All Images And Text On This Site Are Copyright 1999-2000
by
Thomas D. Hill Jr.
18 Mar 00
If you ever would like to get into photographing large wild-life, National Parks are the place to go. Large mammals can be very cooperative there because humans don't threaten them. In fact, they've become so accustom to humans running around the animals practically disregard anything and everything we're doing. It's a great situation if you're content with getting yet another image of an animal grazing. But, if you're trying to get that great portrait it's a frustrating situation. They may never look at you. Patience is about the only sure tool for getting that large, majestic animal portrait.
Jasper National Park is less famous than it's more popular sister park to the south--Banff National Park. Jasper only gets 500,000 visitors a year to Banff's 2 million. When you visit the parks, it's obvious which one has a bigger human presence. Because of its slightly less popularity, large mammals are a bit more accessible in Jasper than Banff. Big Horn Sheep are particularly available. Your almost assured of seeing them at Disaster Point, 20 miles to the east of Jasper townsite. Depending on the season, herds of 20 to 30 can be found grazing or licking the mineral lick along the road. If rubber-necking is a problem at accident sites, a new standard has to be set whenever a large mammal is along this road. Traffic jams of several dozen cars can be found during the summers. And the Sheep don't seem to mind. They go about their business and typically ignore all the people fussing over them.
I took this image about a mile away from Disaster Point just before the beginning of the fast approaching winter. I had camped up at Mount Edith Cavell the previous night and awoke to 3 inches of snow covering the vehicle. Even though winter hadn't arrived down in the valleys, the sheep were fattening up as quickly as possible. It was only a matter of time for even the valleys would be covered with snow. I followed this herd for a couple of days and made probably my favorite series of large mammal images. Be advised it didn't come easy. Like I mentioned before, obtaining portraits can be a frustrating experience under normal conditions. This is especially so when your subject is frantically eating everything in-sight and could care less what some stranger that was doing closely following their every move with a 300mm lens. This ewe was at the tail
end of her herd when they passed me onto better pickings. I was about to give up on getting a decent portrait with yet another image of an animal's rump when she stopped and looked up. I'd like to think that an animal was finally giving me the time of the day and checking me out. But, she was probably looking through me to make sure there weren't any youngsters straggling behind her. Oh well... I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Like I've said before. It's better to be luck than good any day.
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