This past Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting a delightful couple from Australia, Stephen and Shaneen, guests who booked way back in last winter. We’d been corresponding so that they could be certain I understood what they wanted in a safari, and I sent almost endless links to Park information, photography, history, local hotels and eateries. You know, the normal back and forth that happens when you’re planning a bucket-list trip!
We messaged each other on Wednesday so I knew where to collect them, and what they wanted for lunch. Stephen replied, “We’ll eat about anything, we aren’t picky.” That’s always a good sign in the tour business!
Very early Thursday I arrived at their lodgings here in town. They were punctual, ready for the day ahead, and as they were seasoned travellers and photographers, their kit was pared back to the essentials. More good signs!
We headed out to the Lamar Valley and found herds of bison with calves and lots of pronghorn, but they were equally thrilled with our little Uinta Ground Squirrels, and easily made as many photographs of them as the flashy big animals. We continued through the Lamar looking for moose, grizzly bears, and wolves, surveying the damage from the flood in 2022, and out to Cooke City for coffee, conversation, and, of course, cinnamon rolls!
After that it was back through the Lamar to Tower Junction and over Dunraven Pass, stopping for some landscape photo opportunities. Then down through Hayden Valley to Fishing Bridge and Yellowstone Lake, then on to West Thumb where we found some really cooperative bull elk in velvet and walked the boardwalk through the geyser basin making photographs of hot springs and Yellowstone Lake with the Absarokas in the distance.
From there we swung up the west side of the park past the geyser basins (they’d stayed at Old Faithful Inn and had already explored most of them), had a picnic near the Gibbon River, stopped at Sheepeater Cliff hoping but failing to find Pikas, but fwe did find golden mantled ground squirrels and a marmot, which they were thrilled to see since they were from a totally different continent and had never seen any of our wildlife in person.
Stephen and Shaneen were a joy to spend the day with, were open to suggestions, asked questions, and were totally without drama. To top it all off, I got to see our wildlife through their eyes, and each new animal, even ground squirrels, was cause for celebration and worthy of stopping to make photographs.
That was a real gift. Usually our clients/guests are hoping to see wolves, bears, elk, bighorn sheep, pine martins, coyotes, etc. And there are folks who are bummed if they don’t see all of the above and more, even though they know that every day provides different opportunities. So it was very refreshing for me to be out with a couple who could actually see wonder in the most humble places. And it reminded me of something I preach to others, that something need not be uncommon to be beautiful or worthy of attention. It was a good lesson to receive.
These are just the highlights of our nearly 14 hours together, but you get the gist. It was a very good day for everyone.
Thank you, both! It was a pleasure to meet you and show you my Park!
Delighting Our Guests!
Our business isn’t built around volume, it’s built on providing excellence in bespoke photography experiences and helping our guests become better, more confident photographers. We don’t offer canned private yellowstone tours with set routes and schedules that never change. Our bespoke photo safaris and workshops are custom crafted experiences made one at a time for each and every guest and group.
The ultimate measure of our success is for all our guests to have a safe, fun, magical, Yellowstone experience, and that you leave us with great memories, and great photographs!
Yellowstone National Park’s Nature Page
Wildlife Portraits Photo Gallery
