I guess I’ve had a run of good cat luck lately. This encounter was quite meaningful, as it ended a string of bad luck with Yellowstone bobcats that stretched well over a decade for me.
Bobcats are a rare sight in the park, but there have been years when folks would see them in the interior during winter trips. Yet I could never time my visits and tours right, always getting in there a week early or a week late. I had seen a few Yellowstone bobcats over the years, but never in the interior, and I never got a single decent photo of one.
So you can imagine the anticipation (and perhaps a bit of stress), when a report came in of a bobcat that was found on a deer carcass. The deer had plummeted 200 feet off a high cliff. Was the bobcat responsible? Nobody knew, but it was taking advantage of its prize. This happened a week before the onset of my first winter tour, so it was really just a question of whether the food would last long enough to keep the cat around for us, or if a larger scavenger might show up and scare the cat off.
Anyway, there’s more to the story, but the bottom line was that the cat was there, and we did manage to get photos! During this first encounter, snow was falling heavily early in the morning, making for dark and difficult conditions for photography. But I was happy to walk away with some images. I liked this particular shot for its extreme vertical feel and that paw reaching through the thick snow… something a little different from most of the “sitting cat” shots folks were getting from this sighting.
Canon R3
Canon 600mm + 1.4x
ISO 1250
1/800th
f/5.6
Max
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
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Very cool image, Max. And the eye contact is thrilling. I feel like he or she is stalking me. A little spooky. Perfect image, composition, and processing.
Wow Max, this is incredible. Like David said I feel like I’m being stalked by this cat. I would be thrilled to get this shot too. Thanks for sharing this one!!!
A great shot, Max, especially the composition. I’m curious if you were above the cat looking down, or below it with the cat descending a slope. I suspect the latter, and that’s the great impression my eyes get anyway.
I’m curious if you were above the cat looking down, or below it with the cat descending a slope.
In this case, a little ways below the cat’s position.
It was actually an amazing scenario for both the cat and park visitors. The deer carcass fell onto a snowy bank on the opposite side of the river from the road, which meant there was no way for people to get too close, but there was also no obstruction for viewing. So the cat was able to guard and feast on the carcass without being stressed, while onlookers got a great show. And due to the fact that this all happened in a narrow canyon, it was well away from the normal routes for larger scavengers (namely, coyotes) that could have pushed the cat off the carcass.
Here, you can see the layout of the scene. The deer carcass is poking out of the snow at bottom, and the cat—quite small in the frame—is resting at the base of the cliff in the upper right. This is how we found it on this morning (after someone had told us that it was gone… good thing we tried anyway).
What a great story, Max. I wouldn’t be that surprised if it had “encouraged” the deer over the precipice. The second shot really shows the scale of the scene. A lucky day like this makes up for all the waiting.
Very nice comp and falling snow adds a lot to the story behind this bobcat. The vertical composition provides viewers with the physical characteristics of the environment and the extended paw is in the perfect spot in the frame. Awesome with no nits from me…Jim
There was a lot of debate about that. Folks were analyzing the depressions in the snow thinking maybe the cat went over with it (“here’s where the deer landed, and this must be where the cat landed…”), while others who were among the first to see it were analyzing the footprints, or lack thereof, to decide whether the cat was indeed responsible or was just walking along and got the luckiest find of its life. It was a good way to spend the time during lulls in activity, at least.
It is always great, when you run into good cat luck !
A stunning frame, great subject, eye contact and body language !
I really liked how you placed the cat in frame !
Super cool, you get a cat being a cat! My favorite kind of image. And it being in the snow is so great because you don’t see that very often. Well done!
A little spooky. Perfect image, composition, and processing.
