Bison

After returning from San Francisco, I was feeling a little anxious.  I can only spend so much time in concrete jungles before I start to dwell on what type of natural jungle the place once supported.  As if to settle my spirit, the world granted me one of the most nature-filled trips home I've had.  Within a thirty hour time period, I was able to observe elk, deer, a hawk, a coyote, a fox, and bison.  I see all of these creatures on a regular basis when I'm home, but rarely all of them in such a short period of time.  The beasts have not been beat after all.  

This bison herd is a two minute drive from my father's home.  I am truly blessed to be able to witness such a scene on a regular basis.  Because there is so much beauty to be had in these animals, I thought I might attempt capturing as many different types of images of them as I could- each depicting a unique perspective or detail of their routine.  

As seen below, they spend a fair amount of time lying about, regurgitating their past meal, and chewing their cud.  Picturesque, I know.

This bison spent much of her time scraping her horns along the side of this tree.  The tree behind her is a perfect example of what happens after this horn-sharpening ritual is repeated again and again.  She then proceeded to thank the tree by licking it.  I like the side-long shadows,  the golden lighting eliciting the beginning of spring, the peaking of her tongue, and obvious evidence of the bison's relationship with its habitat that are found in this photo.

The female bison above had so vigorously scraped along the trunk of the tree that she caused snow to fall from the branches above.  I attempted to focus on the snow fall and capture her figure slightly out of focus in the background.  The image works best in black and white- causing the white spotting to look more intentional.  

The image below was digitally altered.  I dramatically increased the fill light to introduce a fading look to the objects in the photograph.  This fading literally depicts what happened to the bison as Europeans began to cross the plains of North America.  They began to disappear at an alarming rate.  By the mid 1880's the American Bison population was a few hundred strong.  Due to conservation efforts like the ones practiced at this game reserve, the population has since rebounded back to several tens of thousands.  If only all conservation stories were so successful.

To all of those nonbelievers, white bison do exist.