RJS Photos

2010-02-19T21:21:00.003-07:00

Special Sneak Peek on our spankin' new website:

We will be posting on the new site from now on. Change your bookmarks if needed!!

2010-02-10T11:48:00.001-07:00

We've seen the sun 3 times this week!!

Big Changes!!!

2010-02-09T10:16:00.002-07:00

We're working on some exciting changes. A new layout and official site will be up and running soon. Stay tuned for the new link. Our goal is to get it launched by Feb. 20.

We can't wait to share it with you!!

2010-02-04T08:50:00.002-07:00

I'm no horse expert but I think he/she/it likes me!!

Warming trend!!

2010-01-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

It hit 40 degrees today...I feel like celebrating!!!

Winter Fun Never Ends

2010-01-17T17:17:00.003-07:00

I love to snowmobile, hence winter is one of my favorite times of the year. I snapped this picture of my friend Jay while we were out riding on this last Saturday.

Back Story of F27

2010-01-10T09:17:00.018-07:00

I had several friends inquire about the mountain lion picture that I have in a earlier post, it was also in the Herald Journal photo contest last year. So, I thought I would show and tell how I ended up with the picture. We call the lion F27... I will explain why. I was working with a study group in Wyoming, we were capturing and radio collaring cougars as part of a large scale study of mountain lions. This particular day we had spotted a mountain lion kill. It was a young pronghorn antelope that had been migrating through the canyon. There had been a female lion with several young sub adults at the kill site. We proceeded to hike the mountain looking for fresher tracks. While walking a steep rock ridge, we looked off and saw 3 sub adult lions moving through the trees. We soon got off of the ledge and found the mothers track and turned the hounds loose. In a very short distance we had the female in the tree. You can see her in the picture below...you can see that the final picture I got was exactly like this one, however standing farther to the right and zoomed in. Dan, one of the member of the capture crew and I must have taken over 100 pictures of her as we waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive and prepare the radio collar and monitoring equipment. In this next picture I have moved farther to the right and zoomed in even more. You can see she is a mature female and not one of the sub adults, as she has no spots on her hide. It is easy to tell the difference between the young lines that are even a year old and a mature cat, as the sub adults will carry spots on them for more than a year, before they totally disappear.This picture is taken from the same location, just zoomed in for a close up. She was in a perfect tree on a steep hill where you could stand on the side hill and be straight on, face to face with her. This shot is just a zoomed in shot of the mouth, from the previous picture. Like with the spots on the hide, I show this to you, as we use the teeth as one of the best ways of aging a lion. You can see that the teeth are fully developed and very yellow. The older a lion gets, the more stained their teeth become. You can see she has large health canines, but they are very yellow. You will also see that young lions will tend to have lighter colored gums. I also look at the small teeth that are in between the canine teeth... lions will start to lose these or they will get very worn they the get old. Although very healthy you can see this starting to happen on this gal. We aged her at about 5-6 years old.As mentioned we probably have about 100 pictures of this lion on this one afternoon. However, my favorite was the below shot that was entered in the Herald Journal Photo contest.

I love the character in this lion, as you can see several small notches on the edges of her ears (something you don't see on young lions) I always wonder how they got there, as I am sure they are scars from the hard life and experiences that these amazing animals live.

Just a couple quick after the picture shots. This first one is of the same lion about 45 minutes after the above shots were taken. You can see we have ear tagged her and placed the radio collar on her. She has been given a reversal drug to wake her up from her tranquilized state.This last shot is of her slowly leaving leaving after coming back to her senses. Each lion that the study tags and collars is assigned a number. Either "M" for males or "F" for females followed by the number on the tag. She is F27.

Latest and Greatest

2010-01-06T20:11:00.001-07:00

We finally had some clean air!! (too bad it doesn't last long)

New Spin

2010-01-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

I love experimenting with different editing techniques...the only problem is, I have ZERO time to do it...so when I get a spare minute, I pull up old pictures and play.

I'm really picky when it comes to family pictures so I keep it simple and classic with the images I give to clients.

I had originally pulled up some summerish pics and after catching myself daydreaming, I realized I'm longing for warmer weather. So here are some from a shoot in November....I'm diggin the browns/gold/orange tones.

more B man

2010-01-01T22:44:00.002-07:00

Couldn't decide between color and b/w so you get them both!

Rusty's got some mountain lion pictures he's going to be posting...you're definitely going to want to check them out..they are A.MA.ZING!!! What a way to ring in the new year.

2010!!

2009-12-31T21:10:00.002-07:00

Happy New Year!! One thing I'm focusing on this year is getting more pictures of ALL our family...forcing myself to be in pictures too. (and giving B a break!)

...and spending some alone time with my flash...maybe

Frosty

2009-12-30T08:53:00.003-07:00

Nothing fancy, just some frost on my back deck. (Walking two feet out my back door - that's what I'm talking about it!)

Winter Wonderland

2009-12-27T15:57:00.010-07:00

I love the Winter and my wife hates the cold...so as a lover of winter, I tend to be outside lots and during the freezing tempatures. I have found myself hiking out of the wilderness in sub zero temperatures at three in morning, listening to the howling wolves while trying to sleep in my bivy sack (can make for a long night.) I could tell stories for hours. Below are a few winter shots from some of these outings. We all have seen the Tetons so many times, but I love this view that you don't often see with the Red Hills contrasting the high peak of the Grand.

As a avid mountain lion hunter and assisting with a Western Mountain Lion study in Wyoming during the winters, I often end up in strange locations that I would never really go if a cougar had not lead me there...but, OH what views!!

Gotta Love the Great Outdoors!!!!

Versatile

2009-12-26T11:22:00.002-07:00

Both of these pictures were taken with the same lens as the close-up pine shots below...I am loving how versatile it is and it's becoming one of my favorites to use especially because of its sharpness.

The Boy

2009-12-23T17:51:00.001-07:00

It's all about angles

2009-12-22T19:42:00.003-07:00

Goldie Hawn said in a movie that it's only a question of angles. Take this pine...yeah at first look it looks like every other pine. The point is to get in close...closer

Don't worry it won't bite...it might poke your eye out but it won't bite. We start with this...you've seen these a hundred times...but..

This is different

OOOHHHHH

Trippy right? See where no fear can get you? Go out and give it a try!

This makes me happy...

2009-12-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

Things that make you go...brrr

2009-12-19T17:47:00.002-07:00

It has been very foggy and hazy the last few days so pretty much any landscape photograph is not happening. For the below pictures, I crunched through ankle deep snow off the beaten path (big step for me!) in 7 degree weather. My internal thermometer reading -154. In fact, I've got my feet propped up on the heater and I've been home for several hours. If you were to ask my husband how extreme I was on a scale of 1-10, he'd probably say 0.1111

But, if I get killer pics like these every time, I would consider venturing out in the frost more often...like once every three years.

A few of my favs from this fall

2009-12-15T21:06:00.019-07:00

If you know me, you know that I love the fall. It is a great time to pack a camera around with me as I am wandering the mountains, which is every spare minute that I get. These are a few of my favorite pictures I snapped during the past few months.

After several miles and hours of hiking on the Utah deer hunt, I snapped these shots of my cousin while gazing out over the Cache Valley.

I played hooky from work one morning with a buddy and went duck hunting for a few hours. It was a great morning. After winding the duck boat through the marsh I snapped these below shots so that someone was was doing some shooting...it was a slow duck hunting morning.

The below was a picture taken at the end of a long day packing out a bull elk from this years archery hunt. Was a great end to a long hard month of hunting.

I had a great day (sort of) deer hunting this fall. I only saw one deer this day, but saw ten moose, 5 of which were bulls.

While out duck and goose hunting the other day, I saw this one lone Canadian goose hanging out with a rough crowd of swans.

Hey Everyone...It's Ky again!!

2009-12-14T20:21:00.004-07:00

I'm pretty sure I've embarrassed myself enough when talking about Ky and his cute wife, Meg. But this shoot was sooo fun. We drove by on our way to town and saw this great lane next to this house. As I got to snooping, I discovered this amazing yard with multi level gardens and fountains and statues. I have to mentally push the image out of my mind of the very much naked aphrodite goddess sprawled out on her marble bed. I knocked on the door and schmoozed the owner (he was older) and got the ok to come back with Ky.

The only bad part about this spot was the afternoon light (very harsh) and there were light spots shining on them every time I found a spot I liked. So I find myself on my toosh with my camera in my right hand and my reflector in my left hand. Lets not forget my left leg fully extended and elevated above my head holding the reflector up. I also had to pin the reflector behind my head and a bush/shrub to block the sun also. We're talking serious talent here.

Two things I want to point out.

1. Luckily my McGyvering maneuvers worked. I got the pics I wanted and they look FAB!

2. Luckily they are family and I have to give Ky a massage every time I see him now.

Ky are we friends again?

Too Early

2009-12-14T20:07:00.003-07:00

Daylight Savings Time is not a blessed event in our house. I dare say we're not even the sleeping in type. Since I was wide awake at 7am on DST day in October with nothing better to do, I thought I would venture out in the quiet morning and see what kind of temple pictures I could get.

This first one was just as the sun was rising. The temple was the first thing the sun hit that morning. Of course there was a storm brewing and a chill in the air...it is the end of October in CV.

This one was taken a short time later. I know everyone has seen this view of the temple but seriously, the clouds are what make this one amazing. It makes all the difference in the world.

I also think the editing makes the picture...to be honest, it doesn't look as awesome in color.

Wellsville Weather - First Post!!!

2009-12-14T19:56:00.002-07:00

For those of you who live in CV know what I mean when I say the Wellsvilles have their own weather system. It was probably a whiteout in Sardine Canyon right then. I work on the bench of the other side of the valley and when I left work, the sky was black. There was a little hint of light shining on my mountains. I drove up the street to get a better look and when I turned around, I saw this gorgeous scene. Really I was in the right place at the right time. About an hour after this picture, everywhere you see light was pink, in all directions. I hope somebody in CV took time to take the picture...it would have been a beaut.