just back from a fantastic week in Jackson Hole, mainly skiing but as I am a ski-mountaineer I would typically get call it quits around 2-3pm when I couldn't climb any more and go out for an afternoon wildlife trip. All photos taken around the town of Jackson and Grand Teton National Park on D800 wit the new Nikon 300mm f/4.0 VR Phase-Fresnel lens - amazing engineering, it is smaller and lighter than my 24-70mm and is really revolutionizing photography. I would have really struggled to take my old 300mm f/4.0 given all the ski gear, baby clothes, nappies and milk bottles required on this trip!
Photos are pretty much straight form camera, no time to edit yet.
Moose were my primary target, the persistence paid off on the last day with this magnificent bull, great lighting and so close i had to remove my 1.4xTC. You are not allowed to approach these animals within 75 yards but a well position car and a lot of luck meant he walked right passed.
Other target big game animals were Bison
But there are so many opportunities around here if you kept your eyes open. This Bald Eagle was sitting on the same spot every day.
Mule deer don't get the reputation f the Moose, elk and bears but they are still very photogenic, especially in the last evening light.
It was great to see the Big Horn Sheep after not finding any in Montana back in September.
Something I really like doing is having animals shown in their environments with dramatic mountain backdrops. I was lucky to get another Bull moose perfectly position with a Grand Teton right behind. I had been following the Moose all week and knew he was in the right area for alignment, if only he would move over around half a mile. What I love about wildlife is you never know what to expect and on the 7th day I was treated to this composition.
It proved easier with the Mule deer, and better morning light.
And even Bison
Elk are the other big game animal around in winter. The national Elk wildlife refuge border the town, they have to use a fence to keep them out. Around 8 thousand Elk were in the vicinity, you come in summer and you are lucky to see 2-3 scattered here or there.
However, hunting season ended the week before I arrived and the Elk are super scared of humans for the next months. Also in winter there are lots of Wolf kills so they really keep their distance, unlike the summer when you can get close. There is simple solution though, if you are on a horse for some reason they don't mind you at all!
Bison are also around in big herds in winter. Its very hard to capture the size of the herds from ground level, you need to be thinking about those African wildlife documentaries showing the wilderbeast migrations. This is definitely a time when I think a decent drone would capture wonderful aerial footage showing the extent.
This line of Bison were following a road, I measured it at near 2 mile line of bison. I stood next to the car for an hour watching them go by and captured a couple of hundred photos I need to pick though.
I also have hundreds of moose photos to examine!
As you can see, I love Jackson in winter. The animals comes out of the mountains and congregate in the lower valleys where the snowpack is shallow enough to allow feeding. Unlike in the summer when the animals have to avoid the heat of the day in winter they have to keep feeding constantly and make the best sue of day light hours. Luckily, in winter the sun is low and weak enough that it usually provides warm and soft colors. Plus sunrise is 7:30am not 5am so you can rally sleep in! The downside is that morning temperature were -35*C, and typically didn't rise above -20 or even -25*C. This made for some uncomfortable hands!
Photos are pretty much straight form camera, no time to edit yet.
Moose were my primary target, the persistence paid off on the last day with this magnificent bull, great lighting and so close i had to remove my 1.4xTC. You are not allowed to approach these animals within 75 yards but a well position car and a lot of luck meant he walked right passed.
Other target big game animals were Bison
But there are so many opportunities around here if you kept your eyes open. This Bald Eagle was sitting on the same spot every day.
Mule deer don't get the reputation f the Moose, elk and bears but they are still very photogenic, especially in the last evening light.
It was great to see the Big Horn Sheep after not finding any in Montana back in September.
Something I really like doing is having animals shown in their environments with dramatic mountain backdrops. I was lucky to get another Bull moose perfectly position with a Grand Teton right behind. I had been following the Moose all week and knew he was in the right area for alignment, if only he would move over around half a mile. What I love about wildlife is you never know what to expect and on the 7th day I was treated to this composition.
It proved easier with the Mule deer, and better morning light.
And even Bison
Elk are the other big game animal around in winter. The national Elk wildlife refuge border the town, they have to use a fence to keep them out. Around 8 thousand Elk were in the vicinity, you come in summer and you are lucky to see 2-3 scattered here or there.
However, hunting season ended the week before I arrived and the Elk are super scared of humans for the next months. Also in winter there are lots of Wolf kills so they really keep their distance, unlike the summer when you can get close. There is simple solution though, if you are on a horse for some reason they don't mind you at all!
Bison are also around in big herds in winter. Its very hard to capture the size of the herds from ground level, you need to be thinking about those African wildlife documentaries showing the wilderbeast migrations. This is definitely a time when I think a decent drone would capture wonderful aerial footage showing the extent.
This line of Bison were following a road, I measured it at near 2 mile line of bison. I stood next to the car for an hour watching them go by and captured a couple of hundred photos I need to pick though.
I also have hundreds of moose photos to examine!
As you can see, I love Jackson in winter. The animals comes out of the mountains and congregate in the lower valleys where the snowpack is shallow enough to allow feeding. Unlike in the summer when the animals have to avoid the heat of the day in winter they have to keep feeding constantly and make the best sue of day light hours. Luckily, in winter the sun is low and weak enough that it usually provides warm and soft colors. Plus sunrise is 7:30am not 5am so you can rally sleep in! The downside is that morning temperature were -35*C, and typically didn't rise above -20 or even -25*C. This made for some uncomfortable hands!
