Saturday, October 18, 2008

Camera Critters: Lamar Valley Antelope



During our recent trip to Yellowstone, be were driving through The Lamar Valley from Cooke City, looking for any wildlife that could be found. We noticed an antelope walking toward the road. There was no shoulder beside the roadway at that point, so I got out of the van with my 40D and 100-400mm lens, with the plan that they would return for me when the action was over.

This was one of those situations that everything worked out for the best. I forgot to get my tripod from the vehicle and I couldn't hold the camera still enough from offhand, so I dropped to a sitting position and rested the camera over my knees (an old rifleman's trick retained from the days long ago when I was a decent long range rifleman).





The antelope kept coming closer and eventually crossed the roadway a short distance from me.


For more animal photos visit Camera Critters

18 comments:

marLou said...

Great capture! You can really see how beautiful they are.

Pea in a Pod said...

WOW! those are amazing captures! I love the 2nd shot the most:) Mine is posted HERE. Happy CC!~

Carletta said...

A great capture Willard!
The second one is my favorite too. I can hardly imagine you sitting down to take that - great skills.

Unknown said...

Beautifully shot given the constraints, the details on the 2nd shot is amazing

magiceye said...

brilliant captures!!

Kerri Farley said...

What a gorgeous creature! Great shots!!

Jane Hards Photography said...

Just stunnning. You have a real affinity with wildlife.

lv2scpbk said...

As long as they don't hit the car they are wonderful. Nice shots.

Anonymous said...

The last time I saw one of these Pronghorn Antelops was when I carved one out of wood. I assume this is one. Maybe a different name.

These are nice photos.

ratmammy said...

gorgeous photos as always!

Admin said...

Nice shots! My very first entry is up as well. Take care!

Cheers,
Thomas Web Links

Sandy Kessler said...

special special to those of us who have never seen this

KOSTAS said...

Marvellous post and beautiful photographs from beloved creature!
Congratulations!

Mike said...

Stunning shots you have, very nice.

kjpweb said...

Great shots - as are those in the previous post! Good work - and you seem to have had a great time! :)
Cheers, Klaus

Marvin said...

Great work, Willard. I really enjoyed the antelope photos.

The Birdlady said...

Oh boy, Willard! Those are just beautiful!

Brad Myers said...

Good job Willard. I think you just picked a bad year for the Elk herd. I was given a couple different reasons for their population being down.

One was that last year was a bad winter, the first normal winter in 13 years. The ranger claimed it took 1/3 of the herd. The up side of the bad winter is the moisture will return the colors to the park in the tourist areas, like the mud pots.

The other reason I was given is a fight between the wolf lovers and the non wolf people. I was told that the wolfs were killing machines and that was a reason for the reduced herd. The wolf lovers dispute that, I have read many articles on it and I really don't know what to believe.

I will say that in a three day span when we were there the smallest pack of wolves (only 5) took down a cow and a calf elk for feeding.

It is still a great place and for me the Disney world of wildlife and beauty. But it pailed in comparison to any other trip I made their.