I spent the two weeks leading up to Memorial Day in Yellowstone, mostly photographing grizzly bears for my Sage Spirit project. May is an amazing time to be in Yellowstone - grizzlies, black bears, bison herds and nurseries, elk starting to drop calves, wolves, oh my!
Great work Dave here and on your blog. I'll have to go back and read it over. I never thought I would ever say this but the bears are thick this year. The most I have ever seen in my 20 years of photographing Yellowstone. The thing that surprised me the most was the Black Bear above Mammoth with 4 small cubs and another one with cubs between Mammoth and Roosevelt Junction. In one day trip I saw lots of bears, antelope, wolves, deer, elk, moose and bison with a lot of calves.You guys that love to shoot wildlife now is the time to be out here.
Great job! I leave tomorrow morning for five days in Yellowstone on a photographic workshop offered by the Yellowstone Association Institute. You've really got me pumped up now, like I needed to be any more excited about the workshop!
Thanks for the update looks like you kept busy. First year I haven't been to Yellowstone in May in a long time. Went to Oregon this year to shoot the waterfalls etc.. Glad you had a successful trip.
Thanks for your comments. Soubhik: I heard that #610's cubs had dispersed, so maybe you saw one of her cubs? I just finished the first edit of over 5k images, giving me time to pause and consider how fortunate we are whenver we get a glimpse into the lives of these amazing creatures. May we have the good sense to conserve enough habitat so they can roam the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem for all time.
Some excellent wildlife photography here, Dave! The grizzly sow with cubs is my favorite.
How fortunate you got to see them, and amen to your final comment here.
Posted by Doug Koepsel on June 4, 2012 at 10:27 AM
Dave, you made a comment on your blog about those that hike without pepper spray. Back 30 years ago when we'd hike/camp up Slough or Pelican to flyfish, all the NPS would recommend was to talk loudly while hiking and wear those annoying bear bells. I do not recall pepper spray then. I only saw one grizz and that was from the road.
One time when walking up the Yellowstone above Buffalo Ford, I saw several flyfishermen huddled closely on a bar in the middle of the river. They said a bear had crossed the river by them. I nixed the plans to fish the chosen spot a ways upriver from them.
I like your panning image of the running bears. I think the blurr and din of light go together well.
Excellent series, Dave.....after viewing these one could easily get the false impression that getting great griz shots in Yellowstone is a slam dunk....we who have tried know differently however.
Thanks Doug and Don - for the first few days, I was listening to all the chatter about bears in Hayden, Lamar, everywhere where I wasn't at the time. Then I settled in and just worked one location at a time and was lucky that bears are very active this year, maybe because of the mild spring. Or, maybe because I was overdue and had some bear karma to use? And, I know what you mean, Doug. We've backpacked in Glacier, Alaska, and Yellowstone without bear spray before it was a big deal. We even had sets of those damn bells in AK on our first Denali trip. You don't see any wildlife with those things! But now we know that bear spray is 92% effective and guns are 50%. The bear always gets the blame for stupid human behavior and I carry spray (on a backpack strap where I can reach it quickly) as much for the welfare of the bear as personal safety.
Discussion
16 repliesMore images are on my new blog post
How fortunate you got to see them, and amen to your final comment here.
One time when walking up the Yellowstone above Buffalo Ford, I saw several flyfishermen huddled closely on a bar in the middle of the river. They said a bear had crossed the river by them. I nixed the plans to fish the chosen spot a ways upriver from them.
I like your panning image of the running bears. I think the blurr and din of light go together well.