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Nature
Wildlife
Travel
How I Got This Shot
This photo is from my first trip to Grand Teton National Park back in 2012. This incredible mountain range seemed to crop up out of nowhere, introduced only by a few obscuring hills before rolling into the Jackson Hole valley. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. Armed with a Nikon D90 and its 18-105mm standard kit lens, my first DSLR, we turned off the main road and headed toward an area of the park often referred to today as Mormon Row. It is an abandoned, but well-preserved, row of old farm structures built by Mormon settlers during the era of the Homestead Act (early 1900s).
It also happens to be an area popular with grazing bison who sometimes roam on the roads. As we drove the historic stretch, I rolled down the window in search of my subject. With the herd all around us, it wouldn’t have been safe to exit the car. Suddenly, I looked over my right shoulder and observed the lone bison in the photograph above. The angle on the Tetons was perfect and the bison was using an old, listing fence post to scrape off its winter coat. I twisted around in the car and aimed my D90 over my shoulder to get the shot. For me, the sepia tone reflects the iconic images of the rugged West. It remains to this day one of my favorites.
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