Stomp’n Grounds

Well its about time!  I have been having a real struggle finding anything to take a picture of over the last month or so.  It hasn’t been helping that it rains every Saturday, and that I am so sick of washing my truck that I refuse to drive in the mud, even one more time!  This is the time of year I am in mourning anyway, as the deer are dropping their antlers marking the end of another mule deer photographing season.  Boy, were it not for bighorn sheep my outlook on life would currently be pretty bleak, as far as photographing is concerned. Combine all these factors and you can imagine how excited I was to see these sheep come walking over the hill straight towards me as I sat in my truck waiting for a rain squall to pass over.

There I sat, trapped in the truck by a torrential downpour, occasionally clicking the windshield wipers on as if there was something to see.  Just after one of these random clicks of the wipers, to my surprise, I noticed a ewe standing on the hill directly in front of me.  It was as if she fell from the sky with the drizzling rain.  Excitedly I watched her and waited, hoping more sheep would follow her over the small hill.  It wasn’t 10 minutes later and a few more ewes and a small ram fed over the hill right towards me and my truck.  It was at this point that I decided I needed to sneak out of the truck and get the camera set up just in case a nice ram were to pop over.  Looking at the sheep through the scope, which was positioned under a towel to try and keep it dry, I made a mental note of how cool their coats looked as they were all matted with the soaking rain.  I thought about how unique the photos would be if a soaking wet ram were to join them, as they fed in the continuing drizzle.  I only had to sit protecting my camera and scope from the rain for about 3 minutes when this ram crested the hill.  I was thrilled not because of the great photo op, or the size of the ram although these things were very exciting, I was thrilled to see my old buddy had made it through all the hunts for yet another year.  I have seen this ram several times before and he has eluded me on every occasion.  I have not seen him in about 4 months so I was excited to see him again.  He is hanging out in a very strange place, a location where I have never seen sheep before.  He has also had a rough time of it as he has really broomed his horns back since the last time I saw him.  He is still a great looking ram and I love how the photos turned out.  It was also nice to finally get back on the board with some photos!

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