Yellowstone National Park

Yesterday was a dramatic day in Yellowstone National Park. As I entered from the north and as I ascended in altitude I could see the dark cloud bank building in the west. A raincoat and umbrella were included in my gear bag today along with multiple cameras. Off the road and down the hillside I walked and hovered in an area beside the massive Yellowstone River. Clouds gathered and soon lightening was dancing above my head in the dark clouds. Then the rain came, the lightening struck across the river from me and it was close enough that I ran up the hill and took cover in my car! As soon as the weather lightened up a bit, I hiked back down to my position and hoped that my client was not put off by the weather. Then, as planned Nishaad and Alexa came walking down the hill toward the general vicinity. Occupying myself with photographing the sky, and whatever else I could find, I tried to look like any other YNP photog! Then Nishaad made his move.

After the surprise, the tears of joy and happy hearts… we planned our next location and took to the very busy road only to be stopped dead in our tracks by a buffalo traffic jam. A herd of Bison decided to mover across the road and we were stuck for 20 minutes and things were not moving. This made it impossible to reach the Yellowstone Lake before sunset as planned.

So we turned back and opted to shoot briefly along side the road and made plans to continue our shoot on another day in the scenic Paradise Valley.

This story will be continued in about a week. Cheers to my newly engaged friends!

So, I packed up my gear and made plans with these two beautiful souls to meet with them in another place for more engagement photo fun.

The drive home toward the north was covered with a sky that was threatening a STORM. Then the visual drama kept building and I just had to stop and watch and photograph this supernatural looking display! Wow.. this one is going on a wall somewhere!

Jared proposed marriage to Jenn during their trip to Yellowstone National Park right after Independence Day. It was a warm and sunny afternoon in our nation’s first National Park… and it was GRAND! I got into the park a little early anticipating slow traffic, but the weekend flood of visitors had subsided a bit. So, I took the extra 30 minutes to roam around and do some location research for future proposals and elopements. So glad I did! I found this magic little river off one of the main roads. Driving slowly along a small road I saw the twinkle of a stream through a wall of thick green trees and bushes. Parking hastily, I walked and ducked down through the small opening, ‘a beyul perhaps’ into a heaven realm right here on earth! So after the big surprise I told them of my discovery and they were ALL IN to go there for some images at the end of our shoot. It was a glorious day in my backyard studio… smiles. Enjoy the view!

Dylan contacted me about his plan to visit Yellowstone National Park with his girlfriend Mali to tour our national treasure and to plan the magic moment… to propose marriage. He and I worked on the logistics and timing to include several scenic locations after the initial surprise proposal. We exchanged pictures so I could recognize the couple when they showed up at the overlook of the falls on the exact time and date.

It was a glorious morning! When I hiked down to the overlook the sun was beginning to fill the canyon which refracted rainbow rays in the spray from the massive falls. PERFECT! I had the place to myself for awhile until a small group of people began to arrive to view the falls. Soon I saw Dylan and Mali coming down the long wooden stairs toward the platform. They chatted and milled around while waiting for the opportunity to move up to the railing. I could see that other’s present were sensing what was about to happen! I’ll let my images tell the rest of the story!

Congratulations to Mali and Dylan! It was my pleasure to witness and capture this momentous time for you.

2020 is off to good start! Flying in the face of the threat of viral mayhem, this couple flew in from Texas to visit Montana, ski Big Sky and visit our nations first National Park. Unbeknownst to Jessica, Ben had much more in mind for their trip to Yellowstone Park. He contacted me about three weeks earlier to lay out the plan to propose and have it all photographed. This time of year visitors to the Park are few and far between, so it made it a little more difficult to pull it off without giving the secret away. In winter the majority of the visitors are fairly serious photographers hoping to photograph the wolves in the Lamar Valley, so I dressed the part! I got to the agreed upon location and post holed into the most scenic snowscape.
( I should have thought about my snow shoes!)

As they arrived and made their way across the snowy field, I photographed some of the scenic vistas and kept my eye on their progress to the place we had planned. It seemed that life stood still for a few minutes as they had private words and embraced. Then, the magic moment…

I’ll let my photos tell the rest of the story.

Harsh Vedant Kumar contacted me on short notice to see if I could meet he and his ‘wife to be’ unbeknownst to her, in the Lamar Valley. They were traveling here from Atlanta to see Yellowstone Park in the winter and Harsh was planning a GRAND SURPRISE! So I made a plan and pinpointed some scenic places we could potentially meet, then spoke with Harsh upon his arrival in Bozeman to coordinate our location and timing.

At this time of year many of the visitors to the park are photographers that are hoping to capture images of the wolfs and other wildlife. That made me a fairly normal person to see hanging around with cameras around my neck, and etc.

When I arrived they had gotten to the designated location a bit earlier than planned. So I grabbed my cameras and wondered out onto the snow covered boardwalk taking in the view and made some friendly ‘stranger’ small talk. Then Harsh pull the ring box out of his heavy coat and knelt before his lovely companion. Niru was overcome with tears of joy and then quick and repetitive “Yes, yes, yes, yes!!!” filled the air. ANOTHER GREAT SURPRISE IN YELLOWSONE PARK!

As the sun appeared and disappeared from behind the low lying clouds we drove to a few scenic places and captured some magical memories.

And one more detail, Harsh was so thoughtful that he secreted a few dresses from Niru’s bag at the hotel knowing that she might want some images in other than winter coats and snow pants. Good work Harsh!!!

Enjoy the view!