Best Photos of 2016
Posted: December 31
At the end of each calendar year I go
through the photos I have taken during the year to identify
those I think are my best efforts.
A number of these photos will be "permanently" included in the
appropriate Gallery on this web site. Others will not be worthy
of permanent status but are very good photos and thus are
included here.
If you would like to view the Best Photos of the Year
from previous years, click
here.
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Chanukah Party
Posted: December 31
Dan, Lily, Hattie & Teddy Scharff hosted their
annual Chanukah party. It was well attended by
family and friends. Pictured above is Teddy Scharff.
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Christmas Eve Party
Posted: December 25
Jim & Tiffany Scharff hosted their
annual Christmas Eve party. It was well attended by
family and friends.
Pictured above is Lily Scharff.
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Canon Camera Connect App
Posted: November 06
Did a bit of testing of Canon
Camera Connect app & how it works with my new Canon 5D
IV.
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Chicago Visit
Posted: October 17
I was in Chicago over the weekend to
attend Matt Odenwald's wedding. While I was there I
stayed with Alli Alberts and her fiancée Doug,
Alli wanted me to take some photos of the newly engaged
couple at a number of locations around town.
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New Camera
Posted: September 25
Before leaving for Driggs this
summer, my St. Louis house was broken into and a good
bit of my camera gear was stolen. One of the items taken
was my Canon 1D-III camera. It had been relegated to
backup camera status. My Canon 1Dx is my main camera
which I use for both sports and landscape photography.
My insurance covered the original purchase price (minus
my deductable). When I contemplated what I wanted to
replace and with what, I finally decided to replace the
stolen camera with the new
Canon 5D-IV.
My plan is to use the 5D as my go to landscape camera
and the 1Dx as my sports camera. This will also give me
the flexibility to have two different lens on two
cameras for certain situations.
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Lightroom DeHaze Filter
Posted: September 13
It seems that every summer that we
have forest fires. The smoke from these fires makes it
impossible to get any landscape photos.
The latest version of Adobe Lightroom has a new DeHaze
filter. I thought I would give that a try.
My conclusion is with smoke it allows you to take
landscape photos when we have fires but the resultant
photo would not be worthy of hanging on your wall.
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Grand Teton National Park
Posted: September 06
Rick Schuessler and Steve & Kathy
Odenwald were in tow when we decided to take in some
areas around Grand Teton National Park and Jackson
Wyoming. Pictured above is the Blacktail Ponds Overlook.
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Yellowstone National Park
Posted: September 04
Rick Schuessler and I decided to go
to Yellowstone National Park for a day of photography.
We stopped at Mesa Falls along the way.
Pictured above is Castle Geyser.
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Grand Teton National Park
Posted: September 02
Rick Schuessler and I decided to do
a sunrise photography outing in Grand Teton National
Park today.
We started at the Hedrick Pond Overlook at sunrise.
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Teton Valley Idaho
Posted: September 01
Rick Schuessler and I decided to do
our photography in Teton Valley Idaho today.
We drove up Highway 32 just north of Tetonia. Along this
road, we took some photos of an old house on a hill that
overlooks the valley and back at the Tetons. We
continued north and stopped to take photos of the old
Pillsbury grain elevator (now used to store seed
potatoes).
We then proceeded to Ashton and then south on Highway 20
to Highway 33. Drove that back to Driggs stopping at the
scenic overlook just before Tetonia.
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Grand Teton National Park
Posted: August 19
I got up early and went over to
Grand Teton National Park with two objectives:
photograph moose along the Gros Ventre River and to seek
out the trail to Hedrick Pond.
I failed in both objectives. The only moose was only
showing his/her butt and I could not find a road leading
to a trail to Hedrick Pond.
The day was not a total waste as the clouds were pretty
nice. I also took the time to drive some roads I had
never explored before. The photo at left was taken along
Pacific Creek Road a new drive for me.
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Casa Budde West
Posted: August 15
We had a pretty terrific sunset last
night here in Driggs.
I have never seen this massive of a cloud formation
before at sunset. Just had to go outside with camera in
hand. Enjoyed this spectacle with my neighbor Jackie
Mullen.
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Bluegrass Festival
Posted: August 14
This was the 29th Annual Bluegrass
Festival.
This year's festival was quite interesting. It not only
featured some great bluegrass music (Pokey LaFarge, Dave
Grisman and Sam Bush to name a few) but some real
oddities.
The highlights for me were the Pokey LaFarge
performance, the entire Dave Grisman performance and
then Dave joining Sam Bush for "Summertime". It was
magic.
The oddities were: The Waybacks whole set was covers of
Eagles songs and a pretty hard rock band that were quite
good. An interesting oddity was Sam Bush performing a
bluegrass version of "Great Balls of Fire".
Pictured above is McKenzie Reed who was attending her
first music festival at Targhee. McKenzie leaves in
three weeks to begin college at Lawrence University in
Wisconsin. Good luck Kenz!
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Music on Main
Posted: August 11
Tonight was the last Music on Main
for the summer of 2016.
The group playing tonight was Monophonics out of San
Francisco. They were very good.
Pictured above is my good friend Jess Collins.
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Grand Teton National Park
Posted: August 07
When I woke up this
morning there were some nice clouds in the sky here in
Driggs. As I love landscape photos with clouds, I
decided to take a drive over to Grand Teton National
Park for the day.
As you can see from the photos, the clouds were very
thick and I got a number of nice shots.
At the end of the day, I took out my Tamron 150-600 to
take some photos of waterfowl from the Flat Creek
observation platform.
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Music on Main
Posted: August 04
Music on Main tonight was very good
and very well attended.
The band that performed, James McMurtry, was outstanding.
I have seen them a few times at Targhee Fest
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Music on Main
Posted: July 28
Music on Main tonight was very good.
It was well attended and the band that performed, Cure
for the Common, was outstanding.
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Music on Main
Posted: July 21
Music on Main tonight was very good.
It was well attended and the band that performed, the
Sook Twins, was outstanding.
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Targhee Fest
Posted: July 17
This weekend was the 12th annual
Targhee Music Festival.
Pictured above is my friend Jess Collins who worked
hospitality services for the artists who were
performing.
Some of the notable performers were:
Moe, Grace Potter, Drive-By Truckers, JJ Grey, Bette
Lavette, Jerry Joesph & the Jackmorons and Sister
Sparrow & the Dirty Birds.
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Music on Main
Posted: July 14
Went to Music on Main with my good
friend Robin Mill. Good attendance and a "target rich"
environment for photography.
The second band,
TODO MUNDO,
was fantastic.
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Music on Main
Posted: July 07
Good outing and great music. I got
to spend some time with my good friends Matt and Julie
(pictured above).
The band that performed was Cha Wa.
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Fourth of July Parade - Victor ID
Posted: July 04
As usual, this was a great event
attended by a large crowd lining Main Street in Victor.
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Music on Main
Posted: July 04
This was a cold evening with some
rain. We did not stay for the whole show.
The band that performed was
Kris Lager Band.
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Music on Main
Posted: June 23
First Music on Main of the summer.
It was pretty crowded for this early in the season. The
group that performed was Band of Heathens.
The music was good and everyone seemed to be having a
great time... especially the kids.
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Raptor Fest
Posted: June 19
Each year on Father's Day, a family
event is held at the Teton Raptor Center. I try to
attend every year as it gives me the opportunity to take
some photos of the raptors on display.
The tradition of face painting for kids makes for some
great photos as well.
When I left the event, I decided to drive Spring Gulch
Road to at least scout for future locations.
I found one and took a photo. I would like to go back
under less contrasty lighting and retake the photo.
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Signal Mountain
Posted: June 19
I went on an evening photo outing to
Signal Mountain with four other members of the Teton
Photography Group. This is the first time I was out with
this group.
I was introduced to this group a number of years ago
when Loren Woods came over to Teton Valley to lead a
photo outing for the Teton Regional Land Trust.
We met in Jackson and car pooled to Signal Mountain.
After our shoot, we decided to drive to Signal Mountain
Lodge for a bit of socializing. Nice group of folks!.
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Rock Springs WY
Posted: May 28
I have been wanting to try to
photograph the wild horses around Rock Springs for a
number of years. It seems I usually drive Highway 287
and am nowhere near Rock Springs.
The drive out this year was under mostly rainy
conditions so I elected to head toward Rock Springs.
There is a Wild Horse Loop Trail north of Rock Springs.
This dirt road follows some interesting sights as you
can see from these photos. The road ends in Green River
Wyoming which is about 11 miles west of Rock Springs.
I only saw one group of wild horses and from a pretty
great distance. I used my Tamron 150-600 lens but still
had to crop pretty heavily for the photos here.
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Ben Scharff Baseball Game
Posted: May 22
I went to see Ben Scharff play in a
baseball game on Saturday afternoon. These photos were
taken using my new Tamron 150-600 mm lens.
It was a beautiful day to watch kids play baseball. kid
around with the parents & siblings and take a few
photos. For most of these photos, I used a monopod for
camera support.
In case you were wondering, Ben's team lost.
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Forest Park
Posted: May 15
I continued using the new lens
today in Forest Park.
I went to the pond area along the east end of the park.
I was hoping to spot some water fowl but there weren't
any.
I did however meet a group of young fellows who are from
India. They are in St. Louis for several months working
on an IT project. We had a great time together. Nice
folks.
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Forest Park
Posted: May 15
I continued testing the new lens
today at the St. Louis Zoo.
Two things I wanted to test today:
1. Lens used with my Gimbal head, and
2. Lens used with remote shutter release while on the
tripod.
Results were inconclusive. The photos still don't jump
out at me as being GOOD photos. I don't know if this is
the lens or the photographer. I know when I have not
shot for awhile my photos are not as good as when I have
been shooting quite a bit.
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New Lens - Tamron 150-600 mm
Posted: April 23
I have been thinking about this lens
for some time now. My Canon 500 mm lens is quite large,
very heavy, cannot be easily hand held and it does not
have a zoom capability. It does however take beautiful
photos with some wonderful bokeh.
I was first exposed to the Tamron on Mike Jackson's
"Best of the Tetons" blog. Mike purchased this lens
around one year ago. He gets some very nice wildlife
shots which is what I mainly use the Canon 500 for.
To test out this new lens, I spent the later part of
this afternoon at Washington University where we are
hosting the UAA Track & Field Championships. I figured
this would give me an opportunity to try it out at
various zoom levels and to determine how hand hold able
it was. The fellow who sold me the lens owns one and
swears by the vibration compensation feature.
My initial impression is that hand held it is not as
sharp as most of the photos I have seen on Mike
Jackson's blog. I suspect that few of Mike's posted
images are hand held so I need to test the lens using a
tripod and my gimbal head.
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Teddy's Second Birthday Party
Posted: April 17
Today we celebrated Teddy Scharff's
second birthday. Teddy invited members from his
pre-school class and family.
We started out with a tour of the Clayton Fire House.
The kids got a chance to have their photos taken on the
equipment.
Afterwards we all went to Imo's for pizza and birthday
cake.
Note: I used the Canon 135 f/2 lens for these photos.
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Forest Park
Posted: March 15
The weather was very nice today
(albeit a bit on the humid side for my tastes).
After picking up some tickets to go see the Yonder
Mountain String Band at The Pageant on April 9 and
having a sandwich at Salume Beddu, I decided to go to
Forest Park for some early spring photos.
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St. Louis Zoo
Posted: February 28
I went to the St. Louis Zoo today
with the Jim Scharff family. I had given daughter Emma
an old dSLR as she is taking a photography class in
school and she seems to love it. It was a nice day so we
all decided to take in a day at the Zoo.
Pictured (L-R): Emma with her camera, Ben, Tiffany, Lily
and Jim
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