The park remains shuttered (although a few states have donated funds to reopen many of our national treasures including the Grand Canyon and Arches, one location I have been to with Moose Peterson earlier this year and one location I am going to with Moose Peterson next year) so we again drove to the Teton Point Turnout on Highway 191, which bisects the park so we have actually been inside the park everyday, to photograph the sunrise. I used my 14-24mm lens on the tripod so I would get a wide angle view which Moose encouraged me to do. I also attached my 70-200mm lens to my D7100 and was able to zoom in close. I preferred the closeups captured by the D7100 and confessed that to Moose who said he noticed I was using that lens and acknowledged that it is I, after all, whom I must please.
The amazing thing about this morning’s shoot is that, as Moose predicted, the sun kissed the Grand Teton peak with color, then spread to the other peaks. I was amazed that the sunrise colored peak looked oddly unnatural but I assure you that is what it looked like. The first shot is a closeup using the 70-200mm lens on the D7100 at a focal length of about 140mm (the lens was set to 70mm).
After our midday digital darkroom break, we walked into Jackson and explored the town. I remembered the archway in the park created with elk antlers from the Elk Refuge nearby, back in the early 1960’s, shortly before I first visited Jackson Hole. This is a close up, using my 50mm 1.4 lens.
Following our afternoon stroll, we drove out of town again, this time to a Gros Ventre range viewing area for fall color. I found one shot I liked with the snowcapped Gros Ventre peaks in the distance and lots of fall color in the foreground. Then, I announced that I was on a mission to find a good buckrail fence to photograph and Moose called out that he’d had a buckrail sighting. Since buckrails don’t move too quickly, I was able to mosey down and take a few shots.
The thickly fog-shrouded Tetons prevented any sunset shots and as we drove on a side road, we encountered a pair of bison walking parallel to the unfenced roadway. Kevin pulled over and Moose told us we could get out to photograph the bison as long as we stayed by the van. I took several shots as they lumbered by us, both stopping and staring at us before moving on. Only one of the many shots I took had the bison’s eye in focus. He looks rather intense so I didn’t want to tell him that I’d had a bison burger for dinner the night before.
