Yellowstone Wolves Video

Yellowstone Wolves from nick price on Vimeo.

February 2012. Mollies Wolf Pack

 

This is a short video I took while in Yellowstone in February.  It's of the Mollies wolf pack and shot in the Little America area.  I used the D3S and Nikon 80-200 lens.  It was completely dark. At the time, the Mollies had wandered north from the Pelican Valley to look for better hunting.  They happened to be really close to the Lamar, Agate, & Blacktail packs.

 

Boiling River, Yellowstone

boiling riverBoiling River & Winter Color

The Boiling River, pictured above, nears its meeting with the much colder Gardner River.  The temps in the water pictured above are scalding hot. 

gardner riverGardner River

Steam from the Boiling River confluence can barely be seen in the background...

Nikon D3S & Nikon 24 pce lens

To Tilt Or Not To Tilt. Mammoth Hot Springs

Scorched Trees & Mammoth Hot Springs

Nion D3S & Nikon 24 pce lens. 

The above image was captured without using the tilt or shift function on the Nikon 24 pce lens.  It was taken handheld at an aperture of f14 and it's a manual focus lens...

The above image is essentially the same as the first in this post compositionally but I rotated the lens 90 degrees and fully tilted downward and focused on the tree trunks.  The plane of focus now runs horizontally across the mid section of the image in a wedge shape from left to right.  The plan of focus is "thinner" on the left than the right, hence the wedge shape, despite the fact it's hard to notice.  This image was also captured at f14 to essentially "widen" the horizontal focus plane.  At f3.5--the max aperture on the Nikon 24 pce lens--the plane of focus would be substantially narrower.  Both images were processed differently using Nik's Silver Effex 2.

 

Winter Contrast.  Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone

Nikon D3S & Nikon 24 pce lens

Rick McIntyre & The Lamar Valley

rick mcintyreRick McIntyre, pictured above is and has been a Biological Technician for the Yellowstone Wolf Project essentially since its inception with the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone in 1995.  There's no doubt he's the wolf guru in the park.  His knowledge based on years of experience observing--it is said that he spent over 3,500 consecutive days watching Yellowstone wolves--is unsurpassed.  While his voice is quiet with a slow cadence, he candidly answers questions from tens of thousands of visitors each year.  Imagine the patience needed to answer questions from that many people.  In the image above, Rick is watching the Lamar Canyon pack on the west side of the Lamar Valley.  11 wolves in all.  At the time of this image, 3 Lamar Canyon pups were pseudo-stalking 3 large bull elk while the adult wolves sat in the background and watched.  I asked Rick why he thought the large bull elk didn't run and he said he believes the larger and healthier bulls stand their ground and the adult wolves know and respect that.  "The pups may try to make a go at the bulls but the odds are low they will try and if they do they will not likely succeed."

rick mcintyre Rick McIntyre & Will Price watch the Lamar Canyon pack.

viewing through a spotting scopeRick and many others are often generous with their spotting scopes.  Pictured above, Will peers through Rick's scope. 

Nikon D3S & Nikon 24 pce lens

yellowstone coyoteCoyote.  Lamar Valley

Nikon D200 & Nikon 80-200 afs 2.8 lens