Animals, Photography, Travel, Wildlife

Wildlife Photography: Reviving Old Favorites

Over the years I have taken a number of wildlife photographs. Now, I absolutely DO NOT consider myself to be a wildlife photographer. I am getting better, but that is definitely not my chief skill at this point in time. However, I have recently been going back to some of my older wildlife photos and using my newer skills to redo a few of these. So, I thought I would share some of these photos here with you. I will not be including the polar bear shots in this post as I really wanted to focus on the older work.

This photo is from 2008 with my old Nikon D200 – my first serious digital camera. I took this mom and calf pronghorn in Custer State Park in South Dakota.
Here is a pronghorn (antelope as we call them in the US) buck that I photographed with the Nikon D-200 in 2007 in Utah’s west desert. I think this is a pretty decent shot.
This was taken at the same place and time as the photo above. These pronghorns were on the move.
This bull elk was in Rocky Mountain National Park in October of 2010. He has been through a bit over the years. Nikon D-200.
Same elk. I was tracking him as he was walking along a hundred feet or so from the road.
Our same friend again. I thought this pose gave one a good idea as to the size of his rack.
These bison photos were all taken in January of 2024 with my Nikon Z-50. For a crop sensor mirrorless camera, I think it is quite wonderful. I love the camera for hiking as it is super light, and with a long lens like the 80-400mm, it gives a similar magnification as a 600mm at full length.
This boy had been grazing only few hundred yards from my camp site in Antelope Island State Park in Utah. These were tough exposures with the dark bison against the bright snow. These photos really sold me on mirrorless cameras.
This is one of my favorite bison shots. The guy was just kicking back relaxing when these birds decided he might be a nice warm place to hang out for a bit. Perhaps he seems a bit indignant about his bird passengers.
These bison are just incredibly massive animals. Their size is hard to grasp from the photos, but these large bulls can weigh around 2000 pounds (907kg)! For comparison my Mazda MX-5 weighs about 2400 pounds. This is why these calm appearing animals should be totally respected.
Here is another shot of a large bull scraping away the snow to reach the underlying grass. His head is about 3 feet (1 meter) long.

Utah is one of the western states that have free roaming herds of wild horses. One herd, the Onaqui, hang out in the west desert of Utah only less than 100 miles (161km) from my house. These horse herds were originally from the Spanish Conquistadors that brought horses to the Americas in the 1500s. And as they had battles with the Indigenous peoples of North America, some of those horses were lost or captured. Over the years the herds mixed with other domesticated horses like runaways from the US Cavalry. The Cavalry used a lot of Morgans due to their stamina and dispositions. And some horses came from settlers. Once in a while a horse would get lost, and over time they all ended up in these wild herds.

Their range in the west desert lies on and adjacent to the US Army’s Dugway base. So many times one cannot get near the herd if they are on base, but other times they roam around the desert and mountains on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land south of Dugway.

In 2018 I traveled out to Utah’s west desert in hopes of finding the wild horses of the Onaqui herd. It was late December and really cold – about 18°F (-8°C). These two were “horsing around”.
I don’t recall what led to this chase , but the one in front really aggravated the horse on the left. That “head down” stance shows serious intent, so it’s no wonder the other one is high tailing it out of there.
I caught this beautiful horse in a moment of peace, just contemplating the world. Many of the mustangs do not have beautiful heads by domestic horse standards, but this one was just amazing.
These two were doing a bit of sparring, but it was all play.
This young horse was so peaceful – just enjoying a bit of sunshine on a very cold winter day. All of these horse photos were taken with my old Nikon D-500.
Now there is a story that goes with this photo.

This is one of the first photos I took that day back in December of 2018. I had found the herd, and had setup my camera on my tripod east of the herd at a good distance so as not to alarm them. As I was settling in for the afternoon, I saw these two stallions heading right for me at a good strong walking pace. I just looked up from the camera to see how close they really were, and realized that they had that “what the hell are you doing here” look.

Our horses at home will give that same look if they see a strange dog, deer or human approach their pasture. So, I knew that these boys were going to make sure I was gone and no longer a perceived threat if I just stayed where I was. So, I grabbed the camera and tripod, lowered my head so as not to make eye contact and moved steadily backward until these two stopped. I kept my head down and kept the camera pointed away from them until they seemed to calm down and go back to the herd.

Then I very slowly moved forward a bit at a time, pausing for awhile each time to let the horses realize that I was no threat. Eventually, as you can see from some of the above shots, I was accepted and ended up being only about 75 to 100 feet from the herd.

As you can see, the herd eventually got quite comfortable with me. I caught this young horse trying to stay awake in the winter sun. He/she was just too cute.

So, I think this just about wraps up my re-do on some of the wildlife photos I have done over the years. Hopefully you have enjoyed this trip down memory lane with me. Thank you for taking your time to visit my blog. Have fun out there and stay safe!

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