A pair of Grizzlies in Yellowstone

Wildlife photography is something I’ve dabbled in on occasion, but it was mostly out of happenstance — Oh look!, a moose! •snap•. Once in a while I went out with intention. I was invited on a puffin tour a couple of years ago where I had the chance to photograph those beautiful sea birds. Prior to that the only time I deliberately set out to shoot wildlife was in 2016 on a trip to Grand Teton National Park with my NXNW friends. That trip was, like all of them, landscape-focussed, but since the Tetons (and Yellowstone) are known for wildlife photography, I rented a long lens for the trip and It paid off.

Fast forward to February of this year. My friends Rick Louis, Mike Criswell and I were discussing a possible spring landscape trip and we were reminiscing about the 2016 Teton trip and the grizzly bear photos Rick and I captured. We unanimously decided that a return to the Tetons in the spring was in order, and the focus should be wildlife. We just got back and we were wildly successful!

On our first day we decided to venture north to Yellowstone National Park’s Hayden Valley. It was a 2.5 hour drive from where we were staying in Jackson, Wyoming, but we knew our chances of wildlife encounters were better there.

Within 30 minutes of arriving at Hayden Valley, we came across a “Bear Jam” — a line of cars parked on the side of the road, photographers with really long lenses pointed into the wilderness, with at least one park ranger making sure the photographers don’t do something stupid.

The photographers were pointing their very long lenses upwards towards a couple of balls of fur digging into the soil. Those balls of fur were a pair of young grizzly bear siblings known as “The Twins.” They were a good 150-200 yards away from the roadside, so the rangers let us photograph them until we got bored or The Twins ventured out of sight. We spent a good 30-40 minutes pushing the limits of our gear in terms of reach. We were convinced that, at that distance, we would not get many usable images, but enjoyed watching the grizzlies dig for grubs, chase geese and hope they strike a compelling pose.

I was largely unsuccessful in capturing a compelling image of these guys, but I like what I got and I am grateful for the experience. Just being out there is worth the 4:00 am wakeup call!

I have much more to share from this trip. We had other bear encounters and got to spend some time photographing moose, elk and the ubiquitous American Bison. Oh, and we got quite a bit of landscape photography in as well.