Bighorn Sheep in the Tetons.

From time to time I sit and wonder to myself how someone takes and create a shot of their’s, so I decided that from time to time I would share with you how I took some of my shots and the stories behind them. This time I would like to tell you the story behind the follow group of photographs.

For the last three years we have taken an annual trip to Grand Teton National Park in search of bears. As this years trip started to unfold, our first full day out into the park started with rain. I personally like photographing wildlife in the rain because of two reasons. The first being that, the wildlife is more active because of the cooler temperatures so I have a better opportunity to photograph them. Second is because of the rain there are fewer people out, thus again increasing the opportunities to photograph wildlife.

As we left the hotel we decided to see if we could find the bighorn sheep first. We have found bighorn sheep before, but they have been high up on the mountains and any photos I would have taken would not have been that good. This day was our day, they were at the base of the mountain. We first found a group of about 30 or so. We found a pullout to watch them to see where they were heading. We watched them for a good 45 minutes slowly move in our direction. I grabbed my camera and walked down the road towards the herd of sheep and knelt in the grass just off the road. Yes I was still a safe distance away from them. As I knelt there there were a group of three rams that kept inching closer and closer towards me. I knelt there even longer, and the longer I stayed there the closer they came. Then I noticed that a larger ram (the image above) was even closer than the group of three. I knelt there trying to be as still as I could, sucking up every moment of the experience. By this time the sun was starting to peak through the clouds and it was perfect to photograph the now 10 or so sheep that were around me.

As I turned around to get a shot of a smaller ram, that was perfectly lit and framed against the mountains, all of sheep that were around me spooked causing all the herd to spook and takeoff up the mountain. I had knelt in the grass a good 30 minutes just photographing and watching the herd of sheep as they moved to find the best grass. All this unfolded as my family watched from a quarter mile down the road wondering if I was going to get head butted by one of the rams. This was truly one of the best photography experiences I have had.