This blog entry is dedicated to Gabby Petito. May her spirit shine on the peaks with the sunlight, pass through the trees with the winds, and run through the canyons with the rivers. The Wild Images would also like to acknowledge that there are many more individuals missing out there whose cases have not become so prominent in the media. May they never be forgotten! Everyone deserves a chance to be featured and be found, regardless of race or gender. While The Wild Images Team never knew Gabby Petito, her life really strikes a chord with us. We follow a similar path and dream as her. We want to document nature in its natural state. We have spent five months a year, out on the road, capturing our photos. Since 2013 we have explored the wide open wilderness to bring to you images and stories of the wild. Grand Teton National Park is one such place, known for its rugged peaks that literally rise above the Snake River Valley on the eastern side of the Teton Mountain Range. There is an obvious contrast from the gentle rolling hills and flatlands, covered with sagebrush fields and wildflowers, and through which the Snake River slowly meanders, to the steep, jagged, snow covered peaks that literally touch the sky by rising into the clouds. In the above photo, we wanted to capture all of this in one complete scene. This image is slated to be available for sale in our store in the near future, and marks the very first photo in what we will always remember as a special twenty four hours, where conditions came together to produce nothing less than a full ten images, captured in the short span of twenty four hours, that were deemed good enough to be featured for sale in our store! While this may or may not seem like much to the reader, we will point out that there can be times when weeks or even months can pass by without conditions being right for a great photo. But we had a great run of them during one of our visits to Wyoming. A quick glance at our images will show that we have a passion for the Grand Teton National Park, the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, and the Yellowstone National Park area. We started the day in Grand Teton National Park, where it all began by us taking the gorgeous photo seen above that focuses on the sun covered peaks above the wildflowers and sagebrush. A few minutes later, we captured a nearby beautiful picture that focuses on the grasslands with the jagged peaks of the Tetons as the backdrop. We had a hard time choosing between the two for our store, but we had opted to start with this on, only to decide later that the other one deserves to be included. About an hour later, we shot this incredible image of the changing landscape in the foothills around the peaks. About an hour after this, we encountered this beautiful elk scene while exploring the Targhee-Caribou National Forest. The next set did not happen for several more hours, as we had a destination of reaching Grant Village in Yellowstone National Park, which is a bit of a distance away. We arrived there in the evening, so there was not much time to head out anywhere. Instead, we stayed around the Grant Village lake shore when the clouds formed into an incredible shelf reflected in the lake, and then shortly thereafter reddened into a fantastic symmetry. Any visitors to Yellowstone Lake will tell you that it rarely takes on such a calm, mirror like reflecting surface. But that is how it appeared that night at sunset. Later that night, we photographed the moon rising over the Lake House in Grant Village, while the lake was still appearing mirror calm. The next day we visited the West Thumb Geyser Basin, catching this stunning image of Abyss Pool. This was followed about two hours later by this shot of the wave patterns around Fishing Cone Geyser, as the lake had returned to its typical rippled appearance sometime overnight. Three hours after this found us in the Upper Geyser Basin, where we captured our image of a massive Grand Geyser pause burst. Twenty four hours had produced ten phenomenal photos! It is important to note that this situation is highly unlikely, and cannot be expected on any given day. Many days have to be invested to find the right conditions and lighting. This was not our first time to the area, nor was it our last. As a matter of fact, we have spent several months worth of time in the area during our yearly stays there. It is also important to know that while we did capture ten amazing images, we also captured many other photos during that twenty four hour span that while also good, were not deemed store-worthy. We have several other images from the area in different years that are also found in our store, but so far we have not yet again encountered so many great opportunities in such a short span of time. The Wild Images Team has captured many other images from Wyoming such as the contrast found in the colorful grasslands and background Grand Teton National Park peaks, the varying landscape of Grand Teton National Park rocky peaks and clouds, the large antlers on display as an elk takes a look back in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, the vertical abruptness as Devils Tower rises above the red rocks and green pines, and the many hues found as the colorful badlands cover over this very remote region, each of which are available for sale in our store. Blog posts from Wyoming have documented as the rugged snowy peaks rise above wildflowers, and as The Wild Images Team Travel Gnome poses for a picture at the Meeteetse “Where Chiefs Meet” welcome sign. In neighboring Montana, we have captured images such as a group of white mountain goats as they graze the highlands, an expansive view of rocky ridges extending to the horizon, the colorfully massive wall of Hidden Lake, high altitude view of tundra and glacial lakes, a very remote reflective alpine lake covered with rocks, and an ominously approaching heavy downpour over the green foothills, all of which are available for sale in our store. Blog posts from Montana have documented the very deep blue waters of McDonald Creek and the panoramic view of The Wild Images Team at Hidden Lake. In neighboring South Dakota we have captured images such as the bright flash of a colorful lightning strike over the badlands, the moment that a pronghorn displays its phenomenal physique, and the time that a massive bison bull came meandering past, each of which are available for sale in our store. Blog posts from South Dakota have documented the centuries long carving of the massive Crazy Horse Monument, the very majestic Mount Rushmore and the Avenue of Flags, the expansive view as wild burros walk through the rolling prairies, the ever wary prairie dog stands at attention in the prairie, the amazing location of the granite roadways through Custer State Park, when The Wild Images Team encountered a remote end of trail sign in the middle of nowhere, this close up image of textures in a colorful badlands mound, the interesting time when a flock of turkeys photobombed our image, and The Wild Images Team sunset shadows over Badlands National Park. In nearby North Dakota, we have captured images such as the contrast created by the horizontal color bands cross through yellow badlands and the entire herd as a group of wild horses cluster together on a hilltop, each of which are available for sale in our store. Blog posts of North Dakota have documented the herd of bison grazing in the grasslands and the ever changing colorful badland mound that caps a rolling ridge.
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