Loren Nelson, Author at Teton Photography Club

April 17, 2014

The Rocky Mountain Photo Council

The Teton Photography Group Steering Committee is constantly looking for new ways to serve our members. We try to prioritize our efforts according to feedback from annual member surveys and suggestions made directly by our members. One of the highest priorities has been in the area of regional photography educational programs. To help make our members aware of these programs, we have reached out to other photography clubs in Wyoming, Idaho, southwest Montana, and northern Utah. We were made aware of a similar effort several years ago and contacted those leaders who spear-headed this work.

It turns out that the early work to bring western photography clubs together was headed by a now-defunct photo club and the website listing the member clubs was out of date and incomplete. We contacted the organizers and were given permission to use the previous name and logo to revive the efforts and bring western regional photo clubs together in a shared data base. The Teton Photography Group has become the home of the Rocky Mountain Photo Council. We have contacted all 17 photography organizations in the region and have confirmed that 12 are active and have chosen to participate in the Council. Our webmaster, Mike Cavaroc, has created a page hosted on our site with links to all 12 organizations. In the next couple of months we hope to have a “Quick View” of each club and their activities as well as complete contact information available on the RMPC pages.

We sincerely hope that having information about all of the regional clubs and their members having information about the TPG will stimulate cross-fertilization of ideas and bring interested photographers to other club meetings when they are in the area. We also hope that by getting information about the TPG out in the region, our members will have greater exposure and opportunities to share their work.

All tolled, we hope that the Rocky Mountain Photo Council will be a valuable service to all photographers living in and traveling through our part of the country. You will see the link to the RMPC on our home page soon but until then the link is: www.TetonPhotographyGroup.org/RMPC.

February 19, 2014

Teton Photography Group – On the move

I hope everyone in the Teton Photography Group is aware of the new public meetings, the new image critique meetings, and the up-coming symposia in March and June. These things represent the public face of the Group but many things are happening behind the scenes.

First, the Steering Committee has approved a greatly enhanced program calendar that is ramping up this spring and will continue through the next calendar year. Our new activities will include more open image critique sessions (4 per year), two educational symposia per year, 3 photo competitions per year, and new opportunities for exhibitions, photo sales, and public exposure for your photography. We will continue to have our monthly, third Monday public presentations with diverse and interesting topics from a variety of local experts.

Second, the TPG is reaching out to other photography groups in Wyoming, Idaho, northern Utah and south western Montana. The groups have been asked to share public program information and events so that we can link you to activities throughout the region and so others can be made aware of our Group and the work of our members.

Third, we are making good progress on developing a statement of principles for wildlife photography ethics. We how have contacted several local non-profit groups and several federal, state, and local agencies to partner with us in this educational effort. We hope to have a draft document for you to review and comment upon by mid-March. The target date for the educational program is this spring.

Fourth, our efforts to educate local government, businesses, and individuals and help alleviate light pollution in the Jackson Hole region is progressing. We hope to spearhead an effort with our partner organizations to return the night sky to Jackson Hole.

Finally, I am delighted to announce that today our website has a new interactive Forums feature that will facilitate on-line discussion of all aspects of photography – image critique and sharing, multiple genres of photography, general discussion, gear review and sales. We thank our webmaster, Mike Cavaroc, for his effort to bring about these new features. We have other new features for the site in the works and hope that we can move some of our social media posts to this much more convenient and interactive site.

As our membership grows we will continue to expand our services and programs to forward our mission to provide members with opportunities to develop and share their photographic skills and promote interest in photography throughout the greater Teton region.

January 5, 2014

Looking back at 2013

2013 was, by every regard, a banner year for Natural Photography. It was the first full operational year, it was a time for acquiring new, and needed, equipment, gear, and editing software, and it was a year of learning about the region, fellow photographers, and important techniques that will serve me in the future. It was a year of networking with the Teton Photography Group and helping the group mature as an organization. It was a year of monumental wildlife observation and photographic opportunities.

Many people like to look back at the previous year to help plan for the next year. I have observed other photographers posting their "year in review" and decided to look back at 2013 and share a single photograph from each month that had personal meaning to me. These are not necessarily the 'best' shots, or the most successful shots in terms of sales, but rather are those that touched me because of where or how they were made. I hope you enjoy them.

JANUARY

A crisp, sub-zero January afternoon shot looking across Grand Teton National Park taken on the way back home from a day of shooting.

FEBRUARY

Jackson-27632013 Photo of the month

A rather angry Trumpeter Swan scooting across Flat Creek on the north side of Jackson.

MARCH

Kelly-48882013 Photo of the month

I was walking through the woods along the Gros Ventre River in Grand Teton National Park waiting for a herd of elk to cross the river on their migration north when I was surprised by this touching scene of mom and two calf moose.

APRIL

GTNP-61612013 Photo of the month

My first view of the famous grizzly bear #610 only a couple of days after she came out of hibernation with her 3 two year-old cubs and headed for the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park.

MAY

Our second trip of the season to Yellowstone National Park and we were treated to a private showing of the spectacular 309 foot, Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River.

JUNE

GTNP-7D-87592013 Photo of the month

Spring arrives in the back country of Grand Teton National Park and the yellow-belly marmots are out to celebrate the warm sunshine and make me laugh at their antics.

JULY

On a summer trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota, we took a side trip to Wyoming's Devil's Tower National Monument and shot the monolith at night with the help of some "light painting" provided by a group of other photographers about 1/2 mile away.

AUGUST

Shopping at the Saturday morning Farmer's Market in Jackson, we came upon a rare Eurasian owl being shown by a representative of the Teton Raptor Center. I paused for a "selfie" in the reflection in the great bird's pupil.

SEPTEMBER

A chance of a lifetime came up in the fall when we were asked to help in the Yellowstone Association Bookstore at the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center. We spent almost 7 weeks in the park and found a new viewpoint to enjoy the famous Grand Prismatic Spring in the Midway Geyser Basin.

OCTOBER

On one of our many visits to Yellowstone this year we found a pack of gray wolves near Soda Butte and while watching for nearly an hour, this young black wandered practically up to our Jeep, laid down, and gave his blood-curdling howl to the rest of the pack.

NOVEMBER

Jackson-34452013 Photo of the month

Wonders of nature never cease in Jackson, Wyoming. I was in my office editing photos when this poor little Northern Pygmy Owl, chased by a couple of Magpies, crashed into my door. The poor thing was knocked out and on its back and I went out to try to warm it from the cold. It stood up, pupils unequal, and shook its head. Fortunately after about 15 minutes it regained its equilibrium and flew into an Aspen where after about an hour, seemed to recover and flew away.

DECEMBER

Alpine-44632013 Photo of the month

The mountain goats of Alpine, Wyoming came down early this year due to heavy October snow and frigid temperatures. More than 30 play along the road and on the cliffs of the Snake River Canyon south of Jackson.

More than 25,000 shots taken and almost 20,000 added to my archives in 2013, more than 1,000 new images available on this site and now on Flickr, and these were the 12 with special meaning to me. Please join us on Facebook for more frequent updates. I hope you enjoyed viewing these images as much as I did making them. Happy 2014.