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Nice going Geo - glamson. At the end of the day, great shots are great shots no matter where they are taken.

On the other hand, it is my personal opinion that when a "wild" animal is shot in a captive situation, or behind any kind of fence or containment, that information should be displayed on the shot, particularly if it's been worked over and framed. The standard is "wild unless noted, if its not wild note it." This is for the animals sake, not for credit to the photographer. Captive animals disply different characteristics and in some cases very different physical traits. As photographers we dont want to mislead anyone with a captive shot into thinking that it's a wild specimen, in many cases they are different, even when they are the same species. . . This is about the animal, not the photographer.

I'm taking nothing away from your shots they are great. I'm also sure that shooting the big rams in glacier, no matter what anyone says, is not easy. Sure, during the summer you can walk right up to most of them that you find on logan pass, that is if youre not breaking area closure rules which many people do, but who whats a summer ram shot? Try to get those big old rams during the rut, when they are fully furred up and acting like aggressive sheep, bet you wont even find one. . . I've been chasing the glacier sheep for many years, still have yet to get any great, late season rut shots or even sell one shot of a big glacier ram . . . Access is the key and durring those times when sheep are photographable, you cant get to them. . .

This is an issues that i've always wanted to write about. Most people dont realize that there really are specific times a year to get great shots. for most wild animals you have only a few peak weeks. So, you have to plan for those periods and find the subjects or you are buggard for the year! A summer trip to glacier wont get you a single image of a rutty ram with full hair. You can get a pile of sheep grazing open pastures, or sheep sleeping, or sheep sleeping or really rough, shed out sheep that while fun to photograph, have very limited use/appeal.

Again, I'm talking wild animals her, not captives. The Sheep in glacier are free to leave and often do. In fact they move around in and out of hunted areas. . .

Keep up the great shooting no matter where it's at, it's all about the enjoyment of capturing great images. . . .



Tony,

I knew that crack about "tame" sheep at Glacier would get a response from you. And you are entirely correct, my experiences at glacier have been in the summer when the sheep are pretty docile. I have always envied you guys that live near the great parks for your accessibility to these great animals at all times of the year. And I also admire the effort that it takes to go out and get the shots under all types of conditions. I have spent plenty of hours bushwacking for a shot and can only marvel at how you guys do it in sub zero weather.

I agree about the captive vs wild differences in animal behavior. While animals in captivity do often exhibit behaviors similar to in the wild, the psyche is different. There is nothing like shooting a wild animal in its wild habitat. I spend alot of time out at the Animal Park, but it is mostly to shoot the wild birds that hang out there. The only captive animal shots I usually take are close ups like thesee that show off the animal and frankly I couldn't get any other way. I knew when I posted this shot that those that know how hard it would be to get such a shot in the wild would figure it must be zoo shot. I expected someone would ask where it was and I would have to fess up that it was a captive shot. I would never try to pass off a captive shot as a wild shot and maybe I should have said so up front. I'm not sure how I would indicate that this was a captive shot in a framed photo? Anyway, these are great animals and I hope these shots convey some of their beauty.

As always, thanks for the feedback.

Geo

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