jasoncraderblog.com » Nature

Pops on the River 2011

Jason Crader — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:31:56 +0000

I had a great time last night at Pops on the River. About 30 other photographers and I, gathered around 5PM to stake out our prime location and to have a cookout to celebrate the 4th of July. After grilling and eating way too much, we enjoyed listening to the Arkansas Orchestra play as we sat on the banks of the Arkansas River. You couldn’t have asked for better weather either. A nice breeze and a few high clouds helped keep the temperature down.

Here are a few of my favorite images from last night’s fireworks display.

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Expedition 2010 | Glacier National Park Time Lapse Video @ Sunset

Jason Crader — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:45:39 +0000

I’ve had a chance to go through most of the photos and videos I shot during my recent trip out west. Here is a time lapse I shot of a sunset in Glacier National Park. The full length video is over an hour long but I compressed it to about a minute to create this time lapse. I shot this in five minute segments on my Nikon D3s camera. Let me know what you think!

Expedition 2010 | Day 10 – The End

Jason Crader — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 03:05:05 +0000

Four National Parks + seven states + ten days + 4,772 miles + $15.80 for toll roads + 3,778 images = Expedition 2010

I had a wonderful time the past couple of weeks shooting in some of our nation’s most beautiful parks. Check out the previous blog posts to see my adventures along the way. Here are a few of my favorites from the trip!

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Expedition 2010 | Days 8-9 – The Rockies | Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

Jason Crader — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:45:20 +0000

I arrived in Rocky Mountain National Park late yesterday afternoon. It was raining when I arrived and it rained all afternoon and night. I got up early this morning to find elk in the campground. I saw them enter the camp just before dusk to feed on the grass and apparently they stayed there all night. After I broke camp down, I headed up Trail Ridge Road. It is the highest continuous motorway in the United States, with more than eight miles lying above 11,000′ and a maximum elevation of 12,183′. The name “Trail Ridge Road” derives from its proximity to historic pathways used by native peoples to cross the Rocky Mountains.

I had a wonderful time viewing the landscape and wildlife along the road. Some of the highlights were three moose, dozens of ground squirrels, pika, and yellow-bellied marmots, and a coyote killing a ground squirrel. The morning was clear but the rainy pattern began again early in the afternoon so I decided to head back toward Arkansas.

Below are a few of my favorite photos from Rocky Mountain National Park.

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Expedition 2010 | Days 4-7 – The Campsite | Glacier National Park

Jason Crader — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 02:41:37 +0000

When I do a road trip, I don’t like to plan much. This is great most of the time because I have the freedom to do as I please but it gets me in trouble too. On this trip, I’ve had a super tough time finding a camping site. That’s why I only stayed a half day in Yellowstone and it’s why I almost had to find another place to stay the last couple of days in Glacier. Camping is super popular in our National Parks (even one that is so far away from everything…like Glacier). Every site in Glacier was gone by the end of the day. I was lucky to find one of the few remaining sites my first day in the park. I wanted to stay at a different site but it was full when I arrived so I had to camp at a different site. The next day, I decided to go on the opposite side of the park (about a two hour drive) to camp in the site I originally wanted. I got up early but made a pit stop at Logan Pass to photograph wildlife. I got there around 7:30am and hiked a trail behind the Visitor’s Center for a few hours. I got back in my truck around 11am. That’s when checkout time is for all of the campsites in the campground. I had already checked out of my site because I knew I was going to camp on the other side of the park. This was a dumb mistake because once I got to the campground on the other side of the park; I found out that all of the sites were taken. I had to drive the two hours back to my previous campground. When I got back, my site was taken and only four remained. I was able to get a site but this time I decided to reserve it for several days and just stay on this side of the park.

Here are a few of my favorites from my four days in Glacier. I took over 2000 images while I was there so I’m sure I’ll post some more in my final post next week.

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Expedition 2010 | Day 3 – The Wolf | Yellowstone National Park

Jason Crader — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:55:58 +0000

I traveled to Yellowstone National Park today with the intent of camping for a day before heading to Glacier National Park. This didn’t happen because all of the campsites were taken by 9:30AM this morning. Instead of reserving a space I just thought I’d travel up and find one of the first-come/first-serve sites but I didn’t arrive early enough. I did stay in the park most of the day before leaving in the afternoon to head toward Glacier.

I drove through most of Yellowstone today without seeing any wildlife. This is pretty unusual. Last year, I saw just about every big game animal in the Park, but not today. I was about seven miles away from the western exit when this all changed. A gray wolf was in a field near a head of elk. I pulled my truck over and hopped out to photograph the scene. It appeared at first that the wolf was preying on this elk herd but as I stayed with the group I noticed that he was in search of something. About a half mile from where I first spotted him, the wolf found a carcass about 200 yards away from me in the middle of the field. He stayed there for over an hour eating what remained. I wasn’t able to get a great shot of the wolf but I’m very proud of the shot below. Most people never get the opportunity to see a wild wolf and I was very fortunate to get to see one today. I’ve heard wolves before but this is the first wolf I’ve ever photographed in the wild. I thought my trip through Yellowstone was going to be a bust today, but it turned out to be awesome! Check back later in the week to see my journeys through Glacier National Park. I’ll be camping out there for several days, so my next post will probably occur this weekend.

Expedition 2010 | Day 2 – The Climb | Mt. Evans, CO

Jason Crader — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:19:22 +0000

It’s been a year since I climbed to the summit of Mt. Evans in Colorado. In that year, many things have changed in my life, but nothing has changed atop the mountain. It is still super cold at the top; it is still 14,264ft; and it is still one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. The climb to the top of this mountain is mainly done via your vehicle on a narrow, winding two-lane road up the side of the mountain, but you do have to hike the last several hundred feet to reach the summit. At these altitudes, you have to do everything slow. It can be hard to catch your breath if you move too fast. I usually don’t have problems at high altitudes but I got a headache today. I’ve been a bit under the weather which may have played a role in this but the main culprit was me staying on top of the mountain for most of the day.

My goal today was to photograph mountain goats. Last year, dozens of goats could be found at the top of the mountain, so I thought this would occur again. I was wrong. I only saw two; a female and her kid. I did manage to get a few shots of the pair, but I was bit disappointed in not finding any more on the mountain. I did see a lot of female big horn sheep which I photographed early in the morning. My favorite image from these is of a female sheep that is warning one of the younger sheep to get out of her way. She has her head cocked back and is jumping in the air. In the next image, she hits the other sheep on the head for not getting out of the way fast enough.

My main pursuit this year while on top of the mountain was a pika. It’s a small rodent that’s in the rabbit family. This pika was busy gathering food, so I parked myself near his den to get the shots you see of him below. My favorite images of wildlife are those that involve action. I really like the shots I got of him jumping from rocks with food in his mouth. These are my favorites from the day. I stayed with the pika for about an hour before heading back down the mountain. On my way down, I spotted a yellow-bellied marmot on a rock near the road so I had to stop to take some photos. While shooting the marmot, several of her babies crawled out of their den. I was able to get a few shots of them before the mother hurried them back inside. After shooting this, I headed down the mountain and began my trek toward Yellowstone. I got about half way due to spending a couple hours in the Snowy Ridge mountain range in Wyoming. This is a beautiful place that I hope to get to explore more in the future.

Tomorrow I head to Yellowstone to begin a couple days of photography there before heading to my ultimate destination – Glacier National Park. Check back tomorrow for another update from the trip!

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Expedition 2010 | Day 1 – The Drive | Little Rock to Denver

Jason Crader — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:00:29 +0000

The drive tends to be the hardest part of any trip I ever take. But, it’s the necessary evil if you are going to use an automobile to travel. Today, I began my annual summer photo expedition and it involved a 15 hour/998 mile drive from Little Rock to just west of Denver. This year’s expedition will take me to Glacier National Park in Montana, but I’m going to make a couple of pit stops along the way. The first stop will be to Mt. Evans tomorrow. I plan to climb to the top and hopefully photograph mountain goats that call this place home. From there, I’ll make my way to Yellowstone and then eventually to Glacier. All of this will involve driving, but I got my hardest day out of the way today! It was a rather uneventful drive. I had great weather for 99% of the way with only a small thunderstorm in Hays, Kansas that slowed me down a bit, but it helped wash off the thousands of bugs that were mashed on my windshield. I didn’t get a chance to do any real photography today, but here is a photo I took with my Canon G10 while driving on I70 in Colorado. Check back tomorrow for another update!

Garvan Gardens Tulip Photography

Jason Crader — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:05:38 +0000

I took a quick trip down to Garvan Gardens today in Hot Springs with a couple photographer friends of mine to shoot the tulips which are beginning to bloom. Here are a few of my favorite images from this afternoon’s shoot.

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AOPC Little Rock Zoo Photos

Jason Crader — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:51:06 +0000

I attended the Arkansas Outdoor Photographers Club photography field trip to the Little Rock Zoo yesterday morning. We were allowed to enter the zoo a couple of hours early. There were a total of 35 other photographers on this trip. Here are a few of my favorite images.

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