Winter in Yellowstone Photo Tour

Today was day 1 of the first of two photo tours in Yellowstone National Park.  Weather is quite warm, especially compared to the bitter temps we endured on last years tour when we saw -42 degrees F one morning.  Snow depths in the northern sections of the park are much less than last year.

These are wolves from the Lamar Pack.   We photographed them in the Lamar Valley just east of the Lamar Ranger Station.  There were 10 wolves in total that were visible.  Most were a bit to far away for good photography.

This wolf is a sub-adult female of the Lamar Pack..  It was born this past April.  Both of these images were made with my Canon Eos 1Dmk4 and the EF800mmF5.6L IS.  Coming in tonight we saw some wolves between Mammoth Hot Springs and the north entrance and hope we might run into them in the morning.

Battlling Bighorns Tour Video

One of my tour participants Michael Yessick captured some wonderful video of the rams fighting during my “Battling Bighorns” photo tour a few weeks back.   He’s posted the video on YouTube and you can view it here.  The video really gives you a sense of the power and speed of these battles.  Thanks Michael!

http://youtu.be/EzZhUPGbH94

 

 

Battling Bighorns (part 2)

I like a great wildlife portrait as much as the next person.  I always try to portray  my wildlife subject at it’s finest in my portraits.  As of late I’ve found my interest drifting away from these perfect portraits. I’ve been working hard trying  to produce strong scenic/environmental images which include wildlife in the landscape.  These can be difficult images to achieve but I feel they are very informative to the viewer.  It’s quite rewarding when you can pull one-off successfully. 

During my “Battling Bighorns” photo tour last week I was on the lookout to capture dramatic animalscapes.  In the above image I have placed the ram which is quite small in the frame in the upper left power point moving diagonally into the frame.  The great afternoon light falling on the vertical rugged environment the sheep lives in tells a great story.

Dramatic action and behavior in the bighorn sheeps  natural habitat highlights the image shown above.   Again the sheep are fairly small in the frame and the environment dominates.  Here the  bighorn sheep interacting in a dramatic way with their environment carries the image.

In this image weather conditions add the dramatic element needed to give the scene visual interest.   Without the falling snow and the ram this image would not work.  I placed the ram on the lower left power point to create a strong composition.  Dramatic light and weather conditions can lead to dramatic imagery.  Fairweather photography is often boring…

With this image I used a rugged mountain background to balance the bighorn sheep in the foreground adding  strong visual interest and showing the viewer the world the sheep live in.   Next time your out photographing wildlife think beyond the portrait and try to produce your own animalscapes.   Good luck to you!

“Battling Bighorns” 2011

I lead my 2011 “Battling Bighorns” photo tour last week.   This was the latest I’ve ever run  the tour and I’m really glad I did.  Up till a few days before the tour the sheep herds hadn’t come down from the high Absarokas due to the lack of snow so far this year in Western Wyoming.  Fortunately just days before the start of the tour good numbers of sheep showed up on their traditional winter range.

The rams were really in fighting mood and the rut was going full-bore.  My group was able to witness and photograph fighting rams on every day of the tour.  It’s quite a thrill to witness these fights, truly one of the most remarkable events in the natural world.

In the above image the rams didn’t collide squarely and the ram on the right flipped over his opponent.  It was quite a scene.  Neither ram seemed to suffer any injuries as result of this.

Here you can see the moment just before impact.  Even firing away at 10 frames per second with my Canon Eos1D mk4 the next frame was the actual impact.  The speed at which they come together is amazing.

This is the moment of impact.  I can’t imagine the amount of force generated the collision.  The crack can be heard for a mile.  The rams will twist they’re heads before impact usually in the position shown in the image above.

Here just after impact the large ram on the left went down hard.  He seemed to be knocked cold.  The smaller ram on the left was coming in for a cheap shot which often happens.   The ram quickly got to his feet and after a few minutes resumed the fight eventually proving his dominance.

These fights can be difficult to photograph.  You need plenty of shutter speed to stop the action.  I tried to have my shutter speed over 1/1000th of a second.  Even faster shutter speed were better.  In order to achieve those fast shutter speeds you need to sacrifice depth of field by using wide apertures.  I mainly used my Canon EF70-200mmF4 IS handheld for the fights.  Usually I used the lens wide open at F4.  To get both sheep sharp and in the plane of focus you need to be 90 degrees perpendicular to the line of travel of the fighting rams to keep them in the plane of focus.  I would often pre-focus on one of the rams and not refocus during the fight.   This would work well as long as I was at a right angle from the fight.  Another option is to use an outer focus point and keep in on one of the rams as he charged toward his opponent.  You had to keep moving and try to anticipate the fights.  We were lucky to have ample opportunities this year. 

Next years “Battling Bighorns” tour will run from December 16-20th 2012.  More information will be posted on my website ASAP….

Merry Christmas

Images For Conservation Pro-Am Contests 2012

Images for Conservation  is holding a number of Pro-Am Contests on some amazing ranches in Texas during 2012.  These private lands are excellent and productive locations for nature photography. I’ve been a photographer on the ICF Pro-Tour  since 2006 competing in the month-long grueling challenging contests.  I’ve been very successful on tour.  I will be coaching 4 of these contests during 2012 and hope to show you the same success I was able to achieve.

As the  professional nature photographer/coach who brings you through your Pro-Am Tournament I will not only educate you about the wildlife you’ll see and the techniques you’ll learn, but will coach you and decide which images to submit for judging as well.

As a Pro-Am Coach I’ll lead you with three primary goals in mind:

1. You’ll leave a better photographer.
2. You’ll benefit from the competitive experience.
3. You’ll have a great time!

An Images for Conservation Pro-Am Tournament combines an informative workshop and a fun photo contest into an enjoyable 4-day, 5-evening event that takes place on private lands professionally prepared for wildlife and nature photography. They carefully select locations so that our Coaches/leaders can combine the best elements of the finest nature photography workshops with the power of a competitive learning experience. Pro-Am Tournaments are open to anyone with a digital SLR camera.

To view the 2012  contest schedule go here.   Go here to regitster.

Up Up and Away!

I really like this image of a fawn mule deer from my recent trip to Southwest Wyoming.  Seems to fit well into the spirit of the season.  I captured this image handheld using  my Canon Eos 7d and my EF300mm F2.8L.