Thunderstorm Over Bear Lake.

As the sun sets.. A storm brews.















It was a miracle that I was able to catch even one photo of the lightning over Bear Lake. Lightning is extremely difficult to shoot. It's not as simple as "When you see it, click the shutter button." Ha! I only wish! We were out there for about an hour trying to get pictures of lightning. After about the first half hour, I finally got the hang of it.

The easiest time to try and shoot lightning would be when it's very dark outside. This allows you to leave your shutter open longer, which gives you a better chance at getting the shot. With the shutter open longer, you'll need a tripod or stationary surface to set your camera on while the picture is being taken. I left my shutter on for about 25 seconds. I kept taking picture after picture, even if I hadn't gotten a lightning strike.

It was pure luck whenever a lightning bolt would strike at the same time my shutter was open to capture it.

P.S. The pictures are SOOC except for a slight darkening on a few.

Max!!

Here is one of the very, very, VERY, few good shots I got of ETF at Warped Tour this year. I was at the very front near the left side of the stage. I was prepared to get the guts squished out of me once ETF walked on stage, and that's exactly what happened. Hands flailing everywhere, and bodies pushing me around like a rag-doll. But amazingly, I was still able to get a few decent shots of the band! This was one is of Max Green, the bassist. I commented his profile with this picture in the comment. He commented me back and said "Thanks for the picture. It's rad." ahhh!! I was very happy to see this comment :). I never realized how wide of a fan base they had until Warped Tour. A lot of people like these guys! And I feel privileged to be able to get some internet-communication out of them through something I love to do :).

The Face of Sheer Content

"Thanks for the workout, Ma'."

Puppy Mania!

This is Kauzy, my cousin's new Chocolate lab mix. Hopefully this picture is only one of the many to come of this and other cute pups.

The folks I babysit for just got their own two month old Goldendoodle (Golden Retreiver mixed with a Poodle). When I first saw Darwin Noodle Moon, I thought he was a walking stuffed animal! He's such a cute little guy, and I'm hoping to snap some pictures of him soon. O

n top of that, my neighbor's Boxer, Roxy, is now most likely pregnant! So in a few weeks I should have a series of puppy-litter-pictures coming in :).

You Can't Take a Bear Cub From His Ice Block.

Well, okay.. Maybe you can.

The Enormity of Old Faithful.

SOOC

So great; it can cover the sun...

A Sighting of Wild Wolves

Dusk has come. We are driving back through Yellowstone National Park. My face is pressed up against the window, my eyes are glued to the landscape. All day I have been positioned like this, with the hope of getting a glimpse of Yellowstone's pride and joy- grey wolves.

While driving along side a long stretch of meadows, we see two are three cars pulled off to the side of the road. Usually if it's an important animal sighting, there is blocked traffic and plenty of cars stopped- as we saw with the black bear sighting earlier that day. My mom looked off into the distance and saw two small shapes about a half mile away. They were cruising along the landscape. Finally I spotted them as well. The car stopped. I jumped out.

The mere chance that it may just be two wild wolves made me shake with excitement. I got out my camera, which had little memory and battery power left. While zooming up as far as my camera would allow, I silently watched the beauty of these animals as they moved at amazing speeds in the distance. While shaking from excitement, I captured as many pictures as I could- not even knowing for sure what these animals were.

When they disappeared, I returned to the car. We began to take a look at the treasures I had received. It was unclear whether they were coyotes or wolves. After asking for some opinions and doing a few comparisons, we figured out that they must have been wolves.

Here are some of the pictures I captured:














They were pretty far away when I tried to capture these pictures, so the detail is very distorted. However, we can assume that this is what they looked like up-close (or at least something like this):







This is McKinley. He is the alpha male of his new pack at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. The Discovery Center was right across the street from our hotel in West Yellowstone. My two sisters and I went there the next day to get a closer look at the wolves.

Distant Paradise