A very short walk from the spot of last week's Wyoming Landscape, the Red Bluffs running east and west along the mouth of the Wind River Canyon hide small, red washes with steep walls that are all but illegal to hike and explore for most people.  These vertical slot "draws" have rarely been explored except by a lucky few.  The land is privately owned and it's impossible for you to just take a hike in some Red Bluff that looks promising.  I had the rare chance to explore one of these places when I was employed by the owners of one of the big homes up above.  

     It seemed a good day to take pictures, so with a little motivation, off I went with the Canon beast under my arm, down from the mansion  into my first Wyoming slot canyon.  In only a few minutes I was isolated from everything I knew above; only rock and a little ribbon of sky above me remained.  This canyon ribbon curved much more than I ever expected it to; pretty soon I felt almost trapped by Mother Nature, with only a blue ribbon of sky above me, and no easy way out.  It was so quiet I swear I could hear my own heartbeat and it was racing.  I would round a curve in the red rock not knowing what or who I would see, and yet I saw nothing but a few bleached bones, but I had my camera ready.     

    Then my red path came to a small backwash of four feet, so I sat on the red ledge and slipped my butt down to the rest of my unknown journey.  As I followed the slotted draw down deeper into the cliffs, I wondered if I was going to find something to photograph; as I rounded the next red bend there he was....a Great Horned Owl!  He had a cave of his own that was pointed in my direction, and so were his yellow eyes.  This Owl obviously had never seen a human down here before.  I took some fast shots and quickly rounded the next hidden curve that isolated me from his staring eyes.  I made some quick adjustments to my camera, took a few deep breaths to calm my hormones, and went headlong into what was going to be a remarkable shoot.

    I rounded the red rock corner, and the Owl and I were both ready, his bright yellows eyes looking right at me!  Raising my heavy monster I took my shots, a burst of who knows how many frames; it seemed forever, yet was only a few seconds at most.  Then I did what any good conservationist should do, I lowered my camera to take in the event with my own eyes; it was a fleeting moment I know, but forever burned into my memory, and off the big, Great Horned Owl flew, down into the field that was in last week's Wyoming Landscape blog.  I quickly tried to follow him as he flew down and away from his cave, but found my path had ended at a very high backwash of nearly twenty feet!  My heart was in a race to go somewhere, but I could only watch the majestic Owl fly beyond my ability to follow, so I turned around and retraced my red path back up to the mansion.

    When the photographs were finally on my computer, I saw something I needed to do.  One of the frames was worked as a color photograph should be, but one of the other digital files I worked as a black and white.  You see, I was always a fan of a famous film director from the 1930's, a man who changed the way we see movies today, James Whale.  He directed the very first Frankenstein film, and changed an entire world with his films, yet was shunned because of his sexual orientation, and his life ruined.  I worked the photograph in a way he would have liked, and this is this week's blog photograph.  The color version can be seen on my website, HogbatsPhotography.com.  And by the way, the owner of the mansion had never been that far into the slot in the Red Bluffs.  Can you imagine what a casino nearby would do to the life of this Owl?

In Memory of James WhaleGreat Horned Owl, Red Bluffs near Thermopolis, Wyoming.

Until next week, keep your camera ready!