Sandra Nykerk Photography

Report from Yellowstone

Mon, 25 Apr 2016 00:37:00 GMT

The Top Ten Signs It Is Spring in Yellowstone

Twenty Years of Wolves

Mon, 12 Jan 2015 21:10:00 GMT

This. Twenty years ago this morning the wolf was returned to Yellowstone National Park. I was in the right place at the right time, and thanks to an early morning phone call from Tom McNamee alerting me to a change in schedule, I was standing there when the convoy carrying the wolves (still in their […]

Report from the Park

Thu, 10 Jul 2014 01:42:00 GMT

It is summer in Yellowstone. Finally. Not just a cool and rainy late spring slowly giving way to warmer days, but instant overnight firecracker hot summer. The prickly pear are blooming on the dry hills outside of Gardiner, and a cloud of young grasshoppers scatters at every step. It’s so bright, it is difficult to […]

Fifty Years is Half a Century

Sat, 23 Nov 2013 18:50:00 GMT

50 Years is Half a Century I am old enough to remember where I was. In an American history class. How ironic. The school secretary pushed a button that caused the incomprehensible news coming across the radio to be broadcast on the school’s public address system. The first sentence I remember hearing was, “the President […]

Road Trip to the Past

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:01:00 GMT

Dry roads, a bright sunny day coinciding with the Spring Equinox, and a willing and patient companion provided the impetus for the first official road trip of 2013. Launched from Livingston and into the beautiful sweeping prairies of central Montana. I love these grand Montana views and the remnants of the ragged little towns still […]

Postcard from Yellowstone: Autumn Falls

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 23:04:00 GMT

Sunday was the last day of the season that the roads in the interior of Yellowstone were open, so I made a ritual drive down to Old Faithful and out through West Yellowstone. It seemed like at least half of Gardiner was also doing the same. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to drive […]

The Summer of Endless Smoke

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 22:27:00 GMT

This time of year, the question that always seems to be the first uttered with friends over a cup of coffee or stopping to chat on the street, is the annual lament, “Where did the summer go?” Immediately answered by “I don’t know where the summer went.” But, this year, I do know. I know where the summer went. The answer is “Up in smoke.”

I was in Yellowstone for a good piece of the Summer of ’88, and while Yellowstone was indeed burning bigtime, I don’t remember that the rest of the world was also on fire, as well as draped under a thick veil of choking, burning, endless smoke. In fact, in the summer of 2012, the entire American West has more or less been burning, and not just during the fire season that traditionally begins on August 1 and lays down with the first autumn rains. This year, California and New Mexico and Arizona lit up much earlier, soon followed by Colorado. By the 2012 calendar standards of wildfire, Montana was late to the party, even though the first fires began here in June. But the smoke that has caused the most issues in this part of Montana is actually from a massive wildlife on the Idaho/Montana border that shows absolutely no interest in abating until winter arrives with something akin to a Biblical blizzard. And I don’t mean to imply that Montana hasn’t been conflagrating right up there along with the Best of the West. Record acreage; fires with names that comprise a litany of spectacular Montana landscapes – Pine Creek, Millie, Delphia, Wall Creek, Moose Mountain, Blacktail, Sawtooth, Rosebud, 19 Mile, Goblin Gulch, Salamander – well, you get the idea. Fire. Smoke. A lot of it. And in Montana, some of the worst devastation has been on the Reservations. Like they needed more trouble. Across the West, not just homes and outbuildings lost, but also millions of acres of pasture which is forcing the early sale of livestock because there is now nothing left to eat. Hay prices are sky high, and in Colorado, hay theft is the current crime du jour. Ranchers are contemplating selling out. Lives have literally been changed forever. No rain in the forecast; no clear skies on the horizon.

Red Letter Day!

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 19:41:00 GMT

It is another Red Flag Warning day in Montana, but these weeks and weeks of continued smoke and haze have made it easier to have been camped in front of my computer for the month of August in a marathon effort to complete the website revision. So at sandranykerk.com, it is also a Red Letter Day because today, the new and revised website is live. I am thrilled to have this long-in-the-works task completed. It has been almost exactly one year since my website expert and I began exploring how best to remove the Flash from the galleries so that they could be viewed on a iOS device, as well as make it easier to upload new images. Given my parameters of keeping the design mostly the same and requirements for how the galleries should look and load, it turned out to be a not-so-straightforward project. But it is as finished as my OCD self will tolerate whatever “finished” may be, although I will always be tweaking. That sound you hear is a chorus of The Hallelujah Song, as well as a song of thanks to my web tech extraordinaire!

So have a look around and let me know what you think. The Home page now has a rotating slide show and there are three new galleries, including one just for the exciting new explorations into iPhoneography. And what fun that has been. Navigation is a bit different than before – click on a thumbnail to display a particular image, and that will stop the automatic slide show. You can then click on a different thumbnail or navigate directly through the larger images with the arrows.

Please stop back again. I’ll be keeping the New Work Gallery updated, changing out images in the other galleries on a regular basis, and I promise to try to be more diligent about blog posts. It’s nice to see you again.

And, please send rain.

Postcard from Yellowstone — July 26, 2011

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:35:00 GMT

It is high summer in Yellowstone. If the calendar and the weather didn’t tell me so, the tourists who blithely abandon their cars and RVs to get a better look at a buffalo (elk , bear, coyote) – in the middle of the road, at the top of a hill, on a blind curve — would suffice as the bellwether indicator species. At the lower elevations, the lovely lush spring greens we experienced for longer than normal thanks to the very wet June, are morphing into the golden hues of August. The hot weather and dry winds of the past few weeks have already sucked all of the green out of the hills just above Gardiner. I already miss those greens of summer – we have them for such a short time. But the high meadows of YNP have exploded into fields of color in an exceptionally good year for flowers. The bad news is that the biting flies and mosquitoes have also exploded into hordes of blood-sucking vampires that make just getting out of the car a TV reality show-worthy-adventure, let alone trying to set up for a macro shot. The stars of the show this week are geraniums, lupines, and the helianthella (little sunflowers) which are draped across the slopes of Mt. Washburn like a gold crown.

The helianthella have peaked but the Coming Attraction: acres and acres of fireweed which are just beginning to open. The slopes above Antelope Creek where the fire burned late last season are going to be quite spectacular. Another season cycles through Yellowstone Time. How does it go by so fast only to return even more quickly? Wishing you could be here.

Postcard from Yellowstone – May 16, 2011

Tue, 17 May 2011 04:48:00 GMT

Afternoon drive to Cooke City and back today. It’s trying hard to be spring in Gardiner and Mammoth, thinking about it in the Lamar and still winter in Cooke City. Signs of spring in Gardiner — the lilacs leafed out and sprouted buds over the weekend and in addition to the five thousand finches at the feeder (up from four thousand yesterday) were two white-crowned sparrows. Love those little guys.

Scenes from the Park. Bison and bison babies everywhere from Mammoth to the end of the Lamar. In the road, by the side of the road, out in the Lamar. First pasque flowers are blooming. No sign yet of shooting stars. There’s an osprey in a new nest out in the Lamar. Twenty plus bighorns. Several shaggy looking elk, one growing antlers. Five, count ’em, five, ruddy ducks at Floating Island Lake. Have never seen more than two there before. The bluest bluebirds ever. One wolf sighting. And one great big beautiful grizzly bear! A perfect day.

And, yes, there would still be snow in Cooke City. A lot of it, although they are in the process of scooping it up and taking it somewhere else. One way or another, time for spring!

(BTW, both pictures are iPhone images. The Cooke City snow is a two-image HDR processed in-camera. Bone Daddy’s is an iPhone painting of a poster on a Cooke City building for your viewing pleasure!)

WaterColors Suite

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:25:00 GMT

This is the last weekend for the WaterColors Suite exhibit in the Lightrider Gallery at F11 Photo in Bozeman. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop in and take a look before the show comes down on Monday. The exhibit is a selection of 12 images from the WaterColors project, a book in progress. All were taken within a 48 hour period and with the Tamron 18-270mm VC lens.

If you’re not in the area, here are two links to all of the images in the exhibit.

http://tamron.myphotoexhibits.com/exhibits/287-watercolors-suite

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandranykerk/sets/72157626097381126/

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 05:09:00 GMT

Day three of four in Yellowstone and both cold and good light have been delivered as hoped for. Thanks for the sun dances – they worked. But in the category of be careful what you wish for, it was -20°F at West Thumb yesterday morning and -27°F this morning at Old Faithful. My fingers won’t […]

RIP Kodachrome: 1935-2010

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 21:00:00 GMT

Back in the old days (there may have still been dinosaurs,) when I first fell in love with the art of photography and purchased my starter camera, it turned out there was really only one color transparency film, in spite of all of the different Kodak boxes lounging in the air-conditioned comfort of the camera store film coolers. Kodachrome […]

Oh Yeah, It’s Winter Now!

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 22:13:00 GMT

It’s been seriously snowing in Gardiner since Friday night. So this makes one night, one day, one night, and most of another day. Which means I’ve been doing some serious shoveling and digging out. The last total was 13″ with another 5″ predicted before it’s over. I’m over. It’s the most snow I’ve seen in Gardiner in years, and it really is beautiful to see; just not so beautiful to move around. I was surprised how long it took to tackle the car. I love how the wipers look appropriately like antennae. At least it’s fairly fluffy snow because the thermometer is working its way down to a predicted low of below zero tomorrow night. I have a feeling I’m going to be suffering by tomorrow and it’s going to need it again in another hour. But the skiers are happy happy and so will be this photographer as soon as I can get up the hill into the park.

No barbecue today!

Living With Dogs

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 22:44:00 GMT

For everyone who has ever had a dog, known a dog, or met a dog on the street. Or a kitty. Dear Departed Mariah would be fine in the car and then literally be completely hysterical in a hotel room. I once had to cut her out of a motel box springs. (Memo: Always travel with a Leatherman. And duct tape.) And now, as long as the car is moving, Miss Kitty is yowling at the top o f her lungs — unless she is thowing up. Happy laughing . . .

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/11/dogs-dont-understand-basic-concepts.html

Tales of the Mojave

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 21:50:00 GMT

So much for my good intentions of daily blogging while I was in the Mojave Desert and I must say that I am very impressed with those who do manage to do pull this off. Between getting out early, staying out late, reconnoitering during the middle of the day, cleaning equipment (especially in the desert), downloading images, and actually sleeping, time disappears like a lizard in the shadow of a barrel cactus. And, apparently so do brain cells – as in it takes a dedicated Teva-flip-flop-wearing idiot to try to walk across the desert floor without conceding that changing into boots might be the more intelligent choice. Memo to Jimmy Buffet: Nothing will blow out your flip-flops faster than stepping on a piece of camouflaged cholla and having the spines go all the way through into your foot. I discovered that if you’re going to be that stoopid, at least try to find enough smarts to keep a pair of tweezers in the car to pull out the cactus. Which I finally did. Which were well used.

I know it’s after the fact, but I have much, much, to share and will do it in several installments. I didn’t expect to like Borrego Springs as much as I did, but Anza Borrego State Park (south of Palm Springs, CA) turned out to be a very interesting place, and for many more reasons than the spectacular desert bloom which occurred while I was there. Borrego Springs and the surrounding areas feature a fascinating assortment of upscale desert heat seekers who are escaping colder climes, day-tripper-flower-peepers making the trek over the mountains from San Diego; an extensive RV community composed of a widely varying demographic, granola hikers in Tevas or Chacos; herds of ATV/ORV/ Jeepers crawling through the canyons or screaming across the sand dunes who view this unique and fragile ecosystem as their personal playground (and who would rather die than put Tevas on their feet); desert rats (who may or may not be wearing a very old beat-up pair of Tevas held together with duct tape); an occasional ecologist/scientist/geologist type; and truly authentic kinda scary (think Ted Kaczynski) end-of-the-roaders. Despite cursory appearances and the mythology of the barren desert wasteland, the Mojave is an amazing ecosystem with even more biodiversity than Yellowstone (if you don’t include the thermophiles), and as just described, the human diversity also ranks right up there in the Guinness Book of World Records. Add fabulous geology, along with some very surreal manmade landscapes, and you have enough visual diversity to keep anyone, photographer or not, interested for a very long time. Years, even.

Well, the Calendar Says It’s Winter!

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:21:00 GMT

Returned this past weekend from four days in the interior of Yellowstone searching for evidence of winter. Fortunately, good times with great friends made up for the lack of photo opps and we did have a wonderful morning at West Thumb Geyser Basin, thanks to temperatures which fell below zero and produced images worthy of any Winter Wonderland. But we were all gobsmacked (term borrowed from English friends) at the lack of snow throughout much of YNP, especially in the geyser basins. The cone and area surrounding Old Faithful is mostly free of snow, as is the majority of Geyser Hill. Likewise, Black Sand and Biscuit Basins. There is snow in Hayden Valley but the beautiful cornices near the Grizzly Overlook have not formed this year. And an amazing ice cone at The Falls – but in the usual crappo light. I am working on the record for number of images taken at The Falls in really bad winter light and/or snow. On second thought, I think I am already there. No contest.

The normal winter wildlife also seems to be somewhere else; no snow-crusted bison, no herds blocking the boardwalks at Old Faithful, no elk along the Firehole. There were, however, the predictable bison herd at Mud Volcano (walking up the boardwalk), a sleek and graceful otter at Alum Creek, and a lovely fat beaver at Otter Creek. And a few very fluffy coyotes.

But here’s the thing . . . even when not at its photographic best, Yellowstone still never ceases to delight and amaze and any trip into the interior in winter is both spectacular and surprising. The snow feathers on the trees at Beryl Springs and along the boardwalk by Black Pool at West Thumb were worth the trip all by themselves. Or the ice crystals that had grown between two pieces of grass into a cone shape that looked just like a popsicle. Or the constantly shapeshifting steam in the thermal areas which first hides and then momentarily reveals a perfect snow-laden ghost tree. It’s all perfect.

At least for now. Current summer forecast is for smoke.

The Return of Winter

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:44:00 GMT

Like autumn, winter in Greater Yellowstone has been mostly MIA for much of December and January. We had an awesome dump of snow in mid-November (27 inches at the house in Bozeman) but almost nothing since then. And while we always anticipate a January thaw, two weeks of 40 degrees and big winds melted off most of what was still lingering on the ground. Bozeman managed to accumulate enough small snowfalls to keep the ground white, but there has been no snow in Gardiner for weeks. Until last Friday when 5 inches of lovely snow and a return to temperatures in the 20s reminded the calendar that it was indeed winter and not early spring. Not sure about the wildlife, but skiers and photographers alike are rejoicing.

So there has been very little photography for the past few months and instead of being productive in the field, I have spent way too much time in the front of the computer processing and printing. Time spent trolling Flickr was very rewarding in that it turned up both inspiration and tutorials for techniques I have been trying to perfect. Love that Flickr. Look for more abstracts coming soon!

Dates for workshops for 2010 are being finalized. Check out the schedule at sandranykerk.com .

Autumn . . . MIA

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:40:00 GMT

As 1993 was noted throughout Montana and Wyoming as the year without a summer, 2009 will pass into memory as the year without autumn. Record high temperatures and levels of smoke in September alternated with record lows, and in the end, the leaves throughout Greater Yellowstone were literally frozen to the trees. So here we are, nearing the end of October, and the leaves are still on the trees in colors that range from dull green to duller brown. No yellows, no golds, no glory. Because of the relatively moist summer and the warm temperatures in early September, we were all expecting a banner color year and Yellowstone did manage a bit of show in late September. During the Yellowstone Institute photography course, we did find color along the Clarks Fork; a few cottonwoods in the Lamar were heading in the right direction; the aspens in the Hoodoos actually qualified as brilliant. And then it was over before it really ever began. During the YI class, on the last Tuesday afternoon of September, we were photographing in the Lamar in 82 degrees and incredibly thick smoke which challenged both photography and breathing. The next morning at 9:00 am, we were at Roaring Mountain in a blizzard – and record lows ended any hope of better color next week. I was all set to leave for Zion and fall color this weekend but reports are that the color there is already peaking – at least two weeks early. Moral of the story . . . nature does what nature does and flexibility is the mantra for the month. Next week will find me photographing babies (yes, a human one!), setting up the new computer, and rethinking photography plans between now and Thanksgiving.

24 Hours in Glacier

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:45:00 GMT

My trip to Glacier turned out to be much shorter than anticipated. It was windy as I drove through Choteau and Augusta and quite breezy in St. Mary’s when I arrived around 3:30 pm, but nothing prepared me for the gale that was whipping across St. Mary’s Lake and through Rising Sun. I will freely admit to being prone to wind whining once it reaches 15 mph (I really do hate wind), but this was totally over the top. Just walking the 30 feet into my motel room was an ordeal and it only took a few minutes to discover that the reason the carpet was littered with leaves was because of a major gap along the door frame. So after a few minutes of attitude adjustment I put on my best I Am A Real Photographer hat and drove up to Logan Pass. At Siyeh Bend, the wind threatened to blow me off of the road and there were standing waves on St. Mary’s Lake, which made me wish for a video to capture the amazing light and rippling patterns. But then I would probably have had to get out of the car.

The wind continued to grow worse, absolutely howling throughout the night, and after a mostly sleepless night which involved periodically restuffing the towels I had wedged into the door jam, I concluded that a Real Photographer knows when to cut her losses and take a different road. As I stumbled up to the restaurant for coffee, the heavy low clouds which had blown in showed no signs of taking up residence somewhere else anytime soon, convinced me that I definitely needed to be elsewhere. Anywhere as long as the wind wasn’t blowing.

So I persuaded the desk clerk that she needed to cancel my reservations with only a small penalty and then braved the wind and road construction on the Going to the Sun Road across to the west side. Since I was abandoning my plans for the Many Glacier area, I wanted at least to make a pilgrimage to McDonald Creek and pretty rocks. As I rounded the top of Logan Pass, I was completely surprised by the blue sky ahead of me. Suddenly, although very belatedly, it occurred to me that just like living on the east side of Electric Peak, the mountains of Glacier shape geomorphologies that create sharply delineated weather patterns. I proceeded to spend a delightful (and windless) afternoon communing with the McDonald Creek river spirits and I thank the McDonald Creek Muse for the gift of several lovely abstracts, which were exactly what I had hoped for. Sometimes you just get lucky in spite of yourself, and I am appropriately grateful.

And, by the way, just why isn’t McDonald Creek called McDonald River?

Glacier and Back

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 18:39:00 GMT

Made what turned out to be a mad dash to Glacier and back in 24 hours, returning late last night. Even though it wasn’t what I had intended, the drive alone was worth the trip. The landscape between I-15 and Augusta and Choteau and on towards Browning can easily claim the most spectacular sweeping scenery in the country. Even in the harsh afternoon light on the trip north — flat and not a shadow in sight — it was still beautiful. And on the return trip in late evening light, it was heart-wrenchingly breathtaking. Everything below the sky is the color of wheat, whether it is or not. Except for the occasional interruption of alfalfa fields, which are Dayglow green by comparison. All of it, the cows whose distant shapes melt into the waving grasses, the herd of mares and colts who move away from the road as soon as I stop to photograph, the road that undulates with the hills into the horizon, the abandoned cabins and barns, the patterns of the freshly-cut wheat and alfalfa fields, the hawks, the call of a not-yet-departed meadowlark, the silhouettes of the peaks of the Bob Marshall, the clouds, even the wind — are straight out of a casting call for the next feature film entitiled The Mythic West. But here there is no separation of myth and reality . . . it is super forreal . . . and, with the full moon rising in the east, I can confidently state that Montana has never been more high, wide, and handsome than in the light of this mystic timeless moment. Cue the coyotes.

Welcome!

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:54:00 GMT

And what a Red Letter Day this is . . . my first real post on my beautiful new blog. I have been wanting a way to share my experiences, thoughts, and images on a more regular basis and now I am going to try to enter the blogosphere. I don’t think I’m going to ever make a regular appearance on Facebook and certainly, no Tweets for me! But hopefully, this will do the trick. For those of you who have been wondering what has happened with the rest of my website — hang on just a little longer, we’re nearly there. The Abstractions Gallery is up and working and the other galleries should be in place by the end of next week. The rest of the site is pretty much completed. I’m so pleased with the new look, as well as the functionality, and I will be able to change out pictures as desired — especially in the Recent Work gallery. Please let me know if you see any errors, broken links, or other blips. And what you think of the new design.

Have been in and out of YNP this week trying to catch the end of the flowers before frost. The weather has not been particularly cooperative (always always a howling wind!) and there was a pretty good frost last night so I think the flowers are mostly over. There were still some hangers-on up on Dunraven but most of the meadows across the park have that end-of-the-summer faded glory look. Interestingly, it was such a long cool spring, which delayed many blooms by weeks, that I think much of the fireweed will be frosted out before it can open. The weather conditions made for an interesting overlap in the summer flora — there are bluebells open right next to late summer senecio at the Dunraven picnic area. It’s really difficult to look out across the YNP landscape and realize how soon it will be autumn — it’s already looking very fall-like. But it seems like only last week (okay, maybe two) that I was out searching for pasque flowers under the snow and marveling at the intense pink of the first shooting stars. The summers always fly by but this one has been particularly intense. So I was up on Washburn yesterday, precariously perched in one of the little drainages that cross the road, and managed to capture a few images of the last of the red monkeyflowers before the wind chased me back to my car. And it was only 43 degrees!

More soon...isn't it fun to be able to say that?