Mike Clark

I've been studying this wild bobcat for the past few months. This weekend he hopped up on this rock to play a bit of peekaboo with me.

(Comments: Flickr)

When the big ol' flakes started tumbling down on Saturday night, I packed up the gear hoping the sky would clear by morning. It turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous Sunday morning.

(Comments: Flickr)

This fall in Yellowstone we had an opportunity to witness a grizzly defending a meal. He's the top predator in the park, but that doesn't mean he doesn't get harassed by critters further down the food chain. Everyone's gotta eat, and with a long winter on the horizon sometimes you're desperate enough to edge in on a big bruin's breakfast.

Photographically it was tough shot. I generally don't mind the distance afforded by a long focal length when I'm photographing large meat-eating mammals. But this was a long shot, and even my longest lens and teleconverter strained to get any detail. Added to which, by mid-morning the sun was heating up all that surface area between me and the subject. And when you're in that situation and looking down the barrel of the lens, the heat waves just make you want to cry.

So after a couple record shots, I abandoned all hopes of getting a sharp photograph and switched the camera over to shoot video. That didn't make the shot any easier, of course. All the same constraints apply. I just figured I'd try to capture some of the action for memory sake. When I got home I started scrubbing through all those bits. (And you thought post-producing still photographs was time consuming!) The video certainly won't win any awards, but I'm glad I threw the switch and it serves as a good reminder to do it more often. I'm out there to tell stories, and sometimes the real story is best told through video.

Anyway, I stitched together a few clips to give you a glimpse of Yellowstone's food chain in action.

Enjoy!

(Comments: Vimeo)

(Comments: Flickr)