September is prime time for pronghorn photography in Wyoming. I’m very fortunate to live near some great locations to photograph them. Wyoming has the highest population of pronghorn in North America. In fact we have more of them than we do people. Pronghorn are unique to North America and have no close relatives. Pronghorn are the 2nd fastest animal on earth, only the african cheetah is faster, and they can reach speeds of 60 mph.
I like to set up my Kirk window mount and mount my EF 800mm F5.6L and drive county and BLM roads searching for the herds of pronghorn. With the rut in full swing the bucks have focused they’re attention on the does and are quite animated as they chase does and fend off rival males. I’m usually able to approach closely as long as I stay in my car.
This fine buck was far more interested in a rival buck approaching his doe than he was of me, and approached to nearly my minimum focus distance allowing me this excellent portrait. The 800mm lens gave me a great smooth background.
This great buck is of trophy size. The smokey skies that have been with us all summer from wildfires burning all over the west gave me extended time to photograph in the morning giving me nice subdued light.
These two bucks were photographed this morning. The smoke was not to thick this morning giving me some great early light to work with. On Saturday I’m off to Alaska for my “Monster Moose” tour. I’ll try to blog from Alaska if possible
