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.

Just a nice portrait of a bull Elk near Mammoth

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.

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!

No…Not a Bison cow with triplets…Just two playful “red dog” calves coming over to play with her nursing calf. The Bison were just dropping their calves in late April.

[Sony A6500 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens (Metabones adapter); 1/160 at f5.6; ISO 100; tripod]

Snow greeted us as we pulled in to the Mammoth Campground in Yellowstone after driving all night from Duluth. But as we waited for someone to vacate the campground so we could pick a spot, this male Mountain Bluebird entertained us by foraging near the gate.

[Sony A6500 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens (Metabones adapter); 1/320 at f6.3; ISO 100; handheld]

Mountain Bluebird male

[Sony A6500 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens (Metabones adapter); 1/800 at f5.6; ISO 100; handheld]

Yellow-bellied Marmot surveys his “kingdom” in Yellowstone.

[Sony A6500 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens (Metabones adapter); 1/250 at f5.6; ISO 100; tripod]

Yellow-bellied Marmot. I like how the shade of the mountain slope in the background becomes a beautiful blue blur.

[Sony A6500 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens (Metabones adapter); 1/500 at f5.6; ISO 200; tripod]

Elk pair; His breath visible in the cool morning air.

[Sony A6500 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens (Metabones adapter); 1/640 at f5.6; ISO 320; handheld]

We were bummed that the road that leads to LeHardy Rapids was still snowed in. This is the traditional hotspot for Harlequin Ducks. But fortunately we spotted this colorful pair along the Madison River.

[Sony A6500 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens (Metabones adapter); 1/400 at f7.1; ISO 800; tripod]

Harlequin Duck male spreads his tail feathers after preening. Yellowstone is the southernmost breeding site for this species in all of North America! The main part of their breeding range includes British Columbia, Alaska, Yukon and Labrador. They prefer to nest along fast-flowing mountain rivers.

[Sony A6500 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens (Metabones adapter); 1/250 at f6.3; ISO 400; tripod]

Harlequin Duck male

[Sony A6500 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens (Metabones adapter); 1/100 at f6.3; ISO 100; tripod]

Harlequin’s love fast water…the more turbulent the better! They dive underwater in rapids to feed.

[Sony A6500 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens (Metabones adapter); 1/500 at f5.6; ISO 200; tripod]

Bison herd along the Madison River.

[Sony A6500 with Canon 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens at 18mm; (Metabones adapter); 1/400 at f6.3; ISO 160; tripod]

Beaver having a late afternoon snack.

[Sony A6500 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens (Metabones adapter); 1/200 at f7.1; ISO 1600; handheld]

Sow Black Bear and one of her two tiny cubs. I got some nice video of this trio, which I will include in a future post.

[Sony A6500 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens (Metabones adapter); 1/320 at f8; ISO 400; tripod]

Bison and her “red dog” calf.

We ran across a band of Bighorn ewes near Yellowstone Picnic area.

[Sony A6500 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens (Metabones adapter); 1/400 at f5.6; ISO 100; tripod]

A trio of Black-billed Magpies wait out a snow squall near Mammoth.

[Sony A6500 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens (Metabones adapter); 1/60 at f13; ISO 100; braced on car window]

 

Still Life with Redtail and Moon 1
How could I pass this up? Wish I could have set up a tripod and shot at f22 or smaller to get more depth of field and the moon more in focus, but redtails don’t pose for that long.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f20 at 1/200 second; ISO 400; -0.33ev; handheld]

Silver Griz
This fella was our only Grizzly of the trip. Mid April is a bit early for many bears to be out of hibernation…and the high country roads are not yet open where there could very well be more bears. On our mid May trip a couple years ago, we saw quite a few Griz. But this guy was sure a beauty! We stopped, as we almost always do, when we saw a couple cars pulled over (and here’s the real key) and some long lenses on tripods. “What do ya got?” Is the standard photographer-to-photographer exchange in situations like this. They’d seen a Grizzly on the slope on the opposite side of the river, but it had moved off into some forest cover. So we pulled over, got out and helped them relocate the bear. Well nature called to Ryan, and while he was watering the early spring grass, he spotted the bear. He came back to the road and told us. I got a few handheld shots but Ryan had to go back to our car to get his camera. When Ryan got back, I went back to the car to get my tripod. But soon after I left something really spooked the Grizzly and it ran off. The only thing we know of that can spook the apex predator of the park…is another Grizzly. But while we waited another 45 minutes or so, nothing showed.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f5.6 at 1/1000 second; ISO 400; handheld]

Sole of the Bear
This Black Bear recently out of hibernation had the most unusual nearly white, soles of its feet. I’ve seen many many Black Bears and have never noticed this trait before. My gut feeling is that this bear just had abnormally pale foot pads.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f7.1 at 1/640 second; ISO 500; -1ev; tripod]

Rockin’ Redtail
The Red-tailed Hawks were certainly migrating through and returning to Yellowstone this week. We saw many, and this one posed on a picture-perfect perch long enough to get a shot.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f7.1 at 1/2000 second; ISO 320; +1ev; tripod]

Lunar Buteo
Red-tailed Hawks are a type of buteo…a raptor with big broad wings and short tails. They are built for soaring, scanning open country for prey. “Forest hawks” who hunt in dense woods need shorter rounded wings and long tails (to act as an “air rudder”) so they can maneuver in close quarters in flight. I love “bird and moon” shots…especially when the bird is relatively small in the frame. Of course, these images are best viewed large.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f5.6 at 1/2500 second; ISO 320; handheld]

Pronghorn in the Sage
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f5.6 at 1/800 second; ISO 250; handheld, braced on outside of car]

Ryan Marshik

Campsite Buddies!
Each night, a small herd of Bison grazed right through our campsite, noisily munching the new green grass. It’s funny, you would never dare to get this close to them out in the park (in fact it’s illegal to get closer than 25 yards) but here they are so preoccupied, and used to people, that you can sit at your picnic table 5 yards away and enjoy the slow parade.

Sandhill Crane in its Finest
Love the “bustle” of this Sandhill Crane. It was one of a pair that had returned to nest in the park’s marshes and wet meadows.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f10 at 1/500 second; ISO 400; -0.33ev; handheld, braced on car window frame]

Dipper thinking about taking a Dip
Dippers feed on underwater aquatic critters in fast moving streams and rivers of the western U.S. They are one of Bridget’s favorite birds and so I always try and get a few shots.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f6.3 at 1/250 second; ISO 640; handheld]

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 255mm; f11 at 1/2000 second; ISO 100; -2.33ev; tripod]

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 255mm; f11 at 1/320 second; ISO 100; tripod]

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 400mm; f11 at 1/800 second; ISO 100; -2ev; tripod]
All three of the above shots of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River were taken from Artist’s Point. The falls, at 308 vertical feet, is the tallest in the park. The light (quality and direction) was not good for broad scenic vistas, so I used the telephoto to zoom in on one part of the scene. The lone silhouetted tree really made this shot for me. Here are three variations…Which do you like?

Goofy Bull
Early spring is NOT a good time to photograph Elk in the West; all the Elk at this time of year look pretty ratty. They are shedding their winter coats, and not gracefully. The older bulls are just sprouting their new antlers, growth being nourished by the blood-rich “velvet” coating them (see photo below), but the first year bulls sometimes hold their little antlers all winter instead of dropping them in late fall/early winter like the older guys.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 300mm; f5 at 1/1600 second; ISO 200; handheld]

Big and Velvety
These were some really big boys holding up traffic along the road. Note their height compared to the car in the foreground. Wish I could see these guys again in the fall when their massive antlers will be in their prime.
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 214mm; f7.1 at 1/400 second; ISO 500; tripod]

American Serengeti
Easily the biggest herd of Elk I’ve ever seen in Yellowstone…over 200 animals. I didn’t even include all the herd in this shot. Nearby were herds of Bison, Mule Deer and Pronghorn. Impressive!
[Canon 7D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS II USM lens at 263mm; f6.3 at 1/60 second; ISO 320; tripod (accidentally at this shutter speed because I had just switched over from taking some video)]

Ryan Marshik and I busted out to North Dakota’s premiere wildlife hotspot last week. Teddy Roosevelt National Park is a treasure of the upper midwest. An easy 9-hour drive from Duluth, the park is a full 7 hours closer to us than our usual fall wildlife photography destination—Yellowstone.

[Bull Elk at Sunrise]
Our normal modus operandi is to get up in the dark, make breakfast and hit the wildlife auto loop by sunrise. The loop is a very manageable 25 miles and takes about 3 hours to complete (depending on how many wildlife encounters you take advantage of). This bull Rocky Mountain Elk was our first sighting of the trip. Elk are rather unusual in the park, so this was a great surprise. He didn’t hang around though, and was soon over the top of the hill. I grabbed some hand-held window-braced shots.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f5.6 at 1/640 second; -1 2/3ev; ISO 800; handheld braced on car window]

Least Chipmunk
We took the side road called “Buck Hill” where we rarely see anything…but you never know! Ryan spotted this cute little Least Chipmunk harvesting seeds in a short bush. Our motto is always “a bird in the hand”…which means that we try and shoot whatever subject is before us at the time instead of saying “Aah, it’s just a chipmunk…Let’s keep moving. Theirs probably a Coyote around the next bend.”
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f5.6 at 1/2000 second; -1/3ev; ISO 200; handheld braced on car window]

[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f5.6 at 1/3200 second; -2/3ev; ISO 200; handheld]
Fat Black-tailed Prairie Dog
Like many mammals that become more sedentary in winter, the Black-tailed Prairie Dogs try and put on a little fat for winter. This guys really accomplished his goal! These burrowing rodents are a blast to watch…And their “alarm” behavior is awesome; they stand upright and suddenly throw their paws straight up in the air and give a sharp “Yaah” call.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f8 at 1/1000 second; -1/3ev; ISO 200; handheld braced on car window]

[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f7.1 at 1/2000 second; -1ev; ISO 200; tripod]
Badger
Wherever there are Prairie Dogs, predators are sure to be near by. The formidable list of predators includes Golden Eagles, Coyotes and these guys, Badgers. I was really hoping to see either a Badger or Bobcat on this trip was thrilled when we found this guy hunting a Prairie Dog town. He was not shy either; pausing to pose for us at the mouth of his/her burrow. I’ll have a bizarre Badger tale to tell in one of the next blog posts.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f5.6 at 1/1600 second; -1/3ev; ISO 200; tripod]
Sparky on the hunt 🙂
Truth be told, we spend a great deal of time driving around looking for wildlife. But occasionally we get out and stalk some photo-prey. This is a very easy place to head out overland…No Grizzlies to worry about!…but also a myriad of trails made by the park’s Bison herds.

Though Teddy Roosevelt National Park is a badlands landscape, it is not as barren as the South Dakota Badlands. Much of the terrain is covered by grass, red cedars and sagebrush. There is even Prickly Pear Cactus. In summer there are rattlesnakes to be aware of, but the most dangerous thing in late fall would be an irate Bison bull.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f10 at 1/320 second; -1/3ev; ISO 200; tripod]

[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f5.6 at 1/500 second; -1/3ev; ISO 100; tripod]
“Wild” Horses (more accurately “Feral Horses”)
Though not a native animal to this part of North America, the horses here are very wild. [See this POST about some crazy wild horse interactions on a Teddy trip a couple years ago.] I do love their varied coats and wild manes.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f5.6 at 1/2000 second; -1ev; ISO 250; tripod]
Pronghorn herd
Late in the day we headed overland and came upon yet another massive Prairie Dog town, but on the fringes was a cautious herd of Pronghorns. They were in deep shade but I kind of like the subtle colors that the lighting conditions brought out. Pronghorns are very hard to photograph on sunny days…The whites of their fur blow out.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f5.6 at 1/160 second; -2/3ev; ISO 400; tripod]
Coyote
And sure enough, there were a couple Coyotes hunting the town. I like the contrast of the Coyote in blue shade with the sliver of warm sunset sunlight.
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f5.6 at 1/250 second; -1 1/3ev; ISO 200; tripod]
Coyote
She eventually came out into the sun and gave us close opportunities for some backlit shots. I love rim lighting!
[Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens; f5.6 at 1/320 second; -1 1/3ev; ISO 200; tripod]
Bull Elk
The day ended as it had begun, with the sighting of a bull Elk. This one was well after sunset and the crazy high ISO I used created this photo with a painterly quality.
[Canon 7D with Canon 50mm f1.8 lens; f1.8 at 1/200 second; -1ev; ISO 6400; handheld]

More Teddy Roosevelt blog posts coming soon!

SEE PREVIOUS TEDDY ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK POSTS HERE

Bridget specifically said “No frosty Bison photos! You have enough of them” But this one is a bit different. I converted the image to black and white then clipped the whites and blacks of the histogram to make a more high contrast image. It more accurately reflects what I remember from the Bison encounter than the original image. [Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f5.6 at 1/250, handheld]

I used a long exposure on these Harlequin Ducks to allow the river to blur nicely. But you have to take many photos as the ducks were constantly fidgeting.

[Canon 7D with Canon 85mm f1.2 lens, f1.2 at 1/2000, handheld]

The two images above were taken early in the morning between Mammoth and Tower Junction. You don’t always need the sun at your back! Backlighting can really be quite dramatic. I love how the rim light defines the elk’s shapes and makes the spring leaves pop. Also keep in mind that shadows often show as blue to our cameras and it contrasts nicely with the green leaves. [Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f5.6 at 1/640, -1EV, handheld]

Did you do a double take when you looked at this image? This is a reflection of a Bighorn ewe that I flipped 180 degrees. Have fun and experiment! [Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f6.3 at 1/1250, handheld]

Shapes often tell as much of a story as detailed subjects. I underexpeosed by nearly two stops to get this silhouette of Ryan hauling his 600mm f4 on a tripod across the snowy Hayden Valley. [Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f5.6 at 1/6400, -1 2/3 EV handheld]

Our wildlife subjects don’t always need to be large in the frame. But we really have to work to remember this and actually shoot “animal in the landscape” shots. Ryan and I had followed (by car) this sow and second-year cub for a while, but they cut up this steep hillside. I turned the camera vertical to emphasize the tall trees. Her backlit breath was a bonus. [Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f5.6 at 1/500, handheld]

I rented the Canon 85mm f1.2 lens for this trip specifically to play with extremely shallow depth of field in wildlife photography. This lens is commonly used in portrait photography to achieve very shallow DOF. This obliging Raven allowed me to get quite close and the result is a unique critter image with only an inch or two of in focus bird. [Canon 7D with Canon 85mm f1.2 lens, f1.2 at 1/2500 sec., handheld]

This is a very different perspective on one of the most visited sites in Yellowstone…the Falls of the Yellowstone River. I set up my tripod back from the overlook and put on the wide angle lens. Then I attached a B+W 9-stop ND (neutral density filter to slow down the exposure in order to record the motion of visitors gawking at the falls (and taking selfies!). Of course, there were a dozen people here just before I got set up, then they all vanished. Where’s the bus of Japanese tourists when you want them! [Canon 7D with Sigma 10-20mm lens and B+W 9-stop ND filter, f11 at 15 seconds, ISO 100, tripod]

Though the full moon ruined any plans we had for star trail photos, it made up for it during this moonrise at Silver Gate. The only way to get a large moon in your photos is to use a very long telephoto lens. But put an “earthbound” element into your photo to give the full moon scale. [Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, f5.6 at 1/125, tripod]