Jumping Fox
One of the highlights of my recent trip to Yellowstone was the red fox. Our workshop leader, Jared Lloyd, knew where to find him as we headed to Larmar Valley on the north side of Yellowstone. He was sitting on top of a snow covered boulder that helped keep track of potential predators.
We spent about 2 hrs photographing him in the morning and came back in the afternoon. He had moved off of the rock and was sitting near his den along side the rock. Got a couple of shots of him and then, in my infinite wisdom, I stepped away from my camera to see where the rest of my group was. Of course, a snowball came rolling down the hill and spooked the fox and he quickly got up. Missed that shot but got him as he stopped and turned towards us before entering his den under the rock.
He ended up coming out the other side of then rock via the back door and climbed on top of the hill adjacent to the rock. We got several shots of him in that position. Some of us were thinking that we were going to leave at that point but Doug came walking up the road from parking one of the vehicles and said that we were going to stay put. That was a great decision as the action picked up. The fox finally got up, yawned several times and headed back to his rock.
He then got into position and jumped back onto the snow covered rock. I was able to catch him in midair during the jump.
Yellowstone Adventure
Sorry that I’ve been away for a while but a recent trip has kept me somewhat preoccupied. Finally checked going to Yellowstone off of my bucket list. Decided last spring to take the plunge and register for a 10 day trip to Yellowstone in the winter. Goal was to avoid the crowds and to see the raw beauty of Yellowstone in the winter.
Ended up spending the rest of 2016 buying up warm clothes for the trip. More on that later.
I’m still working on my photos and it will take some time to go through all of them. Here are a couple of teaser shots.
More to come…
Frosty Bison: it was – 20 deg F on the first day that we entered the park from the town of West Yellowstone. We headed towards Old Faithful looking for “frosty” bison. We found a herd along the way and were rewarded with some great photo op’s.
Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II with 1.4X teleconverter mounted on tripod with Wimberley II gimbal head.
Manual mode, 1/1600 sec @ F9, ISO 3200, spot metering off the snow with adjustments from there, 700mm
Red Fox yawning: We found this red fox sitting on top of a snow covered boulder, which he used as protection from coyotes. He was one of my favorite targets on this trip. We spent about 4 hours photographing him that day.
1/800 sec @ F7.1, ISO 800, evaluative metering, + 2 1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm
Tim Timmis Photography 