D&S Bighorn Sheep

I've been hoping to spot the bighorn sheep who live around the highline for months now, and the stars finally aligned recently so that I could photograph them in their element. They seemed as interested in me as I was in them, and though they were definitely skittish around the loud machinery, there were some cool moments where I was able to capture them together. I don't think anyone on the train noticed them (all the passengers were looking down at the river and the canyon), so next time you're riding, be sure to look up on the cliff side, too. You never know what you'll see!



I stumbled onto them early in the morning before the snow started falling. They were hanging out on the tracks until the speeder arrived and scared them up onto the rocks.



They slowly made their way higher and higher until they found a perch they liked overlooking the tracks.



I was hoping to shoot them here with train going by below, but they hightailed it just before the train arrived.



As the snow picked up, the worked their way to the rocky ledges by the cuts. At this point, I'd been hanging with them for a few hours, and as long as I moved calmly and slowly, they didn't seem to care about my presence in the slightest.



This last shot is actually comp of two frames a couple seconds apart. The sheep and the train each looked their best in slightly different poses, so I took a little creative liberty to flatter them all.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2021 09:17AM by anthonydamato.