These are from our second morning at the Triple D game farm.  We had a second chance to photograph the mountain lion, this time on top of a nearby mountain.  I ended up with much better photos from this session, including the fourth one above, which is my overall favorite.

Next up: the snow leopard.

I started posting some of my pictures from my trip to San Francisco/Yosemite in December on Flickr.  I probably won’t be adding them all to this blog unless there is something particularly interesting about them so keep an eye on my Flickr stream if you want to see them.  I’ll continue with the Triple D images shortly.  I haven’t even got to the really good ones yet.

Not really the type of shots I was going for at the game farm, but kind of fun nonetheless.  I love the second one.

The porcupine was the easiest animal to photograph at the game farm.  They gave him some food and he just sat in one spot an ate.  Occasionally, they would move his food to another spot on the log so we could get pictures in different locations.  But, you basically had all the time in the world to refine your focus and composition.  These are my three best shots of the porcupine with the first being my favorite.

The third animal we had the opportunity to photograph was a young Canada Lynx.  It almost looks like your typical kitten until you look at those big paws.  The kitten was pretty nervous with 18 photographers surrounding it in a semi-circle.   It kept hiding in the log, which was partially hollow, or ducking beneath it to escape out the backside.  We had a couple breaks in the shoot while the trainer chased it down in the long grass behind the log. 

By this time in the shoot, I had settled down a bit and was selecting my shots rather than just firing away constantly.  I did a pretty good job of waiting until the kitten was looking my way or in a direction that was appropriate for the shot.  I also did a better job of watching the ears.  Our instructor, David Middleton, kept stressing that it was important for the ears to be pointing forward when photographing the cats if you want the images to be marketable.

Next up: a porcupine.

The second animal we photographed at Triple D was a mountain lion.  Unfortunately, the sun was getting high in the sky by this time and the light wasn’t very good at the location where we were shooting.  It was starting to get warm too, so the lion wasn’t too interested in posing for the cameras.  She pretty much just wanted to lay in the shade.  I didn’t get very many good shots from this portion of the shoot.  I like the first one because it looks like she’s being bashful, even though she’s really just cleaning her face like cats often do.  On the second one, I was happy to be in spot that allowed me to get her eye framed by the blades of grass when she laid down to rest.  I really like this picture.

Next up is the baby lynx.  If you can’t handle cuteness, you might want to stay away. :)

I’m finally back from my holiday travels and settling in to my new home, Denver.  Postings from Triple D Game Farm will now continue. :)