When we think of great photography situations most of us thinking of those first moments of light in the morning or those last rays of sun in the evening. Having that warm glow on our subjects just makings the images so special and after capturing those images the day prior with the Willow Ptarmigan I was thinking that there was no way I could top those images.

After two days of cloudy weather photography with these balls of white fluff on the snow I came to realize that it isn’t all about the warm glow all the sun and that there are subjects that just look amazing in overcast light

For the rest of the weekend I made multiple visits out to the barrens in search of the Ptarmigan.

Which at times; they appeared to be like ghosts, one min there would be flocks all around me and then without warning they would vanish without taking flight..it was quite remarkable how well they could camouflage into the landscape.

Much of my photography during these sessions were done using my vehicle as a blind but on occasion the birds would allow me to belly crawl out to them (Can you spot them in the iphone image below)

with the cloudy conditions my goal was to capture minimalist style images; allowing the subject to “stand out” on this snow covered environment. Here are some of my favorite minimalist images from the outings

It was such an amazing experience to have spent so much time watching these beautiful birds roam the barrens in search of food and feeding from the alders

It was also great to have shared some of the moments with my family and my 7 year old daughter who thought they were so cutie.

This once in a lifetime experience will certainly be one I will not soon forget.