We've Rounded the Corner

June holds the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, usually the 21st, I think. Days are only getting shorter now, which means summer is waning and winter is coming. Call me crazy, but i’ve never been a big fan of summer for a few different reasons, but that’s not the point of this post.

In early June we saw the rivers swell and the runoff peak around 20,700 CFS in snake river canyon, numbers we hadn’t seen for a few years. Here’s a bnw film picture of one of the first commercial raft trips of the summer that I spotted in the canyon.

Early June sometime. Notice the kayaker?

On fathers day, usually the third sunday in June, I cruised down to Pinedale to see the folks. On the way, I noticed a giant smoke column rising on the horizon to the south. The light bulb went off and I remembered hearing about a prescribed burn the Forest Service was doing in that area. While cruising through the main drag of Bondurant, I could see groups of trees torching amidst the columns of smoke. I pulled over and whipped the camera out.

Wild seeing the red forest service sxs cruise down the ridgeline as the trees torch, but hey, they know what they’re doing.

Wildland firefighters have my utmost respect. my hat goes off to the men and women who do these jobs in some of the roughest environments out there. Fire is such a hot button issue these days as the wildland-urban interface continues to grow and become more congested (see California). The landscape needs to burn to be healthy, but it’s not as easy and just starting and stopping them where its needed . A great book is “In Control of Nature” by John McPhee. Can’t go wrong with any book by McPhee.

Another big event of June was the “Big Fill Landslide” on Teton Pass. A few articles only claim 13-20% of Jackson’s workforce comes from the Idaho side of the pass in Victor/Driggs, but I seriously question when and where that data is from. Rumor was it took folks 2-3 hours each way to get to Jackson from Victor/Driggs. Living in Alpine, the commute through Snake River Canyon is 23 miles to Hoback junction and usually takes about 30 minutes. I saw times of an hour getting to Hoback. As of last Friday (6/28) at noon, the pass was open again after 3 weeks of continuous work by a handful of contributors and things are back to normal. Here’s a drone photo of last Monday morning’s traffic entering Snake River Canyon. There’s about 60 north-bound vehicles in the image.

Ironically, I’ve told myself when the canyon commute becomes bumper to bumper much like the pass is these days, it’ll be time to pull the ripcord and leave the area. Not sure if it was good or bad, but I saw a taste of what that looks like this month.

Besides all the human caused excitement, the backyards been firing with bumble bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, deer, neighborhood dogs and blooming flowers. One morning I heard a hummingbird making the rounds out front, so I grabbed the camera and ripped a few frames.

My 70-200 f2.8 lens is basically cheating.

Here’s one of a bumbler making the rounds on the crabapple tree.

Seriously, the 70-200 does all the work.

Stay tuned for July.

A Big One

May was a big month with one of the biggest shows of the northern lights in the last few decades with the Kp index maxing out at 9. Last time that happened was in the August of 2003. Interestingly, the Kp index first came on my radar from flying drones. Basically, a higher number means more geomagnetic disturbance across the atmosphere, which can increase the chance of poor GPS performance. Fast forward to getting into HAM radio and the world of radio wave propagation and solar weather conditions go hand in hand. Strong solar weather, specifically solar flares and coronal mass ejections can shut down the HF bands, while rumor has it, VHF frequencies can propagate across the disturbances much further than your typical line of sight scenario. I had plans to try bouncing some VHF signals off the aurora, but between juggling camera and radio gear, I decided to stick with the optical approach.

In March of 2022 there were murmurs of northern lights potential, so I figured lets go North and see how we can incorporate the Tetons into the mix. Trouble is, the Tetons run North-South, so it was unlikely the classic backdrop would have any action of the lights behind it, as you’d be looking due West. Anyway, it sort of worked out and I captured one of my most unique images at the time. (pictured on the landing page of this website)

All that being said, I was torn for what to do in anticipation of this mega event. I figured what the hell, everyone loves the Tetons, so I might as well go back that way. Half way through Snake River Canyon, I said, nope, and turned around. I’d done that before and if the lights were going to be as epic as forecasted, I should try and get something further South and closer to home. (I later heard the line of cars heading into and out of the park that night was insane) I zipped over to the lake bottom and framed up Ferry Peak. (as seen above) I dialed in my aperture, shutter-speed, ISO, intervalometer and let Jesus take the wheel. The light of the moon bouncing off the lake to the West, also caught my eye, so I wheeled my tripod that direction for a few snaps.

Checkout the video below for a time lapse from that night. Might as well comment, like, and subscribe while you’re there.

Happy with my decision and enjoyed the show. Seeing the lights in Wyoming is something else and we’ve been lucky over the last handful of years to have some cracks at it. Only other time I’ve seen them was in Alaska, which was truly something else…

As the month progressed, I got the camera out a few more times. Went for an early morning drive on Mothers day and swung down to the river. Met a guy named Mike who was enjoying a solo surf session at the wave.

May’s always a great time of year to watch the trees leaf out and the flowers bloom. My backyard really popped this year and the activity around the crabapple tree has been pretty top notch. Here’s a broad-tailed humming bird (I think) finding the goods.

Thanks for tuning in. Until next time.

May the Fourth be with you.

Always been a big fan of seasons. Something about the change that’s refreshing. Sure, 75 and sunny sounds nice during those transitional weather events, but you know what they say about too much of a good thing…

On that note, it’s been about a month since I’ve focused on getting away from grasp of social media. I still use my laptop to check Facebook for messages about items I have for sale on marketplace (buy my sled) and occasionally open IG to quickly see if I have any important messages in my inbox, which I don’t. Screen time on my phone is around 2.5 hours a day now from pretty much just emails, texts, and some random web browsings.

I’ve read one book and started another.

I also started a new job at electronics manufacturing company. Think soldering and microscopes.

There’s been some good changes in the mix, which I think means it’s been a good spring.

Here We Are

Howdy Folks.

Wanted to say thank you for sharing your email addresses with me in the hopes of staying connected outside of social media.

I’ve gone through a real love-hate relationship with social media, namely Instagram and Facebook, over the last few years. Sure, it’s a great way to share things, but between plummeting reach and the constant allure of scrolling, I felt my self really slipping into a darkness.

Over the last year, my daily average of screen time was at least 8 hours, and that was just on my phone. Large majority of that came from Instagram and Facebook, which is insane and a gross waste of time.

Long story short, I’ve decided to make a change. Reclaim my time and do things differently, so here we are.

Since I decided to go this route, a few ideas have come through the brain waves on what this will look like moving forward, but I’m also going to keep things loose and just run with it and probably make a couple posts a month.

I’m also figuring out the features and functionality square space offers for blog like content, so each post will be a new adventure, or we’ll find something that works and run with it. If you have any ideas for what you’d like to see from me, shoot me a message. Zero guarantees I’ll follow through with your idea, but I’ll read them, at least.

Anyways, I don’t have any new latest and greatest photo bangers from this month, so here’s a few from my first big international trip 5 years ago in April of 2019. By rough estimates, I’ve taken 64,000 more photos since this trip. That’s pretty wild.

Thanks again.

Looking at Table Mountain above Cape Town from Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned)

Drone photo of Plettenberg Bay.

Cape Town Harbor.

Paragliding over Cape Town.