I spent another Sunday at the National Bison Range yesterday.

A herd of bison was along Pauline Creek. I tend to take bison for granted but yesterday I stopped and watched them for a while. I enjoyed watching the “little red doggies” play, nuzzle their mothers, nurse… I enjoyed watching the adults graze and wallow…

I think that Charlie Russel was in charge of painting clouds yesterday afternoon.

If you’ve ever seen Charlie Russel paintings, you know all about Charlie Russel clouds. If you haven’t, well, here’s a little introduction:

In old St. Louis over in Missouri
The mighty Mississippi, well,
it rolls and flows.
A son was born to Mary Russell
And it starts the legend every cowboy knows.

Young kid Russell was born to wander.
Ever westward he was bound to roam,
Just a kid of sixteen in 1880.
Up in wild Montana he found his home.

God made Montana for the wild man,
For the Piegan and the Sioux and Crow,
Saved His greatest gift for Charlie,
Said, “Get her all down before she goes.
You gotta get her all down ‘cause she’s bound to go.”

God hung the stars over Judith Basin.
God put the magic in young Charlie’s hands.
And all was seen and all remembered,
Every shining mountain, every longhorn brand.

He could paint the light on horsehide shining,
The great passing herds of the buffalo,
And a cow camp cold on a rainy morning,
And the twisting wrist of the Houlihan throw.

When the Lord called Charlie to his home up yonder
He said, “Kid Russell, I got a job for you.
You’re in charge of sunsets up in old Montana
‘Cause I can’t paint them quite as good as you,
And when you’re done, we’ll go out and have a few,
And Nancy Russell will make sure it’s just two.

~”The Gift” by Ian Tyson

Sticky geranium, lupine, prairie smoke, and wild hyacinth are putting on a show.

Sticky geranium:

Prairie smoke:

The bitterroots are just getting ready to bloom into their full glory. This is the most advanced specimen I found:

I enjoyed spending some time with the small wildlife…

Little green caterpillar in a prairie smoke flower:

The lupine were under attack by blister beetles

I ended the day at the National Bison Range as I usually do, watching the light change on the Mission Mountains and watching the birds at the pond.

Today was a quiet day in the Park, for us. Plenty of wildlife, but none of it close enough for my short glass.

The highlight of the day was Dad’s discovery of a badger den. We stopped at a pullout from which we watched a coyote den years ago. Dad was glassing the many, many fresh digs on the slope. He commented that it was possible there could be a badger den. I sarcastically responded “or a bunch of gopher holes.” Sure enough, no longer did that come out of my mouth that he spotted a badger. We didn’t see any kits at this location. We spent about an hour there that night, and Dad, my Aunt Cindy and I walked out to a distance of 25-30 yards and I managed to get a few shots before it ducked down into it’s den. This is a crop of a photo taken at a focal length of 300mm…

So, while I may not have been so privileged as to enjoy the four kits at the Little America den, at least I did get my first, albeit poor, badger photo.

We haven’t published the location of this den, as we don’t want to see it turn into a mob scene like the den in Little America.

It rained off and on all day. Mom, Dad, Bridger and I went into Gardiner for dinner and an early night.
However, since I have no glass and no wildlife was being so obliging as to give me close range opportunities, I had not played with my camera much. My shutter finger was itchy. So, I went back into the Park with the intention of a visit to the Upper Terrace with a flashlight in hand just after dark to play around with light painting. However, I had some time to kill so I drove east as far as Floating Island Lake where I enjoyed spending some time watching and listening to a pair of sandhill cranes.

As darkness settled in, I arrived at the Upper Terrace to play with light painting.

So, if the term “light painting” is unfamiliar to you, by light painting I mean waving a flashlight over features to light them up at night during a long exposure.

I tried out various apertures (F11 and smaller) and shutter speeds (2″-30″) as well as focusing methods. I left the ISO set at 800. A number of different aperture/shutter speed combinations worked out. This particular photo was shot f14 and 30 seconds.

Sometimes I focused by shining the flashlight on one of the trees or a terrace and letting autofocus focus on it. Other times I used manual focus set at infinity. Both worked but manual at infinity was easier — autofocus hunts a bit in the dark and steam, as you might imagine.

I varied my flashlight technique, too, from passing it slowly over features to waving it quickly over features, having it on for the entire exposure and having it on for only part of the exposure. Different flashlight technique made as much difference as aperture and shutter speed. In this photo I used the flashlight for only a fraction of the 30 second exposure.

The flashlight was a wide beam halogen (about the size of a headlight).

I used auto white balance and, in hindsight, should have tried different white balance.

The RAW files have an orange/pinky cast to what should be white travertine terrace as below:

I removed that color cast from the version posted first but it has since grown on me somewhat…

The Upper Terrace always seems otherworldly, but it is especially true at night

Spring is definitely springing at the National Bison Range.  I returned today, this time in the company of my mother, sister and son.  Mom had not made her first trip of the season over Red Sleep Mountain and Stacy had not made a visit in quite some time.  It was a mostly uneventful trip, but we enjoyed it, as always.

This prince of a pronghorn was perhaps the wildlife highlight.

We all enjoyed another beautiful sunset on the Mission Mountains.