Casa Budde West Construction
Posted: October 29

A blast from the past!

I was looking through some stuff and I ran across some photos that were taken during the early days of Casa Budde West. I thought some of you who have visited might enjoy these.

Rocky Mountain National Park
Posted: September 13

Rick Scheussler and I drove back through Rocky Mountain National Park on the way back to St. Louis. We spent most of one day driving from the west entrance near Grand Lake to the east entrance near Estes Park. We did not do any hikes on any of the many trails leading into the backcountry. There were NO clouds and thus the photos presented here aren't very good in my opinion. Short of going into the backcountry, I don't think Rocky Mountain National Park presents much in the way of nice photographic opportunities. Its vistas are much TOO VAST to ever be captured in a single photo composition. Individual peaks are not in and of themselves very photogenic either. Color me spoiled by the Tetons!

Grand Teton National Park
Posted: September 11

Rick Schuessler and I visited the Pilgrim Creek area for a morning shoot.

As you can see from the above photo, the clouds were low lying this morning and probably covered a bit more of the peaks than would make for a more ideal photo composition.

Craters of the Moon National Preserve
Posted: August 30

These are the other photos I took while visiting Craters of the Moon National Preserve. I arrived in the afternoon when the skies were pretty bright. I drove the Loop Road mainly looking for a location to return to for my Milky Way shoot. I took some other photos as well. The next morning with a bit better lighting conditions and a few clouds I drove the loop again for some more photos.

Craters of the Moon National Preserve
Posted: August 29

I went to Craters of the Moon National Monument yesterday with the primary objective of taking Milky Way photos. Craters is designated as a "dark sky" area and I thought a change of venue from the Swan Valley old schoolhouse was in order as well. This was very much a learning experience for me. - More -

Big Holes
Posted: August 25

I went on a Jeep ride with my good friend Rodney Henry into the upper reaches of the Big Hole mountain range on the west side of Teton Valley. We drove some very rugged roads all the way to the top of the highest peaks in the range. Cell towers are located on these peaks.

Wash U Swim Team Mini Reunion
Posted: August 25

Over this past weekend, I hosted a mini Wash U Swim Team Reunion here at Casa Budde West. Pictured above L-R: Don McIntosh (Middlebury, VT), Bruce Canaga (Vienna, VA), Ted Roche (Salt Lake City UT) and yours truly. This picture was taken on top of Fred's Mountain. No flowers were harmed in taking this photo. During the visit we took a number of hikes in the area, ate some fantastic food but mostly enjoyed each other's company. During this too short visit, a great time was had by all.

Grand Teton National Park
Posted: August 20

I dropped Bruce Canaga off at the Jackson airport around 9:30 AM. I brought my camera gear along but there were no clouds in the sky. I debated whether or not to take a drive into the Park and decided why not! I am so glad that I did as the clouds, nice clouds, began to appear. I wanted to take photos that were not the standard photos so I drove the Pacific Creek and Pilgrim Creek Roads and worked compositions looking back at the Tetons with various foreground elements.

Bluegrass Festival
Posted: August 12

This past weekend was the 32nd Annual Targhee Bluegrass Music Festival. Unlike last year, the weather was nice and cool. As usual, the music was great and the crowds large.

Blacktail Ponds Overlook
Posted: August 03

I went over to the Park this morning to meet up with some other members of the Teton Photography Club for a sunrise shoot. Got up at 4:45 AM. Ugh! The sunrise conditions weren't all that great but it was a nice opportunity to get to know some other folks.

Music on Main
Posted: August 01

The weather was not the best this evening (rainy at times with a bit of lightning) but in spite of that it was overall a great evening. I got a chance to talk to a number of friends, some whom I had not seen in awhile. Always good to see friends. The musical guest was Pinky and the Floyd obviously a Pink Floyd cover band. They were very good.

This is Pretty Amazing
Posted: July 25

My friend Mike Margulus passed this link along. It links to a YouTube video which displays the life cycle of various flowers in a time lapse manner. It is fairly long (~ 5 minutes) but is a very beautiful video.

Music On Main
Posted: July 25

Nice night for music. The Young Dubliners were the musical guest.

Music On Main
Posted: July 18

Nice night for music.

Targhee Fest
Posted: July 14

The weather turned out to be no where near as hot as predicted. I set my sun tent up in the mostly shady area and was quite comfortable all weekend long. Targhee Fest had an outstanding lineup of performers this year. Some of my favorites were Commonheart, Taj Mahal, Los Lobos, Larkin Poe, Galactic, The Motet and of course, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue.

Music On Main
Posted: July 11

There was quite a large crowd this evening. The first performers were a very, very good group of young musicians from Teton Valley. The featured performer was Carrie Rodriguez whom I have seen perform before at Targhee Fest.

Driggs Fireworks
Posted: July 04

DUMB LUCK. I often say that my life has been governed by Dumb Luck. Well proven correct once again. For several days prior to the Fourth, I scoured Driggs to attempt to find the location of the launch of this year's fireworks so that I could plan where I wanted to set up my camera to take photos. Try as I could, I could not find the location. I was told by someone in the City of Driggs office that it was somewhere around the airport. Tried again but did not find it. Ok so night of the fireworks I went to a location that would give me a clear sight line to the airport and the surrounding areas. Set up my camera on my tripod waiting for the show to begin. Never on time I waited. All of a sudden the show started. Lo and behold, my vantage point was no more than 100 yards from the location of the launch. Can you say DUMB LUCK?

Swan Valley
Posted: July 02

I took an overnight trip down to Swan Valley to take Milky Way and sunrise photos. As usual, the Milky Way photos were somewhat of a disappointment. However, the sunrise and the clouds were phenomenal!

Music on Main
Posted: June 27

Tonight was my first Music on Main of the season. Last week it was too cold and I did not stay long enough to take any photos. It was not an overly target rich environment this evening so I only have a few photos to offer here.

Trail Creek Pass
Posted: June 18

I had lunch in Ketchum Idaho... a great club sandwich! It had been many years since I had been through Ketchum. I had forgotten how lovely a location it was located in as it is surrounded by mountains. From Ketchum, I drove north over Trail  Creek Pass. It was a very pretty drive. The road at its highest elevations was an unimproved road but seemed to have been recently bladed and was quite nice. It was advertised as "one way with pullouts". This drive is definitely do-again-able!

Craters of the Moon National Preserve
Posted: June 17

I was not expecting much in the way of photography options here but boy was I surprised! I arrived in the late afternoon and therefore the lighting conditions were pretty nice. I was also greeted by some fairly nice clouds to further improve the compositions. I do plan to return in the future. This area is also designated as a "dark sky" area so I may time my return to coincide with a new moon. If you want to more about this National Preserve, click here.

Camas National Wildlife Area
Posted: June 05

I visited the Camas National Wildlife Area this afternoon. The various ponds were very full and the mosquitoes were in abundance. These photos were taken handheld with my Tamron 150-600mm lens and they were heavily cropped for presentation here. - About Camas National Wildlife Area -

Gros Ventre
Posted: June 02

After dropping the Odenwald's off at the airport, I did some photography up the Gros Ventre canyon.

Grand Teton National Park
Posted: May 31

Decided to do some photography while Steve, Kathy & Matt rode bicycles in the park.

Grand Teton National Park
Posted: May 25

Went over to Jackson for the Old West Parade and then on to the park to take some photos of often taken subjects with a significant amount of snow in the mountains. The clouds were not the most cooperative however.

Capital Valley
Posted: May 21

Since the weather had been so funky on my first drive through the La Sal Mountains, I decided to redo the second half of the drive to try to capture some better photos looking down into Capital Valley. I had planned to stay in the Moab area at least another couple of days but when I woke up Wednesday and looked out the window, I decided to leave Moab and head on to Driggs.

Arches National Park
Posted: May 20

Today was spent in Arches National Park. Again the weather was not the most cooperative.

- About Arches National Park -

La Sal Mountains
Posted: May 19

Today I drove the La Sal Mountain Loop Road. I had not done that loop since the time I visited Moab with Don McIntosh and Vinnie many years ago. The weather was not overly conducive to top notch photography but you works with what you got! - About La Sal Mountains -

Utah Highway 128
Posted: May 18

This was the first time that I had driven the whole of Highway 128. I started at the north end of Highway 128 at Interstate 70. It follows the Colorado River and tees into Utah Highway 191 at Moab. - About Utah Highway 128 - Video of the drive

Teton Photography Club
Posted: February 20

I recently joined the Teton Photography Club which is based in Jackson WY. The February monthly meeting will feature photos from a number of members, The photo above is my submission for this event. Those photographers who were not able to attend in person were asked to present a short video describing the photo. What follows is the transcript of my video.  - More -

Heaston Visit - Little Rock
Posted: February 05

This past weekend I visited my good friends Bill and Jane Heaston in Little Rock AR. It was a fantastic weekend filled with basketball, Super Bowl, old friends, new friends, many laughs and copious quantities of food. This was also the first time I met Brecon, their one year old Corgi. Quite the people dog. The photo above is of Little Rock's Central High School... a national landmark. This is the first school integrated in 1957. These students became known as the Little Rock Nine.

Blood Moon
Posted: January 25

We had a wonderful "Blood Moon" on January 20. I had planned to go to Forest Park in order to get some foreground interest in the shot. As I came out of my front door and looked up in the sky, I realized that the moon was too high in the sky to get a shot with any foreground interest so I set up my tripod in my driveway. It was quite cold out but I was dressed for that. I was out there for about 45 minutes taking photos. As you can see from the photo above, I am not very skilled at obtaining a sharp focus on celestial objects. If you follow this blog, last summer's Milky Way photos also highlighted this weakness as well.