My latest collection of new photos is from my annual spring trip to Yellowstone National Park. The last few years I’ve been limited to about two weeks in the park, usually a week (or less) on my own starting Memorial Day Weekend, followed by a week-long photo tour with clients. That was the case again this year.
It was a pretty good trip for photography, with some of the better sessions I’ve experienced with certain species in a few years, including grizzly bears, grouse, pronghorns, and even a black wolf. I did share trip reports during this adventure back in May and June. If you missed those, you can catch up on them here. I’ve tried to choose some preview images below that didn’t appear in the reports.
The new gallery boasts 157 photos. Here’s a preview:
This was my very first stop for photos on the trip, a grizzly bear walking across the floor of the Lamar Valley in the evening.
I pulled ahead of the crowd hoping the bear’s angle would bring it within close range of my parking spot. It worked out… this was shot out the window.
That wasn’t my last or best grizzly encounter. A family with new cubs staked out territory on the west side of the park. It’s an area I don’t frequent much, but I did manage to have one decent photo encounter with them.
I was able to stay in my car and get a number of close photos.
The grizzly family hung out very close to the road, occasionally crossing back and forth.
Eventually the rangers hazed the bears across the road (mostly by yelling and clapping their hands).
On a sunny spring day, Yellowstone Lake can present some wonderful landscape photography opportunities.
This is a stitched panorama taken near Bridge Bay.
We had a wonderful encounter with some Dusky Grouse, watching as a male pursued and displayed for two females.
The male was working overtime to get their attention, fanning his tale, puffing his chest, tooting and jumping up and down.
Another common sign of spring in rocky areas is the yellow-bellied marmot.
An elk soaks in the sunrise on Swan Lake Flat.
There were a few different new moose families that emerged in the northeast corner of the park this spring.
The Alum Creek pullout in Hayden Valley is a popular sunrise spot for good reason.
We were hoping to find a subject to photograph in the thick fog of Hayden Valley when this bull elk appeared out of the mist.
Perhaps the highlight of my spring trip was seeing this unique interaction between pronghorn fawns and Common Ravens.
The ravens may have been drawn by the smell of the newborns.
It’s difficult to have close wolf encounters in Yellowstone these days.
I was very fortunate to photograph this lone black wolf on my own from about 100 yards.
See the full Yellowstone Spring 2019 photo gallery in the archive. And remember that you can purchase prints of nearly any of the photos.
Want to join me on a Yellowstone photo tour? I usually lead anywhere between one and three tours per year in the park. Check the Workshops and Tours page for more information or contact me with questions.
