Update: Gavin has released this piece as a 30in limited canvas original. More details here.

I’m not a wildlife photographer. At least not in the sense of crouching down in wet weeds for six hours, to get that view that shows the hair in their ears. Having wildlife in a landscape on the other hand. That’s something that gets me exited. This one’s from back in West Yellowstone. I had gone out at Sunrise on the morning of the 6th. I had stopped to watch some elk out in the plain along the road. The scene was neat, but not amazing.

As I was leaving, someone pulling in said they had seen a big bull the next pullout. Off I went and when I got there this gentlemen was wading the river. Very gracefully I might add. Elk are not rare in Yellowstone, but getting a mood like this with surreal mists rising from the water into the cool morning air. That’s something I wont see every day.

The problem about wildlife in landscapes is they don’t usually stay there. With no time to get out and setup a tripod, I was stumbling to capture the moment. I leaned across to the passenger window and worked fast. Just as he emerged from the water, he looks up river for just a moment and I took it. There’s one frame of this pose, but it worked and I love it.

For photographers. How it was made…