Our last day into the Lamar Valley sure didn’t disappoint. We had one day left and were determined to make it count. The panorama above (go ahead click it) is of the Lamar Valley just as the clouds broke. All morning it was snowing hard giving way to a fresh few inches of snow on the road that made travel very dangerous.
Starting our day we ran into a large group of cows (female elk) that were spread across the road. We hung out and just listened. Some of the younger individuals were calling as some hustled across the road. Do you notice something about this cow? Maybe her shape? She looks awfully pregnant to me. A future generation if she survives the harsh winter weather. Beautiful isn’t she?
Although some went across the road others seemed to bolt in the opposite direction. We were perplexed as to why considering we heard and saw nothing, but I have no doubt they had a reason. Possibly a smell we just aren’t sophisticated enough to pick up over large distances or just having an acute enough vision finding a predator on the mountainside.
Just toward the last bend of the Lama Valley was one of the bighorns from yesterday and a buddy of his. They were higher up and I wanted to make something of their environment. To better help tell the story.
The bison up north are no less disappointing or less impressive then those to the south in Jackson. The light was so right in this picture that I did nothing to the image and I mean that! No levels, no saturation, no white balance tweak, nothing.
This yearling calf was walking up the road as we came across a very large herd of bison. The adults were so close as to being only four feet from the car. If we were even that far. Unfortunately as this calf came closer to us the bison grew very agitated. We were stuck and unsure what to do. Driving toward the calf and past it might send them into a furry. Remember they can run over 30mph and weigh over 1,000 pounds. They are nothing to mess around with. Plus this is one of their own and their child. They would protect them just as we would our own offspring. Another factor in the situation was that other visitors had stopped to see the bison. You couldn’t miss them; which was fair enough. Unfortunately they were not intelligent enough to realize there was a calf walking near them and getting out of the car was a very dumb idea! You could hear the herd grunting their displeasure. If you had half a brain you would realize they were displeased and to back off. We were stuck in a very hard situation. Here we were a visitor like the rest faced with a situation. Bison were closer to us then ever before making photographs a dream, but on the other hand their offspring and their health could be in danger. They were getting undue stress that taxes them and their herd. We made one of the hardest decisions to leave and sacrifice any photos than what we initially shot before the calf approached. It was something that was very very painful for us and any person who wants the best photograph. However the #1 Rule is that NO photograph is worth sacrificing the well being of your subject. It is something I live by and will continue to do so. There are no exceptions. As for the other visitors? I didn’t hear about them on the news, but I was very disappointed they stayed. It irks me they may be rewarded with photographs by sticking around and harassing them, but I wasn’t going to participate in such stress and harassment.
Coyotes have been the lesser seen mammals on our trip. Last year I had an amazing encounter with a coyote where he literally walked too close and right by me that I couldn’t focus. These are scavangers and pose no threat to grown individuals. We received another chance at a coyote (possibly the same one) who was also using the road as a means of travel (less effort on their part instead of deep snow) to photograph. The sun was getting lower and the light was just perfect. Due to being spooked by a car following him he hopped up on the hill and gave us one last look before heading out into the distance. I was using the AA battery holder in the D300′s battery grip to get 8fps and even with all that speed this was the only frame I got out of it with him looking in our direction. So glad it was a sharp one 
When photographing in the snow there are many advantages and disadvantages. Also your approach can be a difficult one at times. Snow provides a huge reflector throwing light back into an animals face, but at the same time it creates a huge contrast to dark furred animals. When the skies are overcast the range of light is within several stops that will allow for much of the detail to be captured. However when you have an animal that has disturbed a bunch of snow, it’s a sunny or a partly cloudy sky and that sun is shining you run into issues. That rustled snow becomes ultra bright and blown out playing havoc on ur meter. Typically underexposing it.
How to get around this? Well the short of it is you can’t. You can’t have all your lights and darks. That isn’t any reason to be discouraged though. Why? you ask. Well first off snow is white. So if you blow a highlight don’t panic. Second thing you can do is keep an eye out for it. Change your angle or make it work in your scene. The highlight will attract your eye so place it in a relevant place. Draw that viewer in. When it comes to exposure and understanding it I highly recommend a combination of the histogram and ‘blinkies’ (the highlights info panel option on your LCD.) Blinkies will tell you how bad those highlights are blow and if it is tolerable to you; while the histogram can be used to tell you if it is just way too dark. In that harsh sun a non-blinking screen may seem great, but it is something to be suspicious of as we are dealing with white snow (as if there was another natural non contributed to kind.) You don’t want to have to come back to your computer and have to push your exposure in capture NX or other raw editing program.
