Larry Rogers ART & Motion

03/25/2024

The morning of October 14, 2023, was very chilly and a bit windy. We arrived at our planned shooting spot about a half hour before sunrise. The sky was beginning to brighten.

“I think this is where we saw the bears yesterday morning,” my friend Eric said as he eased the truck into a pull-over in Grand Teton National Park.

He was referring to Grizzly 793, known locally as “Blondie,” a bear with a troubled past. Local photographers have been documenting her life’s ups and downs for more than a decade. In the most recent five years she has lost at least two litters of cubs, reportedly due to male grizzly depredation.

As we scanned the landscape early that October morning, there was mist in the air, as commonly happens on cold mornings. Mist presents a challenge to photographers, in that many cameras struggle to auto-focus in the presence of mist or fog, even when those atmospheric conditions are light. When shooting with long telephoto lenses as we do for wildlife, atmospherics are even more troublesome.

“There they are!” Eric said in his loudest whisper voice, training his camera on the bear family.

I glanced in Eric’s direction to get a sense of where he was looking, then raised my binoculars. Indeed, Blondie was about 150 yards from us, across a grassy field and just beyond some stubby bushes and a line of trees. I could see her and her two CoYs (cubs-of-the-year). She and the cubs were clearly visible through a gap in the bushes, but the cubs were playfully moving.

I leaned over to look through the viewfinder of my camera. My fear was that the cubs would move to my left or right, out of the gap I was looking through. I fired a burst of shots with my camera, not certain that I had any decent shots. Then, as quickly as they had appeared, they were gone behind the row of bushes and trees. They had moved to my right.

By this time, a group of photographers had gathered. As if on cue, we all gathered up our tripods and moved briskly to our right. We moved twenty or thirty yards to our right where we could see another gap in the tree line at the far end of the grassy field. When we got there, there were no bears in sight through the gap. The family must have taken a break behind the tree line.

That’s the way it works with wildlife photography. It takes a lot of patience. Expect more failures than successes. Failures are disappointing, but never defining. Successes are few, but oh-so-sweet. My burst of about thirty frames yielded 28 throw-aways and two keepers. This one is pretty sweet… to my eye, at least.

02/28/2024

I have exciting news to share! During this year (2024), I will be physically located in the greater Yellowstone region for a minimum of four months, two in the spring and two in the fall. Between April 1st and May 31st, I will be located near Victor, Idaho, photographing every day in either Grand Teton NP or Yellowstone NP, or maybe both! This has been a dream of mine for a long time. My first choice would be to live here full time, but since that is not financially feasible at present, spending spring and fall here is a sweet compromise!

To celebrate this news, I am re-posting a picture and the "Story Behind the picture" because over 20K people on Facebook have reacted, commented or shared it in the past.

I will never forget the day I took this photograph of ‘Bison in the Mist’ at Midway Geyser basin because it was a cold, miserable, overcast fall morning. The first thermal feature you pass as you enter the basin from the parking lot is named 'Excelsior crater,' and it is so extremely hot that it generates an immense amount of foggy mist on cool days. I was initially very disappointed to see the mist, thinking that my photo outing that morning might be a bust.

"I should probably leave my gear in the car," I thought, concerned about getting the potentially harmful condensation from nearby geysers on my camera equipment. But I did grab my bag, and then I took the short walk up to the boardwalk.

Disappointed at the low visibility, I stood there thinking about other places to go, when just then I noticed the silhouette of a large bison ('buffalo' to some) barely visible in the mist. Instinctively, I reached into my bag for my camera. Then, another bison appeared, then another and another. I didn't expect great results, but I snapped off a few shots anyway. There's a lesson here - get a few shots anyway, you never know which ones will turn out great!

At that point, I actually did move on to another area of the park. Looking back on it, though, I wish I had stayed longer at Midway. Even after returning home from the trip, I didn’t get around to looking closely at my photographs for a couple of weeks. Around that time, a few of us at work were huddled in my cubicle as I clicked through perhaps 50 images from that trip. Suddenly, one of my co-workers tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to go back – she had seen something quite interesting. It turned out to be this photograph. Once I had paused on it for a few minutes, others started to point out different things of interest in the photo, like "How many bison are actually in this photo?"

The next day, my co-worker called to ask if I would sell her a framed print, and of course, I did. In fact, I ordered two of them and I still have one on my wall at home. The lesson I learned that day is to slow down and take time to ‘enjoy’ my own pictures. I also learned that I am not the best judge of my own art, which is the reason I so greatly enjoy reading your comments to my posts on my personal page, business page, or in Facebook groups.

These days, I am fortunate to be able to spend lots of time in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. I encourage you to take lots of photographs... even when your plans seem to be going bust, like my plans did that day at Midway Geyser Basin. 'Bison in the Mist' has become a best-seller for me, and I learned valuable lessons from that day!

11/21/2023

My Black Friday Sale is on. See the link below.

Never approach wildlife. Doing so can result in injury to you and others around you. This photo was taken with a long (600 mm) telephoto lens and teleconverter from a distance of well over 100 yards (October 14, 2023).

It was a very cold Fall morning in Grand Teton National Park. I was traveling with my best friend and fellow photographer, Eric Curby. We had been on the road since 4:30 am as we approached a familiar spot in the vicinity of Pilgrim Creek. A few familiar vehicles were already there as the pre-sunrise sky was beginning to lighten.

As I opened the door to step out, some other photographers were doing the same. We were all zipping up our coats and putting gloves on because it was shivering cold. As it is on many alpine Fall mornings when the air is very cold, something called ‘particulate matter’ was clearly visible through my binoculars. Particulate is a common term for ‘stuff in the air,’ such as water v***r that sometimes affects photos. I think of it as ‘barely visible fog.’ It isn’t bad enough to restrict driving, but it can affect photographs.

Everyone was looking around, and the sky was getting brighter and brighter.

“I wonder where they are today,” I said to Eric, who was also scanning both sides of the road.

“Most everybody is looking on the other side of the road today,” he replied. I decided to try that, too.

Suddenly, there they were! On the other side of the road from where we had seen them on the two previous mornings. “Blondie,” sometimes known as “Grizzly 793,” is a Grizzly sow reported to be sixteen years old. With her were two ‘COYs,’ or ‘cubs of the year.’ I won’t pretend to understand how grizzly bear numbers are assigned, or how their ‘names’ come about. I have asked rangers on a couple of occasions, but the answer both times was “We don’t name bears.” As for the numbers, there are articles online that associate numbers with collared bears, but I’m no expert. You may want to try asking a ranger yourself - maybe you’ll get the answer.

The famous grizzly family was barely visible through my binoculars, just beyond some trees and a field of tall grass. Light and distance - two important factors in getting good wildlife shots - were not in my favor that morning. The third factor, airborne particulate, was also working against me. But as I always do, I started shooting anyway. As the sky got brighter and the sun finally rose over the horizon, my shots got somewhat better but not great.

Scenes like this one sometimes cannot be appreciated in the field. I was shooting ‘bursts’ of 20-30 frames at a time. There was no time to look at individual shots. I was concentrating on the bears in the distance. Later that night, after downloading my shots to my computer I could take time. I was stunned by the intimacy shown between mom and cub in a short sequence of shots that included this one. I also remember how cold I was that day, literally shivering as I held down the shutter button. Perseverance and patience, I was reminded again, sometimes pay off. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1602041376/intimate-grizzly-sow-and-cub-wall-art?click_key=d05abb913ee42d6415d74849cf9317b346282ba3%3A1602041376&click_sum=3781b585&ref=shop_home_active_1&pro=1&frs=1&sts=1

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11/20/2023

I hope this message finds you well. Today, I'm reaching out for your support in achieving a significant milestone in my artistic journey.

Becoming a successful artist has been a lifelong pursuit for me, starting from receiving my first camera at age 8. Despite capturing over 20,000 stunning images of our National Parks and wild lands, sharing my art has been a challenge. After dedicating the last two years to perfecting my craft, I recently discovered I'm on the brink of the top 3% of all artists.

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Your support means the world to me, and I can't wait for you to be a part of this journey.

Warm regards,
Larry

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12/23/2022

I am lamenting the end of Fall, my favorite season of all in Yellowstone. Today, I am reminiscing about a most memorable day back in October 2021 that could have ended badly, but didn’t.

The morning started out cold and crisp - our last full day of a two-week stay in an Island Park AirBnB that was just perfect for our small group. Early that morning, we decided to drive south down to Jackson Hole and the Tetons, getting there in time for sunrise shots at Mormon Row. Our master plan for the day included getting some photos of my favorite of the Moulton Family barns, the T.A. Moulton Barn, then spending some time at Schwabacher’s Landing, before making our way back north by driving through Yellowstone.

What a great day it was! Everywhere we stopped, we got wonderful shots. The weather was splendid - that is, until it wasn’t. After the Tetons, our route took us through Yellowstone’s South Entrance on the John D. Rockefeller Parkway, continuing north past Lewis Lake up toward West Thumb junction. It was just before the junction that we made a fateful decision. “How about one last dinner at the Trout Hunter?” I asked. The Trout Hunter is a delightful restaurant in Island Park. Suddenly, we made a snap decision to call the restaurant to make a reservation for dinner that night.

“Dinner at eight, party of three, we have you down!” the reservation desk confirmed.

With dinner all set up, we proceeded to West Thumb junction, where we were faced with a second decision: Take the shorter route straight north past Old Faithful, then west at Madison, through West Yellowstone into Island Park, or the longer route passing by West Thumb, then west to Lake junction, north to Canyon and on around the loop back Madison and on into Island Park?. Checking our watches, we decided that we had plenty of time for the longer route, so we decided to stop at West Thumb, where we walked the loop trail. While we were out on the trail, I estimate the temperature dropped at least 15 degrees in a matter of 30 minutes, and the sky turned from a beautiful blue to what you see in this picture, an angry gray.

Out on the West Thumb boardwalk, the other people with me had gone their own way. I was alone, as I approached a magnificent view of Yellowstone Lake, where a massive storm was forming in the background. I set up my camera for a panorama shot, attempting to capture the entire lake by stitching together 8-10 partially overlapping shots. It was only after returning home to Ohio, where I could process the images on a large screen that I noticed some of the nuances of this photo. I love the greenish color cast of the water and the thin whitish layer of ice on the surface that starts a few feet from the shore and covers most of the lake. Of course, the star of the show is the multi-layered cloud bank creating an ominous background for the almost the entire frame. If I had known then how beautiful the final shot would be, I might have paused to enjoy it, but I was literally shaking, I was so cold.

I quickly folded up the tripod after shooting one sequence from left to right, followed by another sequence in the opposite direction. The wind picking up, I decided to double-time back to the car, where not surprisingly, the others were waiting in a running car. It felt so good to get inside and warm up!

Now, things were getting serious. The storm that looked so artistic as a backdrop to Yellowstone Lake was now on top of us and about to kick our butts. Ice pellets were hitting the windshield of the car like BBs out of a rifle, and wind gusts were pushing the car one way then another, making driving difficult. It went like that for next hour and a half, as we made our way to West Yellowstone and beyond, taking Highway 20 toward Island Park. Just as we left West Yellowstone, ice pellets turned to fluffy snow, and a lot of it. I jokingly took out my phone and recorded a short video, pretending to be a meteorologist on TV, “Ladies and gentlemen, you should not be out in this blizzard,” I remember saying. Little did I know how prophetic those words would become.

We eventually came to a hill that the car could not climb, and we were stuck! So were about a hundred other cars and several semi-trailers. We made one great decision before we got blocked by other cars, which was calling the Holiday Inn behind us in West Yellowstone, where they had one remaining room. We managed to reverse course, making it safely back to the hotel. By morning, the lobby of the hotel had been converted into a warming area for dozens of people not lucky enough to get a room.

Back at home now, it’s late December, and -3 degrees outside in Ohio, where we are experiencing a ‘bomb cyclone’ weather system with wind chill temps in the -30 degree range. But… what I pleasure I get every time I walk through my living room and see the five-foot long panorama of ‘Storm Over Yellowstone Lake’ that hangs over my sofa. On a day like today, that panorama, bordered by two windows where I can see blowing snow and icy streets all around, takes me back to that cold night last year. But hey, I got the shot!

08/04/2022

The day I took this photograph of ‘bison in the mist’ at Midway Geyser basin in Yellowstone National Park, I was out quite early on a cold Fall morning. Excelsior crater is so extremely hot that it generates an immense amount of foggy mist on cool days.
I was initially very disappointed to see the mist, thinking that my photo outing that morning might be a bust. As I stood there thinking about other places to go, I noticed the silhouette of a large bison barely visible in the mist. Then, another one appeared, then another and another. Not expecting any great results, I snapped off a few shots anyway. There's a lesson - get a few shots anyway, you never know what you might get.
On that trip I took so many photographs, and I was so tired at the end of each day, I didn’t get around to looking closely at my photographs until a couple of weeks after I got back home to Ohio. It has been my routine to pick out the best photos from a trip then post them to a sharing website. Quite often my co-workers ask if I got any good ones and using a sharing website makes it quite easy to share with everyone.
I still recall the day my first photo sale happened. A few of us at work were huddled in my cubicle as I clicked through perhaps 50 images from that trip. Suddenly, one of my co-workers tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to go back – she had seen something quite interesting – which turned out to be this photograph. Once I had paused on it for a few minutes, others started to point out different things of interest in the photo, like ‘how many bison are actually in this photo?’ The next day, she called to ask if I would sell her a framed print, and of course, I did. In fact, I ordered two of them and I still have one on my wall at home. The lesson I learned that day is to slow down and take some time to ‘enjoy’ my own pictures.
I hope you enjoyed this story of ‘Bison in the mist’ at Yellowstone National Park.

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07/18/2022

This is a story about the dramatic photo below of a juvenile Bald Eagle in flight was taken at a very life-changing moment in the lives of everyone on Earth. The date was February 5, 2020. If I knew of something called CoViD at that time, at most I may have heard it discussed in a roundabout way on the news. It was certainly not something that concerned me.
In December of 2019, a couple of months before I captured this photo, I did something I had done nearly every winter for the past twenty years - I got in touch with some photographer friends who live near the northern Mississippi River where it passes between the states of Illinois and Iowa in the USA, to discuss potential sightings of migratory Bald Eagles. These majestic birds have a horrific time surviving winter in their native nesting and breeding territories in Canada and Alaska, so they begin to migrate south into the northern United States in the Fall season, in search of food and survival.
I always look forward to the winter migration, because this gives me an opportunity to watch and photograph great numbers of these birds within a relatively small area and extremely close. On a good day in migration season, it is not unusual to see over a hundred of them roosting, flying, and catching fish so close to me that I can hear the “swoosh” of air under their wings as they pass by. Because I write books about wildlife and sell photos online, I look forward to getting a new set of images and videos each migration season.
But, in late December of 2019, I got sick. I was experiencing the worst ‘cold’ in memory and it held on and on. My photographer friends in Iowa and Illinois were starting to see Bald Eagles in their area, but I wasn’t feeling up to a trip right then. Day after day, they would send me photos and ask when I was coming. My response, over and over, was ‘maybe next week.’ Migration season can last from a couple of weeks to a couple of months – I was hoping for the latter. No one was worried about a global pandemic then.
By the first week of February, I was feeling sufficient improvement to travel north from my home in Ohio. However, prior to leaving, I checked in with my friends again. I learned that they were not seeing any Bald Eagles at our most reliable spot on the banks of the northern Mississippi River. That was devastating news! By this time, I was getting a case of ‘cabin fever’ from lying around and recovering. So, I decided to pack my photo gear anyway and I departed for Iowa. I was traveling with a photographer friend who now lives in Tennessee.
When we were about fifty miles away from the hotel, I called one of the ‘Iowa Boys’ as we call them affectionately. He answered, “I have great news!” He had driven west into central Iowa to a spot on the Iowa River that he had seen migratory Eagles in past years. “I found the herd!” he told me. Suddenly I turned from sullen to ecstatic. What a roller coaster of emotions I was experiencing. I love to be in nature with these birds, so fragile, fighting against snow and cold just to survive. I love listening to them chirp and chatter at each other, and of course, I love to watch them dive and attack, as they grab a meal from the icy water below.
I could have given up. I could have stayed in bed. But, because I didn’t do either, I got one of the most impressive closeup shots of a juvenile bald eagle in my entire portfolio of over 150,000 images. To me, the juvenile Bald Eagle reminds me of mental images of Native American Chiefs, their headdress adorned with black-tipped white feathers, as seen in the tail feathers of this image. The underwing color pattern reminds me of Native American blanket patterns common in the southwest USA. I am ‘over the moon’ that I was able to capture this image.

07/18/2022

Here is a short 3-minute video where I introduce myself to a Facebook group that helps people like me (artists and photographers) grow their businesses. I'm mainly testing out how it looks here, before I post it to that group. I appreciate any and all constructive comments and suggestions.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

03/03/2021

Spring cannot be far away, as I witnessed significant animal activity the past two days in Rocky Mountain National Wildlife Refuge.