The Story Behind the Image; Cow Bison and her Newborn Calves

Bison and Two Newborn Calves; Custer State Park, South Dakota (click to enlarge)

On my recent road trip across country, we stayed in the area of Custer, South Dakota for a couple of days. Just south of Custer is Custer State Park, a marvelous place to visit, linger a while and photograph.  I had been there about 18 months before and I knew I wanted to go back.  The problem is that, either time, I just didn't get to stay as long as I wanted.  But, that is the way it sometimes goes.

Last time I was in Custer State Park, it was October 2012.  The cottonwood trees appeared as though they were lit up with bright yellow back light.  The meadows were golden and the skies were a deep blue.  I saw herds of bison, wild horses, turkeys, prairie dogs, pronghorns, hawks and other wildlife.  The day was a nice mid-70s comfortable one.

Custer State Park during previous visit in October 2012 (click to enlarge)

This time my visit was in mid-May.  Much different time of the year.  The meadows were a deep green and lush.  The trees just leafed out.

As we drove through the park, we rounded a bend only to see bison everywhere.  To my surprise, there many were young calves everywhere. They numbered in the tens, much more than only a few as one might normally encounter.  Immediately I knew there would be many photo opportunities with the mother and baby bison in such numbers.

The problem, however, was that there were several cow bison standing in the roadway, with a calf standing right on the double yellow line looking right at our vehicle!  I was stopped and didn't dare proceed forward for fear of the mother feeling I was threatening her baby.  All I would need is a 1500 lb. bison ramming my van!  I'll pass on that.  What to do?  The only thing a photography could do.  I rolled both front windows down, sat in the driver's seat and made some images of calves and calves with their mothers, all the time keeping an eye out for any bison moving toward the vehicle.  I really couldn't get a feeling if they were or were not disturbed.

After several minutes, the calf in the middle of the road moved over to my lane.  I then slowly proceeded across the yellow line and into the opposite lane to go around the calf, all the time driving very slowly and watching intently.  As we drove among the bison, I would stop and make more images.  They seemed okay with us.  Maybe they are so used to people that, even with newborns, they didn't feel threatened.  But, I suspect that would have been different if any of us would have gotten out of the van and started photographing.  The last time I was visited the park, there were no calves to be seen.  Most of these still had part of the umbilical cord attached, so they were relatively newborns.  I left feeling as though I made some good images of something I may never see again.

Later that evening, at the hotel, I imported the images into Lightroom.  Looking at them, I saw some nice compositions.  But I also saw many images that were just not in sharp focus.  The focus was "just missed."  Very close, but not tack sharp, as we like to say.  What?  What happened?  As I said in a previous post, it was operator error.  Sitting in a van, seatbelted in, twisting my body to the left and right, forward and stretching up to shoot across the passenger and through the window at bison many yards away, some as far as a hundred, turned out not to be the best idea.  I think I would have simply unbuckled my seatbelt, that would have made a difference.  Lesson learned.

Looking back at the metadata, I saw that I was shooting at ISO 100 and f/7.1.  Shutter speeds varied from 1/100th to 1/125th of a second with most images taken at 280mm equivalent.  Even with IBIS on, my technique was not as it should be.  My fault.  But could I save the images?

I worked on several of the images in Lightroom but was never really satisfied.  I "just missed" the focus (I have my camera set on release priority so it will fire even if the image is not in focus, which I have now changed) and they were not sharp.  They looked okay at a small size, but would never be good for anything other than a small image on the computer.  I then exported the image at the top of this post, one of my favorites, into Photoshop CC and then into the Topaz Detail 3 plug-in.  Using Topaz Detail 3, I tried several of the presets and used one that looked the best.  I then used the panel of sliders on the right side of the screen to fine tune the image.  I was pleased that the plug-in really helped increase the appearance of sharpness.  I often use Topaz products and would highly recommend them.  There are a variety and, several years ago, I bought the entire bundle.  No regrets as they have often added value to my images.  Their homepage can be found here.

So, what lesson learned?  Forget about emotion and excitement and keep a cool head.  Practice good technique but stay safe.

Thanks for looking.

Dennis Mook

Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com.  Please pay it a visit.  I add new images regularly.  Thank you.


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