YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

One day I saw an image of a fox with its head buried in the snow and only its butt and tail visible, and thought, why can’t I get something like that?   No, wait, my true thought was, why haven’t I ever seen something like that?

I think that wildlife photography is like that – first you see a pretty animal and do your best to capture it with your camera.  And then you begin to see a pretty animal with a stick coming out of the back of its head and branches over its eyes.  It might have a harsh shadow across its face or body and could be standing among 20 piles of crap.  The animal is beautiful but its surroundings are not.  And, when I get home and see that branch over the eyes, which, by the way, have no light in them, and that it has sprouted a growth off the top of its head, the photo is useless.

And, so, then I learn to take a little more time to make sure that I am getting a clean shot with nice light.  And then one day I see an animal on a hilltop, lit by late afternoon sun and with dark blue mountains way off in the distance and learn about creating a dramatically lit image with a background that makes the critter stand out.  Along with putting the animal in a place where you, yourself, want to visit.

Those ideas, ideals, are of the animal posing, hopefully looking at the camera, or maybe far off with a wistful look in its eyes.  But then the animal begins to move off, or starts grazing, and the shot is no longer pretty and so I move onto the next animal.

But, what I missed was learning about the animal’s behavior and habits.  And, so, one day those posed shots became boring and I discovered that I knew virtually nothing about the creature in front of the camera.  I started sitting, watching and waiting – learning, studying, seeing for the first time that there was a personality – and then my photography began to mean something to me.

Well, foxes have been a particular obsession of mine.  I don’t see many in Yellowstone and those that live out of the park don’t live long.  Montana has open season, year around on foxes and coyotes, which is why I have 5 mouse traps in my house – there aren’t enough natural predators to take care of them.

Particularly getting the foxes hunting in any season, but my fondest desire was winter captures and observations.  To see them leap into the snow and dive beneath the surface, and come out with some sort of creature that they would find tasty.  Foxes have amazing hearing and they can hear critters running beneath the snow.

Are you learning more about my photography process and foxes than you care to learn?  But, wait, I have more.

This Winter I decided that come Hell or High Water, now that those are nouns, I would get the diving fox shot.  But, first I had to see a fox dive.

Well, my first fox this winter, was sleeping.  Yawn – beautiful, but yeah.

My next fox.  This is where life get unfair.  I was driving along, minding my own business, when I spotted several photographers standing in the road.  And, so I pull up towards them and see the fox.  Yippee!  I start to back up to go to the pullout and guess what that darned fox does just feet from everyone?  it jumps and dives into the snow.  Then the fox reappears with a vole by the tale and the vole takes off running so the fox plays with it for minute.  As you can tell I have this scene etched into my brain because there was no way for me to capture anything with the camera.

After the jump and eating the vole the fox sat for a short time.  Not wanting to miss everything I stopped in the road, put the camera on a bean bag, and took a few shots.  My favorite was this one where he turns and looks like he is asking if I had wanted that vole.

But then I also like the shots of him sitting and looking straight ahead with a hint of catch light in his eye.

I did park and walk down to the fox, just as it was walking off into the forest.  I was actually quite pleased with the forested shots, which included the snow and the tree trunks, as it added a nice background for the images.  And, was really having fun until another photographer  decided to chase the fox into the forest, causing it to go further away from the road and ruining the shots for all of us.

Well, then the very next morning there was a fox near Tower and darned if it didn’t do the same thing – jumped into the snow just as I pulled up.  Except that this fox didn’t get anything, but still that was supposed to be my shot.

Live goes on into the next morning when I find the first fox, near the picnic area (daddy from two years ago) crossing the road in front of me with a vole in its mouth.  This time it was just myself and the fox and so I went up into the forest to get off of the road, stay out of sight and watch.  The fox promptly laid down for a nap.

Figures!  I was okay with it though and didn’t have to wait long before the fox was up again, rolling in the snow.  Must admit to big smiles being so close to the fox and watching its joy in the snow.

After rolling around the fox wandered for a second before deciding to move off, up the hill.  I was not going to follow but then saw that he was hunting again.  The jump looked like it was coming and so I moved up some, being pretty far back, trying to get an opening between branches that were in the way and trying not to get so close that I would miss everything.

And, he jumped.

The fox dug down deeper and deeper and then finally came up with what looked to be a pika. I am sure that is what the fox got.  Have pics but ran out of editing time for tonight.

I left the fox to enjoy his meal and the rest of his day, undisturbed and all alone.

Dream big – wishes do come true.

Deby

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