Category Archives: Canon RF100-500mm

Day 11: (Friday 9/19/25) Tetons

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Day 11: (Friday 9/19/25), We broke camp and left Fishing Bridges in Yellow at 9:15 am.  Short down-hill drive to the Grand Tetons.  In fact, Vinny AKA Vin Diesel, my truck set a new record of 16.4 MPG!  The trip was 110 miles.  Got to Colter Bay RV at 11, and they wouldn’t let anybody in until noon.  We were forced to go to the visitor center to get our national park stamp.  Hit the gift shop and bought myself a nice hoodie and hat.  After we got the camper all settled, StarLink took a while, and I don’t have a great signal due to trees.  Sharon decided to take a nap, while I went scouting to get a lay of the land and hopefully find a Bull Moose!

BOOM!  The big four has been completed! (Bison, Elk, Grizzly, Moose). I also have 2 bonuses of Big Horn Ram and Mountain Goat.

Yeah, Full frame bull moose on night one, that takes some pressure off. 

When I hiked out to where the other 3 photographers were I still had the 2X Teleconverter on my 600mm.  I raised the lens and then Dang it, way to much glass.  All I could get was hit rack.  I then did something I have never done before, I opened the camera body and lens and removed the TC in the field.  Yikes!

Then the lady standing next to me, a local, said finally a full bull moose with the Tetons behind him.  DANG it again.  Had to hike back to the truck to grab the other body with my 100-500 to get that shot.  By the time I hiked back out there, he had laid down.  Can you find him? 

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Life is good and I am blessed!

Kent

Day 8: (Tuesday 9/16/25)

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Day 8: (Tuesday 9/16/25), First full day in Yellowstone.  Got up at 5:00 AM and was out the door by 5:20. I had a tip for a grizzly on an Elk carcass.  About 6 other photographers already there when I arrived.  Had to wait for usable light, The grizzly had covered the carcass with grass.  They said it was to keep the ravens away.  The bear slept on the carcass for the first hour.  Finally, she got up, yawned a couple times and then uncovered part of it, and started eating.  So, I took off for Hayden and Larmar valleys to see what I could find.

6 grizzlies, only took photos of 5.  Never found a blonde one they were all darker than I expected.
1 black bear
3 adult wolves
5-6 wolf pups

The wolves where I expected to find them.  In Lamar valley near Slough Creek and were part of the Junction Butte Pack. What I didn’t expect was the 1.25 mile out.  I was allowed to see them through a spotting scope.  Even at 1200mm, no usable photos 🙁

Ran back the camper and had a nice lunch with Sharon.  Then we headed out to do Old Faithful and Prismatic Springs. Due to traffic, we got to Old Faithful late and missed her, so hopefully tomorrow.  Prismatic Springs had way more stream / smoke than I expected.  I am guessing it was because it was 34 in the morning and around 50 when we were there. 

A black wolf at 1.25 miles taken at 1200mm.   Clearly I need bigger glass.

Grand Prismatic Spring

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Life is good and I am blessed!

Kent

Day 7: (Monday 9/15/25)

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Day 7: (Monday 9/15/25), today was a long travel day.  We went from Custer SD, to Yellowstone National Park.  Truck did better than I expected going up and over the mountain.  We climbed to 9300 feet.  We are all settled in and setup.  We saw herds of prong horns on the drive.  Killed me to pass up 2 different bear jams.  I did stop and take 1 Elk photo out the driver window with the 100-500mm.

Tomorrow, I am getting up and leaving at 5:00 to find wolves and grizzlies!  Wish me luck!

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Life is good and I am blessed!

Day 6: (Sunday 9/14/25)

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Day 6: (Sunday 9/14/25), Since we got so much accomplished the last three days, we decided it was time for a down day, slept in with no alarms.  We even did a load of laundry during coffee, breakfast, and shower time.   The only major attraction left on the list for this location was Crazy Horse Monument. The weather that was supposed to hit yesterday started blowing in this morning.  Crazy Horse is best photographed in the afternoon light.  Since the sky was dark and rain was coming, we decided to see if we could knock it out before football started.  Crazy Horse was interesting, kind of over-priced to me.  $15 per person to enter.  $125 per person if you want to take the bus to the top and walk around on his arm, to be square with his face.  We skipped that part 🙂

Tomorrow will be a long travel day from Custer SD, to Fishing Bridges RV Park inside Yellowstone, WY.

The storm skies kind of added to the photo, something a little different.

Crazy Horse’s Head, shot through the plaster model.  The model is on train tracks and gets rolled inside every night of if there is rain.  I had to really sweet talk the two security maintenance guys to roll it out.  They would only bring it out about 2/3’s of the way, but better than stuck in the barn.

Obligatory Black Hills mountain range landscape.  

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Life is good and I am blessed!

Day 5: (Saturday 9/13/25)

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Day 5: (Saturday 9/13/25), Badlands, Rapid City, and Spearfish Canyon.

The forecast was rain so decided best use of time was to do the 2-hour trip over to the Badlands National Park.  Weather ended up perfect all day.  I knew it was going a long day, so we took the dogs.  They did great!  I really enjoyed the drive over and the Badlands were very interesting.  Saw and photographed more big Bison bulls, Prong horns, and tons of Prairie Dogs.  Took the interstate back to Rapid City for a Wal-Mart run.  Then headed to Spearfish Canyon to try and find the white long haired Mountain Goats.  Mission accomplished.  Ran dogs back to camper around 6 pm, super quick bite to eat, and headed back up the mountain to observe the Mount Rushmore flag ceremony.  It was really well done.

Super long day!  Thirteen hours + 410 miles = Priceless memories!  

I am a wildlife photographer and help my son with people.  Not very good at landscapes, but working on trying to improve.

My first North American Mountain Goat and baby.  I am guessing this to be a female as both the males and females have antlers.

Even the little guys have the start of their antlers.

I love my Canon R5mk2 + Canon 600mm f4, but sometimes it is just too much lens.

I really liked this pose, but he was WAY up there.  This was shot at 840mm and a 50% crop.

Crazy Horse Mountain tomorrow morning and who knows what will end up on the agenda for the afternoon and evening.

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Life is good and I am blessed!

Kent