Yellowstone National Park trip report...

[Tony 270WSM]

I'd love to get out there sometime. Thanks for posting those pics.

[popeshawnpaul]

Ok, to finish up the post.  Every shot has a story so I'll try and inform you of each shot. 

First, the elk "encounter"...  I was in on about 15 bulls all battling it out for a few cows.  It was unbelievable.  This was 3 miles in the back country and I did not have bear spray.  I kept following the elk as the bull kept his cows moving toward the thick cover and to keep his cows away from the 10+ bulls following and going crazy.  I tried to stay on the outside but I kept trying to catch up to the herd bull.  Now, the satellite bulls were still big.  One, I call "Brow Toucher" is below and his brow tines touch almost.  An unbelievable bull.  He has a brother in the area that is bigger but the brows don't quite touch.  The herd bull was big but I never got anything good on him.  He did get me good though.  So the story goes, I'm moving in on the herd bull and trying to get through the satellite bulls.  It is absolute war.  A bugle every 3 seconds from every direction.  There were 3 horn to horn battles that mowed over saplings and were amazing.  I had a hard time getting any of the battles.  However, I was trying to be quiet as every time I would break a stick a bull would charge in on me and think I'm another bull to battle.  The problem was I has to go through some thick stuff and that's where the real problem was.  The bulls couldn't see what I was until they were literally on top of me.  The 400mm lens became ridiculous but that's all I had.  I realistically needed a 70-200 and could have shot it on the wide end of that lens.

So the "encounter".  I had been following for 3 hours now and the herd bull was pissed.  I was in some thick 8 foot jack pines and made a sound by stepping on sticks.  I didn't realize but all of a sudden the bulls and cows were all around me.  There was lots of downed timber everywhere as this is an old 80's fire area.  I heard the bull coming and dove under a log.  When I did so my finger got caught and I fractured it.  The bull barrelled through the jack pines and nailed the log I was under.  His eyes were glazed over.  I took my monopod and hit him on the nose.  I could see his eyes focus on me and he realized I was human.  He turned to run and my monopod got caught in his rack and he snapped it in half.  Now mind you, I got a 1k camera and a 5k lens attached to the monopod and they go flying.  Luckily they landed in grass and they still function.  My Primos monopod was snapped though.  Cabelas returned it today.    Needless to say, I brought bear spray with me the next day and stayed in the open.  No problems the next day.

Ok, on to the pictures:

I don't care what anyone says, this is the prettiest picture I took on the trip.  Something about it I like.  I shot this tiny dude while out looking for the two reported moose that I never did locate. 


I had nothing better to do in the afternoon than to go to the tourist sites.  Here is Old Faithful...kind of a letdown.  A polarizing filter made the clouds look nice though.


Most people say there aren't big deer in Yellowstone.  There generally isn't near the road.  How many big mulies do you know that hang out by the road?  Anyways, there are a few spots for them but I didn't go to any of them as I was trying to focus on the animals in the rut.  Here is one that was by the road that is decent, but I just like the picture.


Once again, there isn't tons to do during the hot midday hours.  I found this cow that was feeding about 20 feet from me. 


Here is the big bull posted earlier in the thread bugling at us photographers.  This guy was the big boy on the Madison River that we all lined up to shoot.  I prefer shooting elk in the back country without competition.  You are sure to see this guy on many a hunting magazines in the coming months...

[archery288]

Nice work Shawn!  I wish I had the time to shoot like you do and get some of those shots!   

[popeshawnpaul]

I had to get down to the Tetons for some moose.  While I could only find 4 cow moose, I did find a pretty sunset at oxbow bend on the Snake River.  


Back to the backcountry elk.  This satellite bull was pissed and fighting hard.  His eyes were bloodshot and he heard me walking and came in looking for another bull to try and fight.  This little guy had one of the most impressive big bull bugles I've ever heard, even though he was only a satellite bull.


Right before I got run over by the elk, this chipmunk decided to get on the log and scratch next to me.  I never noticed it at the time but the worm holes made for an interesting picture.


This was a tough photo.  It was dark.  Night time.  You could barely make out the dark shapes 100 yards away in the willow fields.  Everyone left because you could no longer see the bull.  He's an impressive 7x7 bull that was running some cows just after dark in the tetons.  In many respects, the tetons have just as good of elk as Yellowstone.  This was shot at iso 3200, f4, and 1/6th of a second.  This goes to show you don't go home when all the other photographers do.  He was running off a big 6x6 that got to close to his cows running.  I panned and took 30 shots.  Two turned out.


This little coyote was busy hunting coyotes.  Turns out that grasshoppers are most plentiful alongside the road and this guy was hunting them.  It was quite entertaining watching them try and catch grasshoppers.

[Timber]

Great stories and photos Shawn! I need to get over there sometime, it sounds like a lot of fun.

[popeshawnpaul]

Another satellite bull that came in on a string.  I like the background bokeh.


This will probably be Bone's favorite.  These two bulls had a knock down drag out battle for a few minutes.  Dust, grass, sage, and anything in the way went flying.  It was quite brutal and impressive.  Power on power.


You can't just shoot big elk all day.  Sometimes you have to point your camera up and shoot a few birds.


Yet another satellite bull that came in just by the sound of me walking.  He stayed in the jack pines afraid I could be the herd bull and kick his ass.


Lastly, this was my little spike friend.  He followed me around for 2 days in the middle of the elk mayhem.  He was scared $hitless.  You could tell this was his first year and he was not ready for all these big mean bulls that kept running him off.  He kept thinking that staying right by my side afforded him protection.  He was wrong.  He would stay about 10 yards from me and follow me scared.  The other bulls would come in and disregard me running him off if we got too close.  He had a squeeky little bugle.  

[DeKuma]

Another amazing job Shawn.  Thanks for all the pics!

[popeshawnpaul]

Oops.  I see I forgot a picture of the bull I named brow toucher.  There was another one just like him but the brows didn't quite touch.  These were satellite bulls...  The herd bull was huge.  The herd bull reminded me of Bucklucky's bull...

[X-Force]

Those shots are purely awesome...

[WonkyWapiti]

The colors in that photo of oxbow bend are awesome.  I always love your photography.

[kitsap]

Shawn,  Absolutely outstanding photographs.  Thank you for sharing!

Doug

[boneaddict]

Thats about the size of the last bull I let walk. hmmmmmm   maybe I shouldn't have.   Great picture Pope.(all fo them actually)  We'll have to do that photo hunt sometime.  

Any moose?

[popeshawnpaul]

I tried and tried.  I put a lot of miles on the ground looking for bulls where they should be.  I only found 4 cow moose.  Coincidently, all 4 were seen when I took that shot at oxbow bend.  In fact, you can probably spot them in the photo...

[yajsab]

These are awesome pictures!  I didn't get good lighting when I was there in June.  Guess I didn't work hard enough.  Great pics!!!

[boneaddict]

Yep, that Bison shot is probably one of my faves.  they are all great though.  If you would just have had time to get your macro lens on, and got the picture of the bull looking at you unde rthe log.  That would have been priceless.  Lots of elk down there.  I need to leave this damn bow behind and start packing this camera.   Who in the hell needs to spend all this money on tags anyway, when you can buy photocards.

How many shots did you log?