A dozen from Yellowstone/Grand Teton

coscorrosa

Baker's dozen

Last weekend was my first time there (only had 4 days). What an incredible place! I'll be back for a longer time this fall when the colors turn.

Here are some of my favorite wildlife shots (no shortage of landscape opportunities at these places too, here's some from Grand Teton and some from Yellowstone)

#1: The balsamroot sunflowers didn't stand a chance against this charging Bison. I guess it's best to start on the flowers and work your way up to other bison.



#2: These two were going at it for awhile.



#3: Black Bear (he/she was stopped only a few moments, and I was lucky to get a sharp photo)



#4: Bull Elk



#5: Bull Elk



#6: Bison Portrait



#7: Bison Portrait



#8: Bison and calf



#9: Bison and calf



#10: Grizzly Bear! My first encounter with a grizzly in the wild. Made the trip even if I didn't get great photos.



#11: Bison Calf (this guy had a lot of personality, and quite a thirst, I feel sorry for his mother).



#12: Pronghorn Antelope (second fastest mammal on earth after the cheetah, thankfully he wasn't running quite that fast when I took this shot).



#13: Elk Fawn

Bud1880

Looks as if you had a great time Ron. All shots are very nice but #8 is too cool. thumb

Bud

dlplumer

My shots from Yellowstone don't look anything like yours

I certainly could be wrong, but I do not think that is a "black bear".

That first bison shot is way outstanding Ron.

#8 is soooo special.

Dan

coscorrosa

Bud1880 wrote:

Looks as if you had a great time Ron. All shots are very nice but #8 is too cool. thumb

Bud

Thanks Bud, one of the benefits of going in late Spring is to see the bison calves.

coscorrosa

dlplumer wrote:

My shots from Yellowstone don't look anything like yours

I certainly could be wrong, but I do not think that is a "black bear".

That first bison shot is way outstanding Ron.

#8 is soooo special.

Dan

It's definitely not a black colored bear, but I'm fairly certain it's brown-colored black bear (no shoulder hump like you would see on a grizzly). Also grizzlies aren't as common Grand Teton as they are in Yellowstone (even though I saw a grizzly in Grand Teton). I was fortunate on the bison shots, they were everywhere and I could just camp in one spot for an hour and get a bunch of shots. Fascinating watching their behavior in the wild, hard to believe that they were almost made extinct.

NorthernFocus

Really nice stuff, Ron. You had great lighting for wildlife shooting. The first buffalo is pretty unique. All of the bison portraits are well done. And ya gotta love baby pictures And yes, I believe you're correct with the black bear ID. General body shape, the big ears and narrower snout all say blackie. We've got a trip planned down there for this fall, hopefully during fall foliage...

Great captures as usual Thanks for sharing.

coscorrosa

articblooms wrote:

Really nice stuff, Ron. You had great lighting for wildlife shooting. The first buffalo is pretty unique. All of the bison portraits are well done. And ya gotta love baby pictures And yes, I believe you're correct with the black bear ID. General body shape, the big ears and narrower snout all say blackie. We've got a trip planned down there for this fall, hopefully during fall foliage...

Great captures as usual Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Dan for the confirmation on the black bear ID. Maybe I'll see you there, I'll be the guy who is 4 months overdue for a haircut, 4 weeks overdue for a shave, hand holding a 500mm lens, and cussing in frustration or joy depending on the situation

bhowdy

Very nice images. I like the first Bison a lot!

I'll echo what Dan already confirmed. The photo is of a Cinnamon colored Black Bear.

Nice light, composition and patience! Excellent series.

We just got back from 8 days in YNP. What a great place for a nature photographer.

rookieshooter

very nice

winger

coscorrosa wrote:

Here are some of my favorite wildlife shots (no shortage of landscape opportunities at these places too, here's some from Grand Teton and some from Yellowstone)

#1: The balsamroot sunflowers didn't stand a chance against this charging Bison. I guess it's best to start on the flowers and work your way up to other bison.



#11: Bison Calf (this guy had a lot of personality, and quite a thirst, I feel sorry for his mother).



#12: Pronghorn Antelope (second fastest mammal on earth after the cheetah, thankfully he wasn't running quite that fast when I took this shot).

Oh thanks so much for sharing!!! I am heading out to the park for the 3rd time at the end of the month. I was there as a kid in 88 and I worked there as a tour guide in 2000. All WELL before I got into photography.

(and a correction the pronghorn is 2nd fastest animal to the cheetah if the race was a short spring, but the pronghorn can sustain the higher speeds much longer than a cheetah...the true distance sprinter!!)

I also always loved the red bison calfs.


Anyways, I have a question and having just returned from the park maybe you can answer it. I am looking to rent a lens for the week and I am trying to decide between a 400, 500 or a 600. Currently my longest lens is a 70-200, which is awesome for sports, but wont get me close for wildlife. I am leaning towards the 500, and for longer hikes we can ditch it, but I am going with a friends family (as there trusty tour guide) and his mom is recovering from sickness, so I am thinking it will be alot of short hikes that lugging a heavy lens shouldnt be too bad....then again I am lazy.

Anyways, any tips on a good wildlife lens would be great, I was going to start a thread asking, but since this was a yellowstone thread I figured I would dive in.

I am so excite to be going back, I LOVE yellowstone, I cant wait to shoot the he!! out of it!

bhowdy

Karen,
We just returned from YNP last weekend. I used the 500mm lens all week, some hand held, some tripod. We took a few short hikes with it and it was fine for me. Don't recommend it on the Trout Lake hike .... I thought I was having a heart attack lugging the MarkIII, 500mm lens and tripod up that incline!

Would suggest the 500mm and a 1.4 extender. Have a great trip.

winger

bhowdy wrote:

Karen,
We just returned from YNP last weekend. I used the 500mm lens all week, some hand held, some tripod. We took a few short hikes with it and it was fine for me. Don't recommend it on the Trout Lake hike .... I thought I was having a heart attack lugging the MarkIII, 500mm lens and tripod up that incline!

Would suggest the 500mm and a 1.4 extender. Have a great trip.

Thanks!!!
I think I am going to go with a 500mm ( and I have a 1.4 TC already) and then maybe A 400 F5.6 (becuase it is pretty cheap to rent). I was only going to rent one (two shooters) but with wildlife being the way it is one of us will certainly miss out. So I figured two lens would be better the 500 is around $260 for the week, where the 400 f5.6 is around $50 for the week (the f2.8 is $275) .

But I figured that would give us both a chance to shoot wildlife, but not drop a ton in lens rentals. And I am getting a fisheye too (started a whole joke about getting inapporpriatly close to bison with my friend when I said that! I told him he was more than welcome to find out why bison gore people.....) and I may rent a carbon fiber tripod too (mine is heavy) and then just bring my head.

But I dont think there will too much strenous hiking, mostly flat short trails beyond the board walks. I may do the hike up to get a nice shot of excelsior geyser and the old faithful village, but at this point I am not sure how much those hillsides have recovered (the two I am thinking of were still pretty burnt out in 2000, and didnt show the same growth as the areas near canyon). And I have smaller bodies (40d and 20d, I ditched my mark II a while ago, even as a sports shooter I like the smaller (for my hands) and lighter bodies.

But your photos get me soooooooooooooo excited about this trip. There were places I visited everyday, but I took so few pitures my summer of tour guiding, so now I get to shoot some of those places and I know alot of them are not going to be your typical shots, because when I had time (and it was a small group) I would take my groups into these little side trips besides hitting the big stuff (old faithful, yellowstone falls, yellowstone lake, trying to find a way to get a bear sitting because i usually got tipped way better!!)

Ok I am done hijacking your thread. Thanks so much!!!

coscorrosa

winger wrote:

Oh thanks so much for sharing!!! I am heading out to the park for the 3rd time at the end of the month. I was there as a kid in 88 and I worked there as a tour guide in 2000. All WELL before I got into photography.

(and a correction the pronghorn is 2nd fastest animal to the cheetah if the race was a short spring, but the pronghorn can sustain the higher speeds much longer than a cheetah...the true distance sprinter!!)

I also always loved the red bison calfs.


Anyways, I have a question and having just returned from the park maybe you can answer it. I am looking to rent a lens for the week and I am trying to decide between a 400, 500 or a 600. Currently my longest lens is a 70-200, which is awesome for sports, but wont get me close for wildlife. I am leaning towards the 500, and for longer hikes we can ditch it, but I am going with a friends family (as there trusty tour guide) and his mom is recovering from sickness, so I am thinking it will be alot of short hikes that lugging a heavy lens shouldnt be too bad....then again I am lazy.

Anyways, any tips on a good wildlife lens would be great, I was going to start a thread asking, but since this was a yellowstone thread I figured I would dive in.

I am so excite to be going back, I LOVE yellowstone, I cant wait to shoot the he!! out of it!

Thanks!

For Canon, the most portable wildlife lens is the 100-400, although in my opinion the IQ isn't great (at least on my copy). It's small enough to lug around wherever, and you can always throw a 1.4x TC on the thing if you need to (but if you have a crop body, this will push your max aperture to f/8.0 at 400mm and might make it impossible for you to use autofocus).

The 500 actually isn't too bad as far as weight, I shot it hand-held the entire trip (often from a car). Walking more than 2 miles and you'll probably feel it, otherwise, the IQ is outstanding, and it's the largest lens that you can hand-hold. Sticking a 1.4x TC on it and you'll still to be able to use autofocus even on a crop body. You'll have to rest occasionally between shots but if you get a good opportunity, you won't notice the pain until later

coscorrosa

winger wrote:

Thanks!!!
I think I am going to go with a 500mm ( and I have a 1.4 TC already) and then maybe A 400 F5.6 (becuase it is pretty cheap to rent). I was only going to rent one (two shooters) but with wildlife being the way it is one of us will certainly miss out. So I figured two lens would be better the 500 is around $260 for the week, where the 400 f5.6 is around $50 for the week (the f2.8 is $275) .

But I figured that would give us both a chance to shoot wildlife, but not drop a ton in lens rentals. And I am getting a fisheye too (started a whole joke about getting inapporpriatly close to bison with my friend when I said that! I told him he was more than welcome to find out why bison gore people.....) and I may rent a carbon fiber tripod too (mine is heavy) and then just bring my head.

But I dont think there will too much strenous hiking, mostly flat short trails beyond the board walks. I may do the hike up to get a nice shot of excelsior geyser and the old faithful village, but at this point I am not sure how much those hillsides have recovered (the two I am thinking of were still pretty burnt out in 2000, and didnt show the same growth as the areas near canyon). And I have smaller bodies (40d and 20d, I ditched my mark II a while ago, even as a sports shooter I like the smaller (for my hands) and lighter bodies.

But your photos get me soooooooooooooo excited about this trip. There were places I visited everyday, but I took so few pitures my summer of tour guiding, so now I get to shoot some of those places and I know alot of them are not going to be your typical shots, because when I had time (and it was a small group) I would take my groups into these little side trips besides hitting the big stuff (old faithful, yellowstone falls, yellowstone lake, trying to find a way to get a bear sitting because i usually got tipped way better!!)

Ok I am done hijacking your thread. Thanks so much!!!

Awesome, you'll enjoy the 500. Yellowstone/Grand Teton was my first chance to really use it extensively. It's sharp at f/4.0, and has wonderful background blur. Like I mentioned before, all of these shots were hand-held, the IS is amazing.

ront

Is there anything that you don't shoot well Ron?? What a great series! All of the pictures are great but I particularly like #4 and really like #8. The Bison and the calf is a wall hanger for me!!
Thanks for sharing these.

Ron

dlplumer

bhowdy wrote:

Very nice images. I like the first Bison a lot!

I'll echo what Dan already confirmed. The photo is of a Cinnamon colored Black Bear.

Nice light, composition and patience! Excellent series.

We just got back from 8 days in YNP. What a great place for a nature photographer.

Looking forward to seeing your photos Bob.

raptorcaptor

Great set, Ron!

Howe Creative Photography

great captures! We were there 2yrs. ago...hope to go back one day soon. I love that place!!