Overcast pronghorn portraits, Yellowstone National Park

During our 2011 road trip through Yellowstone National Park, we spent plenty of time driving the loop roads looking for wildlife. On this particular afternoon, some nice high-level clouds moved in and provided lovely diffuse overcast light during what would otherwise generally be a non-photographic time for me (~2pm in the afternoon). It provided a great opportunity for a chance encounter with a pair of pronghorn close to the road near the Lamar Valley.

I really liked this setting for these portraits with the edge of the evergreen forest in the background. Most of my photographic opportunities with pronghorn came in more traditional prairie grasslands, so it was awesome to have a chance to diversify the setting with this series. This pronghorn hung around for a while and was kind enough to pose for a series of portraits as it observed the gathering crowd.

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Herd of pronghorn at sunset, Grand Teton National Park

On our 2011 road trip through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, the chance to photograph pronghorn was high on my wish list. I've long been fascinated by this species, and on our first evening in the park, we were treated to some up-close visuals right along the side of the road. The light was fading fast, so I barely managed any reasonably sharp frames, but it was a really special encounter so see this herd up close. We would see pronghorn in Grand Teton National Park only a few more times in our 3 days there and always at a far distance. Though we were treated to some very nice breakfast encounters with a small herd of pronghorn each morning as we drove through the Gardiner entrance to Yellowstone throughout the next week.

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Pronghorn portrait, Yellowstone National Park

A pronghorn chewing on its early morning breakfast in Yellowstone National Park

I've recently found myself reminiscing about the trip my wife and I took to Yellowstone National Park back in 2011. With the craziness of visiting the park while in the process of moving across the country, I never fully sorted and processed all of my photographs. While flipping through my archives recently I came across this portrait that was flagged as a pick but otherwise ignored. This pronghorn was a member of the herd that we saw almost every morning feeding near the Roosevelt Arch.

View more of my photographs of pronghorn in Yellowstone National Park.

Pronghorn in profile, Yellowstone National Park

A profile view of a pronghorn buck in northern Yellowstone National Park. One could even think it was a unicorn in this view, if not for the slightly different bend to the tip of his horns. This was a large male that we saw traveling with a group of other bachelors through the dry plains just outside of Gardner.



View more images of pronghorn in my Pronghorn Gallery.

Pronghorn in the grass, Yellowstone National Park

Pronghorn were really one of the highlights of my trip to Yellowstone National Park. As I've mentioned previously on this blog, I've been fascinated by pronghorn since I was a child, and it was really a dream come true to have had the opportunity to photograph them at close range nearly every day during our week-long stay in Yellowstone. We found this handsome buck strolling through the tall grasses along the northern edge of the park near Gardiner, Montana. He was the largest of three males traveling together in a small group, and we watched them browse for a meal until the sun had on our last evening in the park (just before I took the moonrise image I posted a few days ago).

Browse more photographs of pronghorn in my Pronghorn Gallery.

Young pronghorn at sunset, Yellowstone National Park

I've been fascinated with pronghorn ever since seeing them in nature documentaries as a child. I think that they are so remarkably beautiful, and its amazing to see them running so fast. While in California, I had learned that there were a few populations of pronghorn in the state (some remaining naturally and some introduced) and we had taken a road trip to Carrizo Plain National Monument with the hope of finding and photographing some. We did see pronghorn, but it was always at too far of a distance for good photographs. Having missed out on that opportunity before, I was really excited to have another chance to photograph one of my childhood favorites in Yellowstone National Park in September. Since I had read that they can be skittish, I wasn't sure what opportunities I would have to photograph pronghorn in the park. Much to my delight, we saw a small herd of around 8 animals right near the Gardiner entrance every day as we drove in and out of the park. It was so much fun to be able to pull the car over and watch them for an extended period of time, and it was great to have so many opportunities to see them up close. One of the members of the herd was this young pronghorn, and it was especially cute as it bounded around the group with the unbridled enthusiasm of a young animal.

View more photos of Antilocapra americana in my Pronghorn Gallery.

Guiding the herd, Yellowstone National Park

While I'm excited to have some new images to share from Massachusetts, I also still have a lot of photos to share from my trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, so it will probably be a mix on the blog for a while. In this shot, the dominant male pronghorn that we saw on a daily basis during our trip is rounding up his herd at sunset, presumably to keep them together overnight.  While the buck was not always right with his harem, he was never far away, and it was interesting to watch their interactions. The females clearly responded to his presence, and on more than one occasion, we saw him gently guide the herd to a different location on the prairie.

View more photos of the fastest animal in North America in my Pronghorn Gallery.

A pronghorn looks surprised, Yellowstone National Park

One of the challenges of photographing the megafauna of Yellowstone National Park is that many of them (at least the herbivores) are ruminants. This means that they spend an awful lot of their time chewing. This can make for the occasional comical shot (this one looks surprised, doesn't it?), but it can also lead to a lot of photos with less than facial ideal expressions. But in the end, you take what nature gives you -- and make the most of the frequent chewers.

View more photos of this beautiful species in my Pronghorn Gallery.

Pronghorn buck, Yellowstone National Park

A dominant pronghorn buck watches over his harem near the Gardiner entrance to Yellowstone National Park. It was a lot of fun to see this harem on a daily basis while coming into the park, and this buck seemed to take pretty good care of them. While the females happily fed fairly close to the road, he only occasionally come close to the group of onlookers, and he usually didn't stay close for long. He was quite a handsome buck though, and hopefully he was able to defend his harem during the upcoming rut.

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Pronghorn in the grass, Yellowstone National Park

I still have so many images to go through from my trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in September, but here is a frame that jumped out at me during an initial scan through the photos. When you have a chance to get close to such amazing wildlife like this herd of pronghorn, it's easy to get caught up taking intimate portraits of them, but I tried to also step back a bit with the zoom and place them in their environment. Pronghorn are so well suited to their prairie home, and they look beautiful when surrounded by tall grasses.

Visit my Pronghorn Gallery.

Young pronghorn, Yellowstone National Park

Here is one of my favorite shots from today in Yellowstone National Park, which was chosen for today's upload at my wife's request. This photo cracks her up since it appears that the pronghorn is smiling into the camera and saying "Cheese!" She's always joking that wildlife likes to pose for me, so this one was her favorites. We had a great close-up encounter with a group of pronghorn this morning, and some of the other highlights included seeing wolves (and pups!) through the binoculars in the Lamar Valley, as well as a grizzly bear! Both were feeding at different times on a bison carcass that was really far away -- but thanks to some friendly people with scopes, we were able to get a pretty good glimpse of them.