A young male elk, antlers soft as velvet, enjoys the grass meadows of this lush park. Herds of elk gather here to feed, as well as to enjoy the nearby beaches. I used a 400mm telephoto focal length to hone in on the feeding action and blur the background at the same time.

Only a few moments after entering Yellowstone, we were stunned to see dozens of cars parked along the side of the road. Nearly 100 people were standing nearby photographing a single male grizzly under a blazing mid-day sun. We spent almost a half hour photographing it. It was a very difficult subject. The bear seldom lifted its head. It was digging for underground morsels such as roots. The high sun created harsh contrasts – the bear was dark brown, and the surround logs were light brown. I often found myself making the same mistake – zooming in tightly on the bear instead of pulling back to include its relationship to the environment. The world does not need another animal portrait – we should spend our time as photographers going beyond animal portraiture to create animal landscapes. And that is what I’ve tried to do here. It is an image about an endangered species. Yellowstone is one of the few places in the United States were we can view grizzlies in the wild. The fallen trees in this image have boxed him in – he seems to be wondering which way is out. He also seems cornered and somewhat diminished because of it. He is a living reminder of our natural assets that are living on borrowed time.

As we traveled along the twelve-mile road between Norris Junction and Canyon Village, we were astounded to find a group of Gray Wolves standing alongside of the highway. Such a sighting is very rare. Wolves had been extinct in Yellowstone for many years, and were reintroduced only in the 1990s. There are less than 200 wolves in this vast park, and they are mostly invisible, except when seen through spotting scopes at over a mile away. Our trip leader had been to Yellowstone 18 times and had never seen wolves this close before. Yet here were three members of a group known as the Canyon Pack right in front of us for a few seconds. By the time we were able to stop our van at a pullout, exit the car, and focus our cameras, they were heading back into the forest. Most of my hurried images were just jumbles of fur. Only this wolf stopped for a second to pose for me in full profile. I cropped the image just behind the front legs to express the relationship between the wolf and its home – the deep forests of Yellowstone.

(Our trip leader, Dave Wyman, was able to photograph a remarkable head-on curious stare from this same wolf. You can see it at http://www.pbase.com/image/104594573 )

This would have been just another descriptive image of a grazing moose, if not for the long tongue coming out of its mouth. The tongue is the detail that gives this image its message: a moose having a good breakfast.

I was able to photograph this Bull Moose from behind as it reached forward to grab a choice morsel from the foliage along the Snake River. I like the way the upward thrust of the weeds behind the moose echo the upward thrust of its antlers.

Instead of zooming all the way in on this moose, which was grazing on a wash next to the Snake River, I pulled back my zoom to about 200mm, so I could create a landscape rather than portrait. The moose stands adjacent to the image’s largest feature – the huge boulder that links the land to the empty wash. The texture of the stones contrasts sharply to the texture of the grass, while the silky texture of the moose’s coat links the two. All three elements are part of the natural world, and all are interrelated. The Snake River and its surroundings are home to many of Grand Teton’s moose. And this image is all about that home.