UNFAZED: Bison Braves The Yellowstone Winter: Cropped

One of my “to do” Ultra High-Resolution Images for this particular November/December trip to Yellowstone National Park was a bison in the snow. It was toward the end of the trip, I was readying to leave, and I had mostly wrapped up what I wanted to photograph. I had spent a lot of time photographing snow-covered bison. However, in the back of my mind, I wasn’t really happy with the bison imagery I had captured.

As I was exiting the park amidst a heavy snowstorm via the West Entrance Road, I happened to notice a single, huge bison slowly plodding his way through the snow. He was ahead, off the road in the forest. Fortunately, there was a turnout literally right there on the opposite side of the road. I quickly parked, grabbed my camera, and ran.

I hurried to position myself ahead of the bison in the direction he was plodding. I ended up hiding behind a large conifer approximately 75 yards away from the oncoming beast. Once the bison was about 60 yards away, and with my lens zoomed in, I began shooting away in what’s called “burst mode” capturing 30 or so photos in a short amount of time. By the time the bison was about 50 yards away I took off running the opposite direction to my next vantage point yet again 75 yards away from the approaching bison. I repeated the process. In fact, I repeated the process for the next 45 minutes. Finally, I thought, I hoped, I had some usable images. But in reality, I didn’t much care any longer, I was exhausted and cold. It was eighteen degrees.

As a side note, most of the time with this photographic discipline a tripod is an absolute must. However, with the right techniques and skill, hand-held multi-image Ultra High-Resolution photography is possible. Sometimes, as in this situation, it’s the only option.

Months later when I got around to processing this image, I was at first disappointed with the results. It looked like the whole thing was a bust. The problem was, it appeared that not a single one of the hundreds of photos taken had the bison in focus. It was snowing so hard, and the flakes were so large, that the camera was continuously focusing on the falling snow. There are ways to avoid this, and I tried my best, but it appeared to have been in vain.

Fortunately, I discovered one photo that caught focus on the bison, and it caught that focus right on his eyeball. Perfect! That’s all I needed. I was able to piece together the rest of the scene from the best of all the other photos, and I had a lot of other photos! The combination of the nicely focused eye, enough of the rest of the bison in focus, and the blurry snowflakes and forest make for an exceptional image ready for your enjoyment for years to come.

Another side note. I am fully aware of park safety guidelines for animal encounters and always observe them when possible. I say “when possible” because I have often found myself closer than recommended to every sort of wildlife you can imagine. How can that be when I just indicated that I always observe the guidelines? Simple, it’s because apparently the wildlife didn’t get the memo. They are therefore not familiar with those guidelines. Consequently, I have found myself closer than desired to an array of wildlife whether it was rounding a bend in the trail, camped in a wilderness area, or literally sitting and minding my own business. But aside from instances such as those, I always keep my distance. In addition, the right camera and lens make it relatively easy to get great photos at a safe distance.

In this instance, I don’t think the bison even noticed me.

Title Origin: I had several titles I was trying to decide upon for this image. It so happened that at the time my youngest son was home from college. I asked him to take a gander at the image and offer an opinion. It took him all of two seconds to blurt out, “He looks unfazed by the cold and snow.” Done, and thank you son. Your English minor is paying off.

Thanks ... and thanks again,

David David

Life Is An Adventure!