One of the major attractions of visiting national parks out west is the possibility of seeing wildlife in their natural environment. Since I am not a wildlife photographer, my main reason for visiting the parks are the landscapes. Good wildlife photography requires very large, expensive and heavy lenses along with a lot of practice and expertise in shooting wildlife that is usually far away and moving pretty fast.
That is not to say I won't try to take shots of wildlife when I encounter them, but rather, will do so if the opportunity arises. Usually, I am disappointed when I do as my lenses are not long enough or my skills in capturing fast moving subjects are not up to par.
Once in a while, I get lucky when an animal is pretty close and not moving at all. Such was the case when I captured this bull moose in Grand Teton National Park this past July. The leader of our group, Jeff Clow, noticed a bunched of cars parked along the road. Usually when you spot a group of parked cars in a national park, it usually means wildlife is in the area. True to form, the moose was feeding alongside the creek. The group of us were situated above it on the opposite shore. It was my first exposure to a bull moose and I must say, it is quite the large and magnificent animal.