cases you have to hike a long distance if you want to get shots that most folks won't ever get a chance to photograph and plus it means a workout is in store and that requires a lot of energy.

You have to take in to account that most freelance Photgraphers carry a lot of gear and we also have a lot of gear to carry-tripods,cameras,gps systems just to name a few and the weight from the camera bag alone can be 20 to 30 pounds not including the variety of lens in the backpack...sheeesh I am tired already.

As I stood there shooting I noticed something out of the corner of my left eye-I thought for a moment...this would not be good if it was a bear because I was only about 25 feet from whatever it was...

I looked up and with a sigh of relief looked over at a deer just standing there wondering what the heck I was doing...

Maybe it thought I was going to jump off the ledge because all of this camera gear was a bit to much.The Deer then moved on to only dissapear into the forest as

I packed up the gear and headed back to my wife who by now was probably wondering if I would ever return but I did and the trip produced a lot of nice photographs as well as more memories for my wife and I.

Glacier National Park is a treasure in northwest Montana and no wonder over a million people will travel here over the next few months just to take in it's beauty.

It is interesting that my backyard is shared with so many but I couldn't ask for a better guide or a better backyard.......hmmm whats this...another cracker?

next blog-Many Glaciers-bear and all!!