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.

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!

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!

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….

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.

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.

Mule deer buck in snow

Mule deer buck with does

I’ve just returned home from a weeklong trip to photograph migratory mule deer in Southwestern Wyoming.   I’ve done well in years past but I was uncertain of the number and quality of the deer I would be able to find this year.  Wyoming has had two severe winters in a row with heavy spring snow, when wildlife is most vulnerable to starvation.   The Wyoming Game & Fish Department has reported heavy winter mortality in the area. 

This year we’ve had a relatively dry fall so far and not a lot of snow has fallen in the high mountains which forces the deer down to their winter range.  It seems many of the larger bucks are still high or migrating down from the mountains.  In areas where I’ve found many mature bucks in the past they were quite scarce this year. 

I was able to find a good number of younger bucks like this one shown below.  I’ve been told that the younger bucks migrate earlier than the mature bucks.  Overall I saw plenty of deer (more than expected)  and a good number of fawns with most of the does having twins.

Mule deer buck

I began searching the mule deers transitional range which are areas you would expect to find mule deer travelling along their migration route down from the high mountains to their winter range at lower elevattion. Access was difficult but I was able to locate some nice mature bucks in this habitat such as this fine buck in an aspen grove below.

Mule deer buck in snowy aspen grove

Texas Trophy Whitetail Buck

This buck was photographed on an 8000 acre private ranch in South Texas that I visited with my long time friend Bill Draker.  The annual fall rut (or mating season) was a bit late this year and unfortunately I was leaving just as the rut was kicking in.  The bucks were just beginning to show themselves and I managed a few good opportunities.

Later Afternoon Whitetail Buck

 I flew back to Colorado from Texas to spend a week photographing the mule deer rut and I caught it just right and managed to capture some great images of some magnificent mule deer bucks.   I cut my teeth photographing mule deer in the early to mid 80′s and to this day they remain one of my favorite subjects.

"Big Sky"

 Over the years I’ve photographed some of the largest mule deer bucks ever photographed and when I find deer of that caliber I usually come up with a name for them.   This fantastic buck has earned the name “Big Sky”.   Hope to photograph him for years to come.  In this situation I had too much lens and had to keep backing up.  For some reason the doe he was courting kept approaching me??  I was using my 800mm F5.6L which made that a bit of a problem.  As usual I was carrying another body with a EF70-200mm lens over my shoulder and used it when “Big Sky” got to close for the 800mm.

Rutting Mule Deer Buck

This is another fine buck I found.  Here he’s exhibiting the flehem response which is the way ungulates determine if the females are in heat.  In this rugged brushy habitat I was handholding my 300mm F2.8L IS which really delivered the goods and allowed me to work quickly when the opportunity arose.

"Deep Fork"

Here’s another buck that’s earned a name.  I photographed him in the same location two years ago and I was very happy to see him again.  I’m not done with mule deer yet!  I leave tomorrow for another week of mule deer photography here in Wyoming.  I’ll be working on migratory deer coming down out of the high country.  I hope to have more images of great bucks upon my return.

Today Canon announced a highly anticipated replacement of the Eos 1ds mkIII.  What most people didn’t anticipate that Canon was replacing  the Eos 1dmkIV as well with this new generation camera the 1DX.  This camera really seems to indicate a radical change in thinking at Canon.

KEY FEATURES

• Autofocus (AF) continuous shooting at 12 fps (14 fps with mirror lock-up)
• Full-Frame 18.1MP CMOS sensor with large pixel size and gapless microlens technology
• ISO range 100-51200 (L:50; H2: 204800) and low noise for high quality in all lighting conditions, including near-dark
• FULL High Definition movie recording, video industry standards compliance (ALL-I, IPB)
• Dual DiG!C 5+ image processors for high-speed processing and noise reduction
• New AF system features 61 AF points (41 cross points) for precise focussing accuracy
• Unique Auto Exposure (AE) metering uses RGB colour and face recognition for enhanced subject tracking

For all the technical information you need on the new camera go here http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/education/technical/eos_1d_x_explained.do .   I had heard some of the leaked specs the last few weeks and was quite skeptical especially in regards to the 18 megapixel sensor.  It just didn’t seem to be Canons M.O. to step backwards in resolution.   But they did and now I must evaluate it to see how this exciting new camera would fit into my world of nature and wildlife photography.

FOR WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY

Pros:

1. Improvement in AF performance
2. High frame rate up to 14fps could be quite useful
3. Improved high ISO performance (could be the best available)
4. Build Quality (As good as the current 1dmk4 which is excellent)
5. New rear LCD with an even better and larger display
6. Has 2 CF slots instead of one CF and 1 SD as in the 1d4.
7. Improved metering

Cons:

1. Going to full frame means less reach for your current lenses
2. Somewhat lower resolution than the current APS-H sensor of the 1d4
3. No AF at F8 which will limit teleconverter use (not certain of this)

For Landscape Photography

Pros:

1. Electronic level as in the 7d and the Nikon bodies
2. Multiple exposure mode (in camera HDR)
3. Improved Dynamic Range (remains to be seen)
4. Improved sensor cleaning up to f22 performance

Cons:

1. Step backwards in resolution compared to the 1ds3 and 5dmkII
2. PRICED at $6800 this will be a tough pill to swallow

This new flagship camera has many exciting new features which are definitely a step in the right direction.  But there are a number of things about the camera that bother me.   I’m really not sure the camera will be a good landscape tool.  Sounds like a killer sports camera. I’m assuming Canon will address the high-resolution needs of this segment in another upcoming body.  For me I think I’ll take a wait and see approach.    After the Eos-1dx has been out for a while and perhaps another new body (high resolution) is announced I’ll decide then  whether I want to jump in.  For now my camera lineup of the 1d4, 5d2 and the 7d will be just fine.