Tag: heart pounding

The Story Behind the Shots (Bighorn Sheep)

Posted on by David Talbot Photography

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.

Why Wildlife?

Posted on by David Talbot Photography

A couple of months ago I was asked what got me into wildlife photography.  At the time I answered like I always did, with the story of how I finally bought my first DSLR camera and was lucky enough to find a barn owl in flight and was able to capture a decent image.  Since being asked, “Why wildlife photography?”  I have been thinking about it and why did I choose wildlife photography.

In the fall of 2009, I found myself in the southern deserts of Afghanistan on deployment with the U.S. Marine Corps.  Our mission for the most part was to run drug interdiction missions to keep the the drugs from leaving the country and help fund terrorism.  Time and time again we would find ourselves in the vast expanses of the southern desert chasing drug runners before they slipped into Pakistan.  This was a rush.  We would cruise through the sand and rocks with semi-sort of ease with our eight wheeled light armored vehicles and would stop and search any vehicles that could not outrun us.  We had some pretty good success.  As time went on we would run other missions besides the drug interdiction missions, and with those came the same rush as chasing down drug runners.

In the spring of 2012, I found myself at the end of my time in the U.S. Marine Corps and was just finishing my undergraduate degree and starting my family, and for the next 7-8ish years I was missing, and lacking, that rush that I once had.  If you talk to any veteran, most of them will tell you that, that rush is something they miss.  It was not until I had taken that first picture of a barn owl, that I found that rush again.  The feel of the heart pounding due to excitement, and the adrenaline rushing as the experience unfolds in front of you.

I can tell you the first time I first photographed a grizzly bear, a bull moose, a bull elk, and so on, and I can tell you that it was a rush every time I had the opportunity to do so. Recently I made a trip and decided to push the envelope and I actually chased the sounds of the elk bugling in the distance. As I inched closer and closer to where the sound was coming from, my heart rate increased and the adrenaline started flowing, but at the same time it was pure joy, pure excitement and pure fun. That mixture of pure joy, pure excitement, and pure fun, along with the fear and the nervousness, is what I love about wildlife photography. No matter how often I get to photograph wildlife, I get that rush, I get that excitement, that joy, and that fun. That is why I chose wildlife photography!