Olympic Peninsula with Pope

[Tom Reichner]

Had a great weekend exploring Hurricane Ridge, Dungeness Spit, and a couple other places with Shawn.  He's an excellent photographer, and it was good to "shoot" with someone so passionate about wildlife.  He had both a 70-200 2.8 and a 100mm macro lens - both were very portable and quick to get into action. I had my big 400, which is cumbersome, to say the least.  While I appreciate the image quality that my lens affords, I missed many opportunities due to the time it takes to get it set up.  Pope was able to capitalize on these opportunities, and ended up with some amazing photos, as you've already seen in his post.  His butterfly and dragonfly photos were tremendous - seeing them turn out as good as they did makes me want a macro lens real bad.

The Blacktail was trophy class, and we found him just before getting to the lodge up on Hurricane Ridge.  The 2nd Blacktail and Olympic Marmots were photographed along the H.R. trail.  By the way, we learned that this is a species of marmot that is found only in the Olympics - a Washington state exclusive!  

When we decided to go to Dungeness Spit the last thing I was thinking of was Ringneck Pheasants, but as we were leaving we spotted a whole family of 'em - the rooster, the hen, and 5 chicks!  Odd to see the rooster attending to his family like that, but we were glad he decided to stick around.  It's very unusual to find a pheasant that tolerates being photographed.  

To top it all off, on Sunday we shot ducks at a pond choked with gorgeous lily pads, and then I found an Osprey nest on my way home!

[WAPITIHUNTER]

Holy chipmunk Batman! Them there are some really amazing pictures. Very nice!

[popeshawnpaul]

Love the wood duck hen photo.  Turned out great Tom.   

[robodad]

I guess lighting a fire under you was worth it !!! 

Just joking Tom, as always it is really awesome to see your pictures !! 

[Wea300mag]

Outstanding pics, it's nice to have real photographers on here.

[GoldTip]

Great pics, I always appreciate when someone who really knows how to take photo's shares them with us.  Thanks Tom, Pope, Bone, and anyone else who shares their photo's.

[rainshadow1]

Awesome stuff!

[Austrian Hunter]

Very nice pics, thank you guys for sharing!

[Houndhunter]

wow hella of a buck

[javman]

Great shots! That first buck is a beaut of a blacktail (esp for the Olympics). I've seen some nice bucks in the Oly's, but never one that big!

Do you think that 2nd buck is regressing?

[gramps]

Great Photos...Thanks for sharing.

[saylean]

what great great photos. I love it. The ducks were very cool.

[tlbradford]

Thanks for sharing these.  You hit the focus perfect on the marmot.  I really like the hen photos.

[Hornseeker]

Nice Tom, Thanks...

Does that big buck have something wrong with his nose/snout? looks to be swollen on top??? am I seeing things?

I like the woodduck hen photo too and the mallard hen photo above even more....

[buckhorn2]

Thanks for sharing love the colors coming out in everything.