American Marten

I’m working my way through images from January and February trips to Yellowstone, where I was fortunate to lead a couple of tours. The February visit in particular was notable for its mustelid activity. We were able to photograph otter, long-tailed weasel, marten, and even found what we suspect are wolverine tracks.

The marten encounter was one of the highlights of the trip for my clients (who didn’t even know what one looked like). This is an animal that is pretty elusive in the park, and sightings are often fleeting. Up to this point, I’d had only one decent photo op with a Yellowstone marten. This was one of what I believe was a courting pair that spent a fair bit of time following each other up and down and through the trees.

Canon R5
Canon 600mm
ISO 800
1/1000th
f/8

Max

@maxwaughphoto
4 Likes

Let me start of by saying that I am SO JEALOUS. They only come to the far northern edge of Wisconsin and, like you say, are very secretive animals. This pose is wonderful. So full of life and a curiosity you can feel coming at you. Plus their cuteness quotient is off the charts. My issue is how bright the snow is…have you tried to take that down a bit? I like that you’ve placed the critter where you have - I can imagine it coming up through the branches on the left and then dashing back down. Terrific!

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Oh man… ditto the jealous comment. I’ve only managed to see one once, and it was for grand total of about 30 seconds. All my frames were OOF of it running and not towards me!

This is just wonderful. Love the snow on the branches to help set the scene.

Really great capture of a wonderful, elusive critter.

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What a terrific image, Max. I’ve never seen one and never expect to, but you took me to see one. Excellent surroundings with the branches and snow. Superb!

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A good reason for having wildlife refuges and National parks. I am impressed! Nice shot!

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Love the alert pose and the setting between branches and snow.
I happened to photograph Yellow throated Marten couple of times in India.
May prefer to burn the snow in front of Marten.

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Wow, Max, what a pose and what a shot. It makes it even more special hearing that they are very skittish and camera shy. Great shot. :+1: :+1:

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Beautiful capture of this great looking little guy!

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Thanks, everyone. I think I can tone down the whites just a bit, so that should improve the image. I appreciate y’all pointing that out.

Oh wow, Max! I love the eye contact or at least what appears to be. Such a cute animal. Love your description of the place! To just see the tracks of a Wolverine would be amazing! I’ve read about them and would love to be near one even if I didn’t see it!

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We have Yellow-throated Martens in Korea too - great climbers and very hard to get a photo. This is a beautiful shot. Did it knock off all that snow later?

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It did not, Mike. But we at least managed to get a few different poses during the encounter, including some shots with the pair of them together.

This is an excellent capture of an elusive animal, Max! I like the composition of the scene and the detail on the Marten. I do wish the snow wasn’t overexposed though as it has no texture (that would have added to the scene) and consequently is a little bit distracting.