October 7-8, 2019
Day 3 (really our second full day of shooting) started as usual…Crawling out of the tent in the pre-dawn darkness, and boiling water and frying bagels on our Coleman stove. So after our breakfast of grits, oatmeal, bagels and cream cheese, we stuffed the “bear locker” with our cooking stuff and headed out to find….anything!
Ryan and I seem to remember more elk bugling near our Madison Campground in previous years, but we hadn’t been to the park in fall for seven years so maybe things had changed. We also did not see many elk, period. We realize the wolf packs have brought the Elk numbers down and more in balance with the park’s holding capacity, but we surely thought we’d see herds scattered about. But it was slim pickings.

A classic Yellowstone “animal in the landscape” shot. Steam from geothermal vents frame a lone bull Elk. After glassing the bull, Ryan said he noticed that he only had one antler! Must have lost it in a fight.

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6 L USM lens; 1/640 second at f7.1; ISO 3200; hand-held]
Just a nice portrait of a bull Elk near Mammoth


[Canon 7D with Canon EF 70-200mm f4 L USM lens at 200mm; 1/640 second at f4; ISO 100; hand-held]

[Sony A6500 with Rokinon 12mm f1.2 lens; 1/30 second at f18; ISO 320; hand-held]

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 70-200mm f4 L USM lens at 200mm; 1/500 second at f9; ISO 800; tripod]

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6 L USM lens; 1/500 second at f9; ISO 800; tripod]

[Canon 7D with Canon EF 400mm f5.6 L USM lens; 1/500 second at f9; ISO 800; tripod]
As the sun set over Fountain Flat Drive it illuminated this herd of Bison with neat golden backlight/rimlight. I love the peaceful painterly quality of these photos. They look even better if you view them full-screen.


[iPhone 7 Plus panorama]









We named this well-balanced tree along Soda Butte Creek, the “Zen Cottonwood.” Ryan first spotted it and it is a stately tree.




If you can’t find wildlife, you can always find scenery in Yellowstone National Park! Some details of the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces.

We spent quite a while with this good looking bull Bison. My idea was to take a long exposure so the grass would blur but the Bison and background would be sharp. I took about 100 photos ranging from 1.6 seconds to 3.2 seconds and this is one of the few that turned out. BUT I don’t think my idea really came to fruition as there is not enough blur to the grass, and the sage doesn’t really blow in the wind. Oh well…You gotta try and experiment!



Coming soon….”Kicked out of Yellowstone”…due to snow, not our behavior!
1 responses to “Searching, Looking, Hunting… for anything! -Yellowstone Day 3”
Elisabeth Peterson
November 4th, 2019 at 07:48
Absolutely glorious photos!