Tetons in the Fall: Day 1
Living in Flaming Gorge, Utah, I'm fortunate to have opportunities to encounter wildlife on a fairly regular basis. But photographing some of those animals, particularly elk and moose, comes with its own set of challenges. Hunting is a big part of the landscape where I live, and as a result, elk and moose tend to be extremely wary of people (rightly so). And while the fall rut can offer some of the best opportunities to photograph these animals, it also coincides with hunting season. That makes spending time in the field with a camera a little more complicated.
I started thinking that visiting a national park might provide better opportunities to photograph these animals during the rut, without having to navigate the complications of hunting season.
Grand Teton National Park seemed like an obvious choice. It's only about four hours from home and is well known for its elk and moose populations. Yet, for some reason, despite living relatively close, it's a place I've spent surprisingly little time exploring.
So when I discovered that Evan Watts was leading a fall photography tour in the Tetons through Focus Photo Tours, I was excited. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to photograph elk and moose against the beautiful colors of fall.
And joining a tour rather than exploring on my own had some added benefits. I'd have the chance to meet other photographers who shared my interests, learn new techniques, and spend time in the field with someone who knows the area as well as Evan does.
We all arrived early that afternoon, and by four o'clock we were heading out for our first excursion. It was early October, and the cottonwoods were well into their autumn colors. But the temperatures hadn't quite caught up with the season. By six o'clock that evening, it was still around 80 degrees. Not exactly ideal conditions for finding active moose. Still, it was our first opportunity to get out into the park, familiarize ourselves with the area, and maybe get lucky.
We spent the evening exploring the cottonwoods and walking along the river, searching for any sign of a bull moose. I was actually a little surprised by how much walking we did. I'd expected the trip to involve mostly roadside photography, so getting away from the road and exploring on foot was a welcome surprise, especially after spending much of the day in the car. But the evening was getting away from us. The temperature was still around 75 degrees when we were out walking, and the light was fading quickly, and there were no signs of moose.
We did have an opportunity to photograph a beautiful mule deer buck standing among the cottonwoods.
As the sun disappeared and dusk settled over the valley, it became increasingly clear that the bull moose we'd been hoping for wasn't going to make an appearance. We started making our way out, pretty much resigned to the fact that our first evening wouldn't include any moose photographs.
And then we came upon a traffic jam.
In a national park, that usually means something interesting is happening.
Sure enough, a cow moose and her calf were grazing near the roadside. There were quite a few cars and people gathered around, but the pair seemed completely unbothered by all the activity. They quietly grazed together in the sagebrush, with golden cottonwoods creating a beautiful autumn backdrop.
It was such a contrast to the wildlife I was accustomed to seeing back home. The moose seemed perfectly content to go about their evening, despite everything happening around them. And once I raised my camera, much of that outside activity seemed to fade away. For a little while, my attention was entirely on the two moose moving through the field.
There was just one problem.
It was almost dark.
Under normal circumstances, I probably would have put my camera away, assuming there simply wasn't enough light to get a usable photograph.
But Evan suggested something different.
He recommended lowering our shutter speeds considerably and shooting continuous bursts, hoping that among all those frames, we'd capture a few without too much motion blur. So I gave it a try. And when I looked through the photographs afterward, I was pleasantly surprised.
They're certainly not the cleanest or sharpest images I've ever taken. The high ISO introduced plenty of noise, and the fading light meant sacrificing some of the technical quality I'd normally strive for. But there's a softness to those images that feels appropriate for the moment.
The muted sagebrush, the golden cottonwoods, and two moose quietly grazing together as the last light disappeared. They may not be technically perfect photographs, but they remind me of exactly what it felt like to be there. And for our very first evening in the Tetons, I couldn't have asked for a much better introduction.
