Today’s post features a few of the bison images I captured during my recent trip to Yellowstone NP. It gets quite cold in winter here … the snow can fall to incredible depths in winter here … but the “Behemoths”, or bison remain a fixture within and around the park as they struggle to overcome nature’s roadblocks to survival in the winter.
From our snowcoach, traveling a snow-packed park road, bison were frequently seen as they traveled around, looking for a grazing spot. Capturing a slow shutter speed image, these two look like they are running down the park road (actually, they were taking their time, slowly rambling down the road):
This guy was captured using an even-slower shutter speed:
(Note: I am not particularly fond of motion blur images, but a lot of people are, so I decided to grab a couple. Anyway, please know this is not my favorite type of photography!).
As we grew closer to the thermal area around Old Faithful, we began finding larger numbers of bison. They often graze in this area of the park as the thermal features can be a big help in keeping the snow depths at a lower level, making it easier to graze:
Coming up … some of the amazing thermal features of Yellowstone, along with some more wildlife that were active during our snowcoach trip.
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 5D Mark 3 camera
- Canon 28-135mm, f/3.5-f/5.6 IS lens
- Handheld, with IS “On”
- ISO 250
- Aperture f/16
- Shutter 1/4 sec. to 1/500 sec.