Montana Photo

Montana State Capitol.© Jason Savage.

Just when we were getting comfortable and enjoying the nice spring weather-what should arrive? More snow! A major storm rolled in a few days ago and just hammered Montana. It snowed for around three days straight leaving well over a foot and half at our home in Helena and much more elsewhere across the state. There were reported six foot snow drifts up near Agusta and St. Mary reported over 60 inches in their backyard.

St. Helena Cathedral.© Jason Savage

I guess we’ll have to wait and see about May-hopefully it will be a little kinder.

Mallards.© Jason Savage.

Well believe it or not Springtime is finally here. Although if you are living east of the Rockies this week, you may have a hard time believing that, as snow flurries have been forecast for most of this next week.

In any case, we had some great weather last week with temps in the 70′s and things really starting to green-up. I was up in the Mission Mountains area near Polson and the National Bison Range last weekend and the landscape is really looking great. The trees are in bloom and it won’t be long before some wildflowers arrive.

Mission Mountains.© Jason Savage.

I was lucky enough to arrive while there was still some snow left on the Missions. This area is great for not only landscape photography, but for wildlife as well. The Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge on the Flathead Indian Reservation has an amazing diversity of birds and waterfowl and just a few miles south is the National Bison Range, which as you can guess has a healthy population of Bison along with some stunning views.

Cow Elk.© Jason Savage.

Now’s the time to get out there and start enjoying our short spring, before we know it we’ll be into summer. Happy Shooting.

Bison.©Jason Savage

Was out testing a lens that Canon had sent me this last weekend to review and I must say I am impressed. I’ve been using Canon equipment since, well, since I have been doing photography and have used a wide range of different lenses over the years.

I went out this last weekend with Canon’s 500mm f/4L lens with full intentions of putting it through it’s paces to see how it would handle some demanding shooting situations.

I had intended to catch the tale end of the snow geese migration at Freezeout Lake, but  that’s a story in itself. Let’s just say it’s better to stay on top of the local bird reports, rather than just having an overly optimistic expectation that “although it’s near the end of the migration in Montana, there still should be adequate numbers to photograph”.

To make a long story short-No Birds. Notta. Every single last one gone.

However I had a very nice drive before Sunrise.

I suppose that’s what I get for not being a little more on top of things.

In any case I drove my *&%$#! off on Saturday and left Freezout lake, heading to Ovando. Given the situation I decided to make what I could of the day.

Canadian Goose.©Jason Savage

I stopped by Brown’s lake to see what was happening. It was still frozen solid and not much happening. Except for a few Canadian Geese hanging out there wasn’t much to photograph. Next it was the National Bison range and this looked much better. The hills were just starting to green up and the Bison looked great. Later in the afternoon it started to pour rain, so I decided to explore around the area. I found a whole group of baby lambs huddled underneath a big tree trying to stay dry from the rain. They didn’t look very excited about their situation.

Lambs.©Jason Savage

Finally toward the end of the day I made it to Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge. Things were definetly more happening and there were a ton more birds then I had seen all day.

In front of my lens as l looked out across the pond I spotted, Osprey,Ring-necked Pheasent, Whitetail Deer, Great Blue Heron, Mallard Ducks, Hooded Mergansers and a few others. This was all within a very small area. Truly a testament to the rich diversity of wildlife that the Refuge holds.

Ring-necked Pheasant.©Jason Savage

So after spending some time really getting to work this lens- all I can say is that it’s in a class of it’s own. Not only are the images unbelievably sharp, but the autofocus is lightning quick and it’s image stabilization works very, very well. Although it’s a large lens, it’s weight is not bad coming in at a little under 9lbs.

Overall, there is not one bad thing I can think to say about this lens other than the price. At $5,800, it’s big hit to the pocketbook, but for the quality and ability to capture hard to reach scenes, I would say if you are a serious bird or wildlife photographer, it’s well worth it.

Great Blue Herons.©Jason Savage

Mallard Landing.©Jason Savage

Well we’re almost there. Rounding that last corner down the homestretch straight out of winter. It’s so close, but yet so far away….

That’s at least how I felt last Sunday as I was getting pounded by a fierce early spring snowstorm. Boy was that cold!

I was heading to Freezeout Lake last Sunday but due to one nasty storm I didn’t quite make it. The roads and visibility were so bad, getting decent shots of snow geese would have been a pointless venture.

So I decided to pack it up and head back to Helena, where I spent most of the day freezing my butt off to get some shots of some Mallard ducks near town.

Mallard Snowstorm.©Jason Savage

With adverse weather conditions, sometimes it’s much easier to spend the day admiring it from behind a window in your warm home, rather than embracing the drudgery. But with all adversity, there always seems to be a silver lining. Weather included.

I find more often than not that the extreme conditions can not only ad a dramatic mood to your image, but it can offer amazing backdrops and certain elements that you normally would never be able to capture in ideal conditions.

Wigeon Drake.©Jason Savage

With that being said, did I spend all day standing out in a wet heavy snowstorm for some of the aforementioned benefits added to my images. Well, maybe not, but any day out photographing Montana, beats sitting at home watching it out the window.