Fall Creek Falls

The snow and ice has disappeared early this year, but the countryside hasn't started to green up yet along the Snake River near Swan Valley, Idaho.

Just a couple of miles off the main road, Fall Creek drops off a cliff into the Snake River.  Fishermen have the best view as they drift down the Snake in their fishing boats.

Anywhere else, these falls would be a tourist attraction with trails, guard rails, parking lots, and souvenirs.  They are totally undeveloped.  There are no signs to help you find the place, and you need to be careful around the unprotected cliff edge.

The view from the cliff is largely obscured by brush and trees, so it takes some effort around the top of the cliff to get a decent photo.  Morning light would probably be best to photograph spectacular Fall Creek Falls.

Mountain Goats

Mountain goats are often seen in the Snake River Canyon near Alpine, Wyoming.  It isn't unusual to see a few fairly close to the road in winter, but when we were there, they were a long way up the mountain.

Several members of our Sharp Shooters Camera Club have taken beautiful close-up photos of these interesting animals, but I wasn't so lucky.  However, I was extremely fortunate to see a huge herd of over 75 goats grazing their way across the mountain.  The snow had just about melted, so I suppose they were taking advantage of the bare ground to find food.

The herd was scattered over a wide area and was gone in about a half hour.  This huge herd was probably a nursery group of nannies (females) and kids.  The billies (males) usually form much smaller groups and keep to themselves.  These photos show just a small part of the widely scattered herd.  As the weather warms up they will head for higher elevations and won't be seen again until next winter.         

Cattle Ranch Sleigh

Much of the ranch work in the Bear Lake Valley is still done with horse-drawn equipment.

I visited the Hulme Ranch to photograph cows being fed from horse-drawn sleighs.  Chad Hulme drove one of the two sleighs.

The sleighs are used in winter to travel over snow and ice.



A farm dog, Mollie, watches Chad bring in his sleigh for a load of hay bales.

It was a gorgeous morning with no wind and temperatures in the twenties. Perfect for photography.


Jon Peterson drove the second sleigh.

I hitched a ride and was amazed at how well the horses were trained.  Jon could tie the reins to the post in the foreground and control the horses with verbal commands.  Photography was fairly difficult because of the lack of room on the sleigh and a rough ride on the frozen ground.

The big hay bales are sliced into slabs 6 or 8 inches thick by the baler before they are tied into blocks.  When the sleigh gets to the cows the twine is cut and slabs of hay are pushed off to form a long line of feed.

Mollie loves being with John on the sleigh and keeps a really close eye on the cows.  My thanks go to Jim Parker for inviting me on this shoot, Chad Hulme for letting me photograph work on his ranch, and Jon Peterson for putting up with us photographers.

Fire Dance in the Snow

Linda and I watched a Tongan fire dance in the snow last night.


A large number of people crowded the beautiful home of Dr.Charles and Elaine Merrell to have dinner and watch Elder Fotu demonstrate a dance typical of his culture in Tonga.


Elder Fotu is a Mormon missionary assigned to Montpelier, Idaho and the surrounding area.  The Merrell's invited community members of various faiths and backgrounds for a wonderful evening of friendship.

1/8 second, f4.5, ISO 400 

Elaine Merrell had showed us some beautiful photos she had taken of a fire dance, so we were eager to see Elder Fotu perform.

He was certainly not used to the cold of our mountain city, but was a good sport and thrilled us all with a spectacular show.  He was standing in a snow bank, there were light snow flurries, and the temperature was in the 20's. We didn't have much time for photos because the dance lasted just a few minutes.  It took a tremendous amount of energy and was very tiring for the performer.

His remarkable performance included fire eating.


1/45 second, f4.5, ISO 1600


                 1/30 second, f5.6, ISO 1600

I tried several techniques in the short time we had for photos, and was glad I brought a flashlight so I could change camera settings.  Flash lit up snowflakes and they looked like bright spots in images.  I like the yellow glow from the fire better than the white light of the flash and have not included any flash images in this post.  ISO settings higher than 1600 improved detail in his face but produced more noise than I liked.  Next time I will try a slower shutter speed to produce a more abstract blur of fire.

Linda and I want to thank Elder Fotu for introducing us to one part of his culture.  We enjoyed meeting him. We also thank the Merrell's for a wonderful, unique evening.

Cisco Beach Wave Ice

Bear Lake went through huge changes over the past year when the water level rose at a record pace and reached capacity for the first time in many years.  Trees and other plants that had been growing on the dry lake bed for years started to die off as they became submerged.

Many of these trees were just off-shore at Cisco Beach on the east side of the lake in Utah.  Waves that often keep the lake from freezing splashed against the dying trees and formed unique ice shapes.

Sometimes the splashing water ran down the trees and formed bell-shaped ice formations.



Photography was a challenge here.  Strong wind, freezing temperatures, and icy uneven footing made it an interesting day.  I plan to go back again soon!


Bear Lake is located half in Idaho and half in Utah.  Our home is 20 miles north of the lake in Montpelier, Idaho



Millions of shoreline bullrushes also died when the water rose.  These reeds washed ashore and were hit by the freezing waves.



Encased in ice.  Nature's beauty can even be found in dying plants in freezing weather.



Winter patterns

This has been a strange winter so far in the Bear Lake Valley.  By now we should have a lot of snow on the ground, wildlife should be coming out of the hills, and the ski areas should be going strong.  There have been several storms and the weather has been cold, but there is little snow accumulation.  So what is out there for photographers?

When you add wind to a little snow you get drifts, and a simple weed with it's shadow in late afternoon light can be beautiful.

When the snow isn't very deep a little grass can stick out and add some simple straight lines to the beautiful snow curves.

The Bear Lake Valley often gets fog when the temperature drops and this can produce hoar frost or "rime".  Unlike the snow curves in the first two photos, to get rime there must be no wind at all.  The frost forms on nearly everything, often outlining leaves and branches.  Temperatures had been below zero for several mornings when this photo was taken.

The background in this photo is fog and naturally a little gray in the subdued light.  I was fortunate to find a place where all background detail was obscured.  This beautiful phenomenon will usually disappear soon after the fog dissipates and the sun strikes the frost.



Watch your exposure when photographing snow, frost, and fog.  The camera will try to expose an average gray, so you might need to add exposure to make your photos white enough.  But don't overdo it or you will lose the natural look. If all else fails, exposure can be tweaked in PhotoShop, but it is nice to get it right to begin with.

Crystal, Colorado Ghost Town

Crystal, Colorado is famous for its picturesque "mill", but it is difficult to get there.  I was on my second trip of the year with photographer friends from California.  We knew that the road into Crystal is not for the casual driver.  It requires an ATV or a high clearance vehicle, preferably four wheel drive, and not too big.  The driver should be experienced on very rough roads, and unafraid of driving on narrow, rocky benches with big drop-offs.

In this photo, Bruce Gregory's Nissan Xterra approaches a short bench through a rock slide zone as Stephen Johnson walks the road.  The canyon is so steep that much of the road is in shadow in the middle of the afternoon.

The reward for driving the spectacular road is the Crystal Mill.  This mis-named building was not a mill, but actually housed a huge compressor which was powered by water from the Crystal River that dropped down the vertical penstock.  The compressor ran drills in nearby mines.  The building was built in 1893 and retired in 1917.




We met Chris Cox, owner of the famous "mill", who told us that it is shored up with cables on the inside.  Local volunteers have done concrete work to support the penstock, and have donated their time and labor to replace the roof.  Without their help, the building would have collapsed long ago.




We heard that most people photograph the "mill" and go home, not knowing there is a ghost town just down the road.

There are a dozen or so buildings in a picturesque mountain setting with plenty of aspen trees.

The Cox family has owned the town for five generations.  They have fixed up five of the buildings as rentals that are popular with photographers.  Some of them even have hand-cranked telephones to connect with each other, but not with the outside world.  We thank Chris Cox for his hospitality and information about this beautiful ghost town.