Sequoia/King's Canyon National Park

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This is a "Snow Plant". It appears in the Sierra and Cascade mountain range every year as the snow melts. Although it looks like a fungus, it's actually a Saprophyte...a plant that has no chlorophyll. This fantastic plant is one of the best reasons to hike the mountains in early spring, as the snow is just melting away.

This is your typical "bear in a meadow" picture. A pair of people were also hiking along the trail. Just as all three of us came around a corner and the meadow came into view, this is the view that we saw...a bear slowly ambling down the center of the trail. As usual, I only had a few exposures before I had to change rolls. I dropped my backpack quickly and got out a telephoto lens. The couple I mentioned earlier had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in their backpacks. Eventually, the bear was about 40 feet away and all three of us started backing up...

When the bear got close enough, we all started backing up. The bear stopped walking towards us and walked uphill to a log. It grabbed a blade of grass on it's way, which you can just barely see sticking out of it's mouth.

This picture was taken with a Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 L lens, wide open. I remember seeing a shutter speed of 1/450 and 1/800. This is 400 speed film; even with a bright lens, getting sharp pictures can be difficult in the shady forest.

These lisards, with an iridescent blue belly, are very territorial on the rocks and logs in the heat of the sun. Because they are so persistant at defending their basking spot, you can get pretty good pictures of them. This is the EF 200mm f/2.8 L lens with a 2x teleconverter.