Ric's Epic Adventure - Part 4: I Think I Hear a Mountain Lion

Yesterday, I did one last tour of Yellowstone. It was a gorgeous day and it was nice to see some nice clear blue water, especially after spending a few weeks covering all the muddy streams and rivers left over from tropical storm Irene. Saw several more Bison but no other wildlife accept for the small butterfly that kept landing on me and my camera.







Next, I headed through Grand Teton National Park to Jackson, Wyoming. Right now, I am waiting for the sun to come up to light up the mountains, but thought I would try getting the shot under starlight as well. While standing out here in the dark, I could hear something rustling around in the weeds. I hope it doesn't eat me!


- Posted from my iPad

Location:Antelope Flats Rd,,United States

Ric's Epic Adventure - Part 3: Buffalo Bill Country

Finding the time to post these blogs is a little tougher than I thought it was gonna be. Right now, it's a little after 5 in the morning and I wanted to post a quick update before I was on the road and out of cell service again... Well, now it's almost 6 am because the app on my iPad just crashed as in was getting ready to post! So here's a quicker update...

After a big day in Yellowstone on Monday, I decided to hang out in Cody yesterday. The main downtown area is maybe about 5 blocks long, but the actual town stretches several miles in all directions. Yeah, they even have a Walmart! But most of the downtown either caters to cowboys or cowboy wannabes with plenty of saloons and shops selling cowboy hats and boots. As a matter of fact, the town is named and was partially founded by one of the most famous cowboys of all, William "Buffalo Bill" Cody.






Just outside of the main downtown area is the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, a really fine museum all about BB and the Old West.

As the day wound down, I returned to some of the overlooks I had seen on Monday just outside of town and after the sun set, I had never seen so many stars! I'll try to post some of the star shots later. They need a bit of tweaking.



Oh, and many of the shops sell Bear Spray. I didn't buy any and this is probably the closest I'll get to one, courtesy of the BB Museum...


- Posted from my iPad

Location:Cody, Wyoming

Ric's Epic Adventure - Part 2: Yellowstone!

Sunday night, when I got to the motel from the Cody airport it was dark. So I really wasn't aware just how different my surroundings were until I got up Monday morning and took a look out of my motel door...




Well, it was like waking up in a different world! I think one of my first thoughts was how BIG everything is out here. Soon, after breakfast I headed out to Yellowstone. Its about 60 miles away to the East Entrance, and it's not exactly a quick trip. Especially because I kept getting distracted by the sights from the road and I would have to stop the car to grab a few photos. This area, not far from Cody, is called "Holy City" because it supposedly resembles the ancient city of Jerusalem...





Finally, I arrived at Yellowstone. The place is massive. I did the southern part of it, which consisted of a stop at Yellowstone Lake, a short mile hike to Natural Bridge, a lot of steaming boiling water holes and I finally ended up at Old Faithful at about 3:30 in the afternoon. Here are a few of the highlights...






























I stayed for 2 eruptions of the famous geyser and hit the road again at about 6 pm. It was overcast and I was loosing light pretty fast. But it seemed every time I travelled another mile or so, there were more sites to see, so it was pretty slow going and i wasn't going to be able to do the Northern part of the park until another day. Fortunately, my delays put me in the exact right spot when the sun started breaking through after a brief rain. There was an amazing rainbow, that I was taking a picture of as I was driving, looking for a place to pull over. Once I found a spot, the rainbow had already started to fade, but behind me was a breathtaking sunset and a perfect way to cap off my first visit to Yellowstone...




For many of these shots, including the one above, I took multiple exposures, so I can process some "HDR" type shots when I get back. Speaking of getting back, I didn't get back to my motel room until almost midnight, so today I am going to explore Cody, before returning to Yellowstone tomorrow!

- Posted from my iPad

Location:Yellowstone National Park

Ric's Epic Adventure - Part 1: The Adventure Begins

After a very long Summer, my 2 week vacation is finally here. This is the first time I had 2 weeks in a row off since the early '90s, and man, am I pumped!

Right now, i'm waiting to get on the first of three flights that will eventually take me to Cody, Wyoming, where I will be trekking to Yellowstone National Park tomorrow. This will be the first of several National Parks I intend to visit and i'm hoping to get a lot of great pictures.

Anyway, I seem to have gotten off to a less than auspicious start. As I made my way thru airport security I was told that I was randomly selected for a more thorough search! Maybe I was looking suspicious with my giant backpack filled with photo gear.




After making it successfully thru the screening process, I'm told by the kind folks at Continental Airlines that my backpack will probably not fit in the bin, so it is going to have to be gate checked. Not good... Be back soon...

On the plane now... It's a smallish commuter to Cleveland. My seat is both a window and an aisle. I was able to move the camera and 3 lenses into my padded messenger bag, so i'm glad I brought it. What I didn't bring was a jacket. I left it in the car when my wife, Diane dropped me off. She called just before I boarded to let me know. It may get down to the 20s in and around Yellowstone so, I may already know what my first purchase will be.



That's it for the first report. Just touched down in Cleveland and I have full bars so I'm sending this puppy now! This may be a bit of a learning process since it's the first time blogging from the iPad!



- Posted from my iPad

Location:Albany International Airport and the sky!

Steeplechase!

 click on the pix for bigger views!

Last week's best shot at the track was taken with a remote shutter on a mini tripod sitting in the grass right next to the hurdle where the horses jump for the Steeplechase races!  I set up the camera, but it was actually WTEN producer Dave Mink that pushed the button on the remote.  I had my hands full with the TV camera. My Canon 7D was set to take continuous shots in rapid succession once the shutter was pressed in the hopes of getting a decent one.  Surprisingly, the camera was still going off when I went to retrieve it, even though my pal Dave was no longer pushing the button.  Let's just say there were an awful lot of images to erase!

Besides cropping for more of a panoramic type shot, there was quite a bit of editing done to this photo... Here's the original...

First off, I increased the saturation in both the sky and the grass and upped the contrast just a little. There was another camera on the ground in front of the banner covering up the C and the H, so I had to get rid of that and rebuild the letters...

Next, I cloned out the people's heads that are peaking over the hedge.  That's me, Dave Mink and intern Jenna Cottrell under that lead horse...

There was also a distracting red helmet over the lead horse's hind quarters...

I got rid of it.  For the pic, I think we'll just assume that the jockey on that horse was riding a couple inches lower!

That's about it.  The shot was taken with my 10-22mm lens at f/4.5 at 1/2500 sec with an ISO of 400!

Surviving the Summer of Hell

For my day job, I, along with some of my WTEN cohorts have been sentenced to covering all 6 plus weeks at the Saratoga Race Course' 2011 season. Everyday we come up with track related stories for the news and have to be done in time to man the cameras for LIVE coverage from 4 to the end of the news at 6:30.

Last week leading up to opening day, we dealt with a heat wave with hot and humid temps well into the 90s. We got to conclude our first official week with a heavy downpour. Most work days have ended up being between 10-12 hours long and sometimes I actually forget what day of the week it actually is! Its like the hot and sweaty version of Groundhog Day, except in the movie Bill Murray awoke every day to Sonny and Cher singing "I Got You Babe." At the track, they play Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind" at the end of the final race, usually about the time we are getting for our last LIVE hit. This will go on until the track closes for the season on Labor Day, which right now, seems an incredibly long way off. Thank God for the overtime which will help pay for a 2 week vacation I have coming up toward the end of September. Right now, I just have to survive until then!

Shot taken by intrepid reporter Christine O'Donnell of Ric Easton trying to stay cool at his camera perch

Anyway, to try and keep my sanity throughout this seemingly endless gig, I am grabbing my DSLR and snapping shots whenever I get a free minute. Hopefully, every once in awhile, I'll get something pretty good.

The best shot of this first full week of racing is from under the rail during Wednesday's first race. Since photographers are not allowed right next to the rail during a race, I set the camera on a small tripod and had to use a remote trigger to fire off the shot. Went with my wide 10-22 lens to get the rail in the shot. Here it is...

It was pretty much hit or miss, there were a lot of shots with horses either just leaving or entering the frame. This was one of the few that seemed framed perfectly. I do wish the horses and the jockeys were a little sharper. I probably should have gone for a faster shutter speed, as 1/400th of a second may not have been enough!

The Painters' Truck

Spent all week up at the Saratoga Race Track (for my real job as a videographer for News 10). It was a HOT week.  Temps in the 90s, 3 days in a row.  Expected to be there again today.

Anyway, a lot of folks were working in the heat, getting things ready for yesterday's Opening Day.  These painters had been touching up the infield and had finally called it quits at about 3 in the afternoon on Thursday...

What I found fascinating was their truck.  Old, rusted and paint speckled, it was a thing of beauty...

I had actually wanted to get a shot of the 2 guys with the truck, but they were not really in the mood to pose for pictures.  So I settled for reporter Christine O'Donnell and Sports Anchor, Drew Brill!

Click on any of the pix for a bigger view!

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