"Sir," he said. "I suggest you back away from that animal very slowly. He could charge at any minute...!" (gulp)
Ok...I'm not one to shy away from a challenge. But in September, 2007--I reconsidered what my life was worth in exchange for a photograph. Specifically a dining bison at Yellowstone.
Having spent a half day of seeing the sites in Yellowstone in the Fall of 2007--my friend and I stopped halfway north near the Roosevelt Arch at a rangers station.
We had noticed a small herd of buffalo grazing nearby. Heck--buffalo wander around Yellowstone all the time. One even came right up to the passenger side of our car looking in at us (I snapped a pic of it--but it's pretty blurred. Wonder why!)
A few days earlier--we stopped by a roadside picnic table having lunch. I was facing the woodland area behind our table--keeping an eye out for bears, deer, elk--whatever. Suddenly--my friend said, "Shhhh....gradually look behind you!"
I slowly turned around and saw a huge buffalo meandering down the road about twenty feet away. We didn't make a sound and prayed that it would keep on walking.
These are magnificent animals and when they're up close and personal--you feel very vulnerable because of their size and power.
As we came out of the ranger station--seeing the history of Yellowstone, artifacts, etc--we began to go through the small parking lot to our car.
I caught something out of my right peripheral vision. As I turned--we saw a small buffalo feeding in the grass.
My first instinct was--oh, that's cool. Get a picture. Yellowstone policy is to stay thirty feet from area wildlife. At that time--it didn't cross my mind.
I walked slowly up--camera at the ready, and began taking pictures of this animal.
After I took five or six pictures--i realized how close I was. Maybe twelve feet from this object of my lens--when suddenly I heard the voice of a man in the parking lot.
"Sir", he said. "I suggest that you slowly back up and get away. That animal could charge at any minute...".
My first thought was...yeah--whatever. After I got in the car though--my friend said, "you know--that guy was right".
It suddenly hit me how stupid I had been! This wasn't taking a picture of a prairie chicken!
I could have spooked that buffalo and it COULD have charged.
I've had this photo for many years now and never really thought much about it--until posting it on my Etsy site: (www.etsy.com/shop/VerlinStudios.)
Within a few days I had several people "like" and "favorite" it.
Then I realized how unique a pic it was. How many times has someone gotten a picture that close to a buffalo?
I had taken some earlier (see pics on site) of buffalo grazing in the distance--but then one you can tell his very close.
Looking back at my Yellowstone trip--I'd recommend it for everyone. Hopefully just looking at the pics from the Tetons & Yellowstone on this site will encourage you to visit.
But time is of the essence--since it sits atop a volcano that is expected to "blow" soon!
Incidently--these Yellowstone pics were taken in 2007 with a new Minolta Dimage Xi--a cool camera that got a good review in the Wall Street Journal.
It was the size of a cigarette pack--and featured an optical and digital zoom (which I used to good effect in one of the buffalo grazing shots on the site).
It came out when digital camera's were becoming all the rage--and it only had 1.3 megapixel coverage.
My current Nikon, Coolpix is 16 megapixel and has a 30x zoom on it (which I'll be taking soon to Jamaica!).
I still have that Minolta and probably will use it again--but I probably won't be taking any more pictures of buffalo!
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