Vics Blog

I’ve been searching the recollection files in my head trying to conjure up an appropriate story that inspired a great photograph of Christmas. Surely it would have to be of my daughters opening their presents when they were little or watching my grandchildren open theirs. Maybe I could write and tell you of their utter elation as they came down the stairs on Christmas morning and saw the packages that Santa had left them. Family dinners, Christmas trees , my mother’s birthday, blizzards; thousands of pictures and memories to choose from.
I wonder what it is about taking photos that’s so compelling? We push a shutter button, hear a small click and capture a unique moment in history that will NEVER be repeated. Years later, we view the image and remember everything that happened in that moment. The voices, the sounds and smells all come flooding back in memories so powerful that they can overwhelm our souls. It’s a magical and mysterious process and Christmas pictures can capture incredible images of beautiful things that we can share with other people for the rest of our lives.
During the Holidays, try to take images that capture emotions. The traditional way of taking a picture with everyone looking at the camera and saying “cheese” is fun but it doesn’t catch the truly unique moments that make our hearts go wow. Catch your kids asleep under the tree hugging new toys with wrapping paper scattered about. Watch their excitement as dad reads the “The Night Before Christmas” or helps them hang their stockings before bedtime. Get a picture of them watching television as the news gives the hourly Santa radar report. Have your camera on and at the ready. No time for flash warm ups and fiddling with exposure settings and focus. It’s all about point and shoot.
My most memorable Christmas picture is the one captured while living in Virginia many years ago. The image isn’t framed on my dresser or stashed away in a box in the basement. I can’t find it on the hard drive or in any photo album. Never the less, it’s tucked away in my heart for all time and is a sharp as the Christmas morning that I shot it twenty years ago. We had just been transferred from Topeka, KS to Roanoke VA. and we moved into our new house just two weeks before Christmas. My daughters had just left all of their friends and Amanda, the youngest, just wanted one gift from Santa; a kitten. A few days later we found the perfect little guy and picked him up in the late afternoon on Christmas Eve. Even though his lonely, lost meows echoed down the halls of the house we managed to keep the tiny feline hidden all night long. The next morning we wrapped him in a package and hid it under the tree. I remember watching the box as it started moving and the unforgettable look of pure joy on my daughter’s face as she untied the ribbon and Mittens popped his little head out for the first time. Click

About five weeks ago I was invited to join Andy Leslie, Bob Younger and Braun Mincher of Ft. Collins to photograph them and several others floating and fly fishing the Madison River in Montana. It took me about two seconds to make the decision to go and ten days later we were on our way. The Madison is noted as one of the premier fisheries in the world producing large rainbow and brown trout as it flows through spectacular scenery just west of Yellowstone National Park. I was told we were going to stay at one of Braun’s friend’s cabin which was nestled on a small rise about thirty yards from a premier fishing hole called the aquarium.
We arrived about seven in the evening and proceeded through the front door, past a big stone fireplace, and out to a giant rear deck which overlooked a glowing campfire and the singing river. We were making introductions as the sun set when a bald eagle flew in from somewhere, circled directly above us, hovered, and then dove sharply into the water. It snagged a large trout in its talons and to my chagrin stood there for what seemed minutes while everyone gave me grief for not having the camera ready. The sight is still burned into my brain. The night ushered in thick steaks, wine, new friends, and as we gathered around a crackling fire we talked fishing and photography until midnight.
The next morning arrived cold and steam was brewing over the warmer water in the river. Andy and Bob were up early and I took pictures while they cast their lines through the ghostly mist. As the sun began to rise, it silhouetted them against the shimmering water and made for incredible images. The day began to warm, so we all headed to the local hangout for breakfast and made plans for the rest of the day. Fishing was the agenda and as they beat the waters I snapped the shutter. One thing that’s distinguishable about photographing in Montana is that just about everyone packs a firearm. Grizzlies abound in that part of the country and I was always looking over my shoulder to see if one of them might be interested in me as an easy meal. As much as I wanted to photograph one, I was relieved that they never showed up.
The next day we floated the Madison in small drift boats. The country was striking and so where the fish. Sitting on a swiveling rear seat, I was able to capture the action as fly lines, osprey, eagles and the sparkling river darted by for hours. In the evening we gathered once again around the dancing firelight, roasted marshmallows, and as the evening tired, watched satellites pass by in the starlit sky.
They fished and I photographed for two more days and then it was time to head out. I’d had the privilege of making friends and capturing another fantastic adventure in thousands of images that I will always remember.

For the Third year in a row, Vic Schendel is proud to announce that three of his images will be used in the 2013 Sierra Club Calendar. The Hawk and the Hummingbird will adorn the back cover! Nice job Vic – we are all very proud of you and your great accomplishments.

Last week I was conducting a photography workshop in the mountains up around Estes Park. We had scheduled the time a couple of weeks in advance hoping that the elk rut would have started and we’d get great shots of big bulls. Scouting the day before, I’d arrived at my favorite meadow at five in the morning hoping to hear bugling. Listening for over an hour in the darkness there was only silence and sun up produced nothing more. Needless to say, there was major apprehension on the part of this photographer as we started out the next morning. We arrived a little late, and there wasn’t an elk to be seen or heard. My workshops are all about learning to use the functions on your camera as well as working with the artsy side of taking good pictures but it’s really nice when the animals cooperate too.
We moved on and decided to start taking landscape pictures. Waterfalls make great subjects but the light was to bright and taking short time exposures burned out highlights on the water and made for lousy shots. Moving further upstream, we found some shaded pools and got some nice images working on the play of light and shadow but nothing great. As the day progressed we still couldn’t find any critters that wanted their portraits taken. Finally, after hours of searching we spotted a cow moose and her calf but they were so far away that pictures weren’t worth taking.
We continued looking for anything to photograph including chipmunks, ground squirrels and wildflowers. At six pm it started to rain. Now I’ve found over the years that if you stay patient (big hint) good things usually happen but I was beginning to have my doubts. We headed up the road, ascended past 10,000 feet, and the clouds started to break gingerly from the west.
Within half an hour things started looking up and we found several cow elk wanting to pose at timberline in the beautiful late afternoon light. We got some great pictures but the storm was moving quickly to the east and it looked like there might be a beautiful sunset so it was decided to head higher. At the top, and after searching all day, we finally found a huge bull elk and his harem but they were in the dark shadow of a hill which made for terrible images. They were however, moving up the slope toward the light at the top of the ridge. At the same time, two bright rainbows formed across the valley and the mountains lit up so we needed to make a quick decision, rainbows or elk? We went for the rainbows and jumped in the truck and headed back toward the west and in just five minutes were shooting awesome landscapes. Fortunately, the bands of color faded quickly, and we headed back down the road to see about the elk. Just as we arrived, the bull walked up to the summit and stood silhouetted against the fading five minutes of a splendiferous sunset. In the last twenty minutes of the day, staying patient to the end, we put several incredible images in the can.

There are opportunities to photograph all kinds of subjects every day of the year in Colorado. Last week I was going to look for wildlife on the western slope near the headwaters of the Colorado River. I left home before dawn and traveled up the Big Thompson and up and over Trail Ridge road. Near the top on the far side I saw eight bull elk grazing in the deep, dew dripping summer grass near the small lake that is the headwaters of the Cache La Poudre River. For several years I’ve been looking to find a bull shedding his velvet and as luck would have it one was in the group. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about let me try to give you a brief explanation. Growing during the late spring and summer, antlers are covered with a highly vascular skin which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the bone aptly called velvet for its look and texture. As the mating season draws near, the blood vessels dry up and the bull thrashes his rack against small trees and bushes to expose the underlying bone. It seems to happen over just a day or two and finding a big bull in the process had been frustrating until now. There’s a little bit of blood as the tissue tears away from the newly exposed white bone but fascinating to photograph. Use a shutter speed of at least 1/500th of a second to capture the action.
As the show unfolded another bull who had been watching the first began to rub his antlers against a clump of dead willow stumps. He started gingerly at first as though it might have hurt a bit but within minutes he was rubbing his antlers back and forth mimicking the first and exposing naked bone. This was all pretty awesome to see and I took a couple hundred pictures trying to get the balance and action just right. The temperature was warming and the sun was getting brighter making for difficult exposures when all of a sudden and in unison, all the bulls began to bolt for the lake. If you’ve ever watched kids playing at the swimming pool on a hot summer day you’ll get a mental picture of what happened next. The first bull got to the water’s edge and delicately tested the temperature with one hoof as if to decide whether to take the plunge. The second to arrive literally ran head first into the rear of mister hesitant and they careened into the icy water together. The third jumped right in and splashed the first two has he landed. It was a free for all for the next half hour as one bull after the next would stomp, jump, , shake and spray the others. It had to be one of the funniest things that I’ve ever photographed in the wild. Don’t ever doubt that animals have feelings because I got the pictures to prove it.

As a professional wildlife photographer and former hunter I’ve been asked on numerous occasions what are my secrets for getting coyotes, red fox and other predators close enough to get great pictures. I don’t use predator calls or blinds and my images are taken almost entirely on public lands. Living in Fort Collins, Colorado, there are numerous places within a hundred miles to capture most large and small game in their natural environment. There are many prairie grasslands to the east and north including Wyoming and vast tracks of mountain valleys and canyons to the west of town. Using a Canon 7D digital camera and a 100-400 mm zoom lens, most of the predator images I take are within ten to twenty five yards or close enough to see the whites of their eyes.
One of the great secrets for finding predators is to know what they feed on and carrion is at the top of the list. Harsh winter conditions such as long weeks of subzero temperatures, deep snow and lack of feed kill larger animals. The trick is to find their remains and I let the raptors, magpies, crows and buzzards keep watch for me. Driving down long stretches of lonely county roads or hiking in the back country, I search the fields and sky for flocks of them which can be the giveaway of a frozen carcass. I believe that the predators do exactly the same thing and it’s usually a short wait before one of them shows up at the scene if there not there already. Last winter I saw a group of magpies in a field of sage in southern Wyoming twenty miles west of Cheyenne. At about two hundred yards a coyote was trying to chase them off for a piece of deer kill. Sneaking down a small gulch, I stalked to within thirty yards but he saw me first and split. I sat still and watched him retreat to a snowfield about a quarter of mile away a clean the blood from his face in a snow bank. I knelt behind some sage and after a half hour he snuck back slowly to within twenty feet. Staying downwind, dressing in warm camo and moving very, very slowly usually brings good success. Remember that a predator is an opportunist and drops his guard somewhat if the meal is already prepared.
Late spring and early summer is a wonderful time for finding dens. Hiking along small creeks, canyons and dry river beds, I look for the signs of them continually. Lots of fresh tracks, kill remains and matted grass near burrows can be a dead give that predators are in the vicinity. Early morning and late evening is a great time to sit patiently and wait for them to leave to hunt and bring home their prey. Recently I saw a coyote returning to the den with a dead badger in its jaws. It was so late in the evening that a photo was impossible but the sight was incredible. I’ve never hunted during these months, but found that as summer passes into fall these creatures never stray far from the area and winter brings beautiful coats and easy sightings. My most successful photographs have been taken when the temperature is below zero and hours after a snowstorm.
I spend about 300 days a year in the field. When photographing large animals such as deer and elk, I watch their eyes and body constantly which can give away the presence of a passing predator. Stay low, keep quiet, move at turtle speed and keep the camo on. Sometimes you’ll have a fox or coyote walk right next to you. The biggest secrets of finding predators are patience, knowing the habits of your prey, and sitting still in areas that they frequent for long periods of time. Sometimes boredom or the cold sets in and all you want to do is leave. On numerous occasions, after hours of sitting motionless, I’ve gotten up to call it quits and had to cuss myself as a startled coyote made for the next county.