Employee Photo Contest.

I've decided that I'm not going to try to catch up on all the stories - but to show some of my favorite pictures/stories based on specific categories (and then start sharing more of the specific stories).  The categories are: landscapes, sunsets, animals, geothermal features, flora and the Grand Tetons.  (I am going to Glacier National Park in about a week - so that will be a category too!!)

We have an employee photo contest in about a week and I've decided that I'm going to enter.  You can enter one photo per category and I'm going to enter Landscape, Wildlife (and possibly Up Close).  These are the photos that I'm debating between - and input would be appreciated and awesome.

Landscape

 

When we first arrived, we went on a sunset tour in a Historic Yellow Bus.  We were supposed to go up to Lake Butte Drive but there had been an aggressive bear in the area so the road was closed.  Instead, we went past it for quite a while before heading back to see the sunset off the lake shore.  I was so worried that we were going to miss the brilliant sunset that was occurring just on the other side of the mountain that I was taking pictures of things with light reflecting off them.  This snow covered mountain looks like a push pin with all the burned lodge pole pines sticking out.

The first time that I went to Lamar Valley, I was speechless at the beauty of the area.  The valley dips down in between hills of lodge pole pines and sage brush flats that make feeding pastures for the Bison and Prong Horns.  The light playing on the snow patches and trees reminds me of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  I can image that the cove of trees are the Grinch's home as the paces hatefully over Whoville.

My friend, Adam, and I hiked out to Cascade Lake one rainy afternoon shortly after we moved into Canyon.  It was still super early in the season so there were slushy pits to try to avoid and rivers overflowing with snow melt to jump over.  We were looking for a way to cross an extremely wide river.  I tried crossing a tree that had fallen across.  I got stopped midway breathless at the sun peeping through the mist that was enveloping the valley in front of me.  The whole scene glowed before us for only a few brief moments before the mist cleared.  (When we turned around two gorgeous rainbows arched fully across the sky.)

Wildlife

These are the beautiful dragonfly pictures that I started with my re-introduction back to my blog.  I just can't help it - I'm so excited by how wonderfully these turned out - even better than I had imagined!  I just need to decide between the two...

Close Up

This picture was taken the same day as the dragonflies.  I was almost home when I saw this spider web glimmering in the sunlight.  The amount of work that a spider has to put in to build all these intricate homes to survive is amazing.  I'm captivated by the amount of work that they must do.

I'm undecided about if I should but the dragonflies under Wildlife or Close Up...  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  

LT