Dall Dreamin'

Sometimes working hard for something makes it that much sweeter when you finally get it. That's certainly the case with this photo. Dall sheep are a northern species found in some pretty rugged terrain - think mountain, think steep, think cold, think rocky! This ram was with a same-sex group that included several others and we had spotted them from the valley bottom. To access them we had to hike a little over 5 kilometers on a snowy, uphill trail while carrying a whole lot of gear...and once we reached them we had to work on steep and slippery slopes. So...definitely not a shot from the "out the car window" genre of photography!

After alerting the rams to our presence and waiting for them to accept us our small group moved a little closer to them. This handsome ram was sitting on ridge with the white, snow-covered valley (the background in this shot) far below. The ram was on exposed rock, but there was band of snow on the ground between us. I had an unobscured view of the ram, but thought that going low (as in "laying on the ground") could produce a "dreamy" out-of-focus white foreground if I shot "through" the snowbank. For what seemed forever (but was probably only 10 minutes!) the ram looked around (mostly into the distance) and, while I shot many shots with its eyes open, I was hoping it would close its eyes and grab a few winks. Finally it nodded off, and gave me the peaceful, "dreaming" (and dreamy) shot I was hoping for. And, in this case, the light helped me out a lot...giving me lots of detail and texture to work with. Sometimes everything goes right (and it feels all that much better if you physically worked hard for the shot).

Subject: Male Dall Sheep (Ovis dalli) enjoying a sunny nap
Location: Southwest Yukon Territory, Canada
Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: Sigma 500mm f4 Sport lens. Supported on Really Right Stuff TVC-24 tripod with an Acratech Long Lens Head. OS on and in “OS1” mode.
Exposure: 1/1600s @ f5.6; ISO 100. No compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: None - this is full frame

A whole lot more info about this shot - including a 2400 pixel version it - can be found on my website using the link immediately below.

http://www.naturalart.ca/galleries/latest/

Comments and critiques welcomed - probably best to view the larger version prior to doing so!

Cheers...

Brad

PS: Like all wildlife images on my website and that I post on NPN, the subject is fully wild and completely unconstrained. Besides the potential impact of my presence, nothing has been done to intentionally alter or affect the ongoing behavior of the subject and, of course, there has been no use of any form of bait or other form of wildlife attractants (including vocalizations).