Been a bit since an update, which is because I was waiting for my car to be delivered. Ordered a 4 wheel drive as I knew it would be handy for both what I wanted to do with hauling around photography gear, and for the upcoming winter. Having come from Georgia I know it won’t be anything like what we’ve had for snow in the past.
It arrived on Saturday, did a bit of driving around in the morning when it got here to test it out. I really like it, handles smooth. Last car I had was a Hyundai Sonata so the extra room is great for all my stuff to go in the back.
I took it out Sunday morning for some picture taking. Just a short trip to start getting my bearings and see what I can find. Being labor day weekend I expected places to be busy, and they were. Pretty close to the city of Casper is Casper mountain. Very pretty place with a great viewing spot. I took these pictures from there of the landscape.
Canon 5D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/125 Sec - F8 - ISO 400
Canon 5D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/160 Sec - F8 - ISO 400
Canon 5D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/160 Sec - F8 - ISO 400
It wasn’t exactly the prettiest morning because of all the smoke in the air. For the past few weeks the fires in Colorado have clogged up the skies here as well. Very unfortunate and I hope they are able to get them under control.
No wildlife on Sunday, there were a lot of people camping on the mountain and I was driving around to see what areas I could go to.
On Monday, as I kind of had off of work, I packed up pretty early and hit the road. This time driving much further away to a wildlife reserve. Thinking that would give me a better chance to see, well wildlife.
Canon 5D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/200 Sec - F8 - ISO 400
First thing I took a picture of was the landscape. I had pulled off at the information kiosk to get a picture of the map and make sure I read any rules. There’s a pretty nice lake and river with some mountain range behind it.
However, as it was also the holiday and I had come to campgrounds again, there were a lot of people camping here. Now I don’t want to bother anyone, or be bothered by anyone. So I just kept driving along the dirt/sand roads. Trying my best to avoid where people were camping as it was just sunrise and I imagine most people were asleep since I didn’t see anyone outside of their campers.
I pretty much followed the roads until I didn’t feel safe anymore, really steep inclines i wasn’t sure I could get back up. That was pretty much where I called it and turned around. I did get a little stuck at one point when I was turning onto one road which was entirely sand. Up over one bump and the front wheel started spinning.
Thankfully I wasn’t trapped in the middle of nowhere with no cell service and no way to get my car unstuck. I had 4 wheel drive, popped it into reverse and just used the back wheels. But that was pretty much cementing that I wasn’t going that direction. I plan to go back to a different area away from the campgrounds and see what I can find next time.
I did come across some wildlife during the driving part. I turned a corner and crossing the road in front of me were 3 deer.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 500
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 - F4 - ISO 400
Mule Deer I believe, from the size of their ears and the rope like tail with a black tip. Where as a Whitetail Deer that I’ve seen before have a bigger kind of bushier tail.
They watched me cautiously as I got out of the car and grabbed the camera from the trunk. Took a few pictures as they moved on, and then I did as well. Back to the main road I had come in on. I did see a patch of water that I wanted to check out before I headed home.
Canon 5D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/200 - F8 - ISO 400
Not too much to look at, but there was life down there. I didn’t get too close as there is literally nothing for me to use as cover and not disturb anything.
Canon 5D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/400 Sec - F8 - ISO 400
Cool rock formation, don’t see that where I came from.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 - F4 - ISO 100
Little hard to tell, as again I couldn’t really get close. And I cropped this one in, so I was still a good distance away. But a lot easier to identify once you see this one and the others in flight.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/3200 Sec - F4 - ISO 200
Group of Mallard Ducks. Not the best picture but again this is pretty cropped to just give you an idea of what I was looking at. Thinking my next purchase needs to be a 2x teleconverter instead of the 1.4x. Out here with big empty spaces it’ll be a lot harder to get closer to the wildlife and I think anything I can do to give me more reach would be ideal.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 250
I did hear some birds tweeting and watched them flitting from place to place until I managed to get a shot of it sitting on these rocks. I believe this to be a Rock Wren, although it doesn’t exactly match what I’m seeing online or in the bird book. So I’ll call this one questionable identification. I’ll really crop it in and put that below. Please let me know if you have any better idea of what I’ve seen. It does match the location and season for a Rock Wren. And it’s got a nice long beak and some spotted gray around the head. Just not as brown as the examples I’m seeing.
This next one I’ve come to recognize quite well. The Black-Billed Magpie with it’s great white and blue coloring and very long tail. I saw several around the highway when I was driving to and from. They seem to be quite common, but I have yet to snag a great photo of one. One day I will.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 100
That was about it for the water area. As I mentioned it was just big empty area with nowhere for me to really hunker down where I was out of sight. I’m going to be doing some more research and try and find other places to go. I expect it will take me some time of searching based on how long it took me back in Georgia.
I did see another bird as I was leaving, sitting on the telephone wires.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/3200 - F4 - ISO 160
A Western Bluebird. As it has bits of orange it is still molting into I think it to be female, as it has a lot of gray and the males are much more blue. But the orange does make me think Western and not Mountain. Although Western isn’t listed as in my area, maybe the family was traveling. Actually I’m just now thinking about how the wild fires are upsetting the wildlife and causing them to seek shelter elsewhere. So that would explain it to me. The Western Bluebird doesn’t quite make it to Wyoming, but it does Colorado in the summer. And with the fires in Colorado maybe they came further north to escape.
Pure speculation from a non-expert.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/1000 Sec - F4 - ISO 100
The last thing I did on my way home was stop at a pull off I had seen on my way to the wildlife reserve. It was an overlook for the big lake that I have seen in my research of the area and honestly plan to avoid during the summer. Geo-location tagged photos lead me to believe this is the hot spot for young adults with boats drinking and partying. No thanks, not gonna be able to view much wildlife there. Likely during the off seasons I’ll check it out.
But the view was really nice, you can see for such a long ways.
Canon 5D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/1000 Sec - F8 - ISO 400
Canon 5D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/1250 Sec - F8 - ISO 400
Again, I’d like to head back there on a clear day and see what visibility is like.
Overall not bad for an outing. I like my car and I plan to go back out a lot more. There’s a lot of area around me to explore. I plan to try and scout out some locations first with just the photography gear before I get back to making videos.