After last year's success I returned to Jackson, Wyoming to both photograph the wildlife of Jackson hole and the Grand Teton national Park, but also get in some amazing skiing.
Winter is an excellent time to shoot with most of the wildlife coming out of the mountains and high plateau of Yellowstone down to the lower and drier Jackson Hole. A few animals are missing (black and grizzly bears, antelope, smaller mammals), but many game animals are in high abundance. They also tend to be very busy feeding in order to stay alive, and are easier to spot without the thick summer vegetation.
This year skiing was out of this word and the wildlife opportunities outstanding. I don't think I have a prizewinner like last year but the total sightings were far higher and i saw several animals like wolves for the first time. One issue was it snowed a lot, most days were foggy/cloudy with driving snow. This causes focus issues with such long lenses and can rob sharpness, plus you can get orbs and smudges on the animals. All shoot on a D800 with Sigma 150-600m.
Moose was my primary animal and things didn't disappoint. Lost track of the numbers but some days over 6 or 7 encounters at varying distances.
You can see what the heavy snow does to the images, but in this instance I like it:
Despite seeing dozens of Moose I had gone 11 days without seeing a fully racked male, many of the males had already lost their rack. On the last day just before sundown we found this handsome fellow in one of the hot pools (like the geysers of Yellowstone, this is just water though). Very hard to shoot with the steam but this one worked
On this Bull Moose you can see where his antlers used to be
Big horn sheep are perhaps the easiest to fidn in winter ,a few miles form town. Although there are only around 150-200 in the area they all congregate in a small part of the Elk Refuge. You can get very close to these guys.
Rolling back the lips is a kind of communication+smelling behavior.
The young are cute.
There were much less deer than last year which I didn't mind given everything else. Here is a Mule deer
There were also less Bald Eagles compared to last year
But that is OK there were lots of Golden Eagles fighting over a dead coyote!
I was lucky this time in having 3 kill sites in sight of the road
Not sure what animal died but for several days it attracted red Fox, Cross Fox, coyote, wolves (I missed)
Cross Fox takings its turn while a red fox waits it out.
Red Fox thinks its his turn
No trip to Jackson is complete without Bison!
There wasn't really the weather for landscapes so I just have a few quick snaps
Something I always try to do is capture animals in their environment.
(This weirdly looks like there was an ND filter used on the top buts its just the clouds)
When you can't get close to the wolves you call the photo a landscape shot!
Then there is the Elk. Around 10,000 congregate in the Elk Refuge each winter so they aren't hard to find. Best bet is to pay to go on a sleigh ride around the refuge like I did last year but with bad weather I didn't bother this time so didn't get so close (they seem very skittish, liekly because it was both hunting season and the wolves were active).
Just behind these were a pack of wolves testing for weaknesses in the herd. Very distant shots though
I just love Moose!
Even when it is -25 and a blizzard
Winter is an excellent time to shoot with most of the wildlife coming out of the mountains and high plateau of Yellowstone down to the lower and drier Jackson Hole. A few animals are missing (black and grizzly bears, antelope, smaller mammals), but many game animals are in high abundance. They also tend to be very busy feeding in order to stay alive, and are easier to spot without the thick summer vegetation.
This year skiing was out of this word and the wildlife opportunities outstanding. I don't think I have a prizewinner like last year but the total sightings were far higher and i saw several animals like wolves for the first time. One issue was it snowed a lot, most days were foggy/cloudy with driving snow. This causes focus issues with such long lenses and can rob sharpness, plus you can get orbs and smudges on the animals. All shoot on a D800 with Sigma 150-600m.
Moose was my primary animal and things didn't disappoint. Lost track of the numbers but some days over 6 or 7 encounters at varying distances.
You can see what the heavy snow does to the images, but in this instance I like it:
Despite seeing dozens of Moose I had gone 11 days without seeing a fully racked male, many of the males had already lost their rack. On the last day just before sundown we found this handsome fellow in one of the hot pools (like the geysers of Yellowstone, this is just water though). Very hard to shoot with the steam but this one worked
On this Bull Moose you can see where his antlers used to be
Big horn sheep are perhaps the easiest to fidn in winter ,a few miles form town. Although there are only around 150-200 in the area they all congregate in a small part of the Elk Refuge. You can get very close to these guys.
Rolling back the lips is a kind of communication+smelling behavior.
The young are cute.
There were much less deer than last year which I didn't mind given everything else. Here is a Mule deer
There were also less Bald Eagles compared to last year
But that is OK there were lots of Golden Eagles fighting over a dead coyote!
I was lucky this time in having 3 kill sites in sight of the road
Not sure what animal died but for several days it attracted red Fox, Cross Fox, coyote, wolves (I missed)
Cross Fox takings its turn while a red fox waits it out.
Red Fox thinks its his turn
No trip to Jackson is complete without Bison!
There wasn't really the weather for landscapes so I just have a few quick snaps
Something I always try to do is capture animals in their environment.
(This weirdly looks like there was an ND filter used on the top buts its just the clouds)
When you can't get close to the wolves you call the photo a landscape shot!
Then there is the Elk. Around 10,000 congregate in the Elk Refuge each winter so they aren't hard to find. Best bet is to pay to go on a sleigh ride around the refuge like I did last year but with bad weather I didn't bother this time so didn't get so close (they seem very skittish, liekly because it was both hunting season and the wolves were active).
Just behind these were a pack of wolves testing for weaknesses in the herd. Very distant shots though
I just love Moose!
Even when it is -25 and a blizzard
