"Three Little Bears" Learning to recognize sounds is a big part of growing up as a bear cub. When these black bear cubs hear something they don't recognize, they run together and look at mom. Based on her reaction, the cubs learn the appropriate response and file that information to memory.

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Wild & Free Montana

I like to photograph animals behaving naturally. Animal behavior is fascinating, often curious, and sometimes funny.

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JohnAshleyFineArt > "Autumn Moose"

A bull moose turns the golden leave of fall into an evening meal, in Glacier National Park.

JohnAshleyFineArt > "Three Little Bears"

Learning to recognize sounds is a big part of growing up as a bear cub. When these black bear cubs hear something they don't recognize, they run together and look at mom. Based on her reaction, the cubs learn the appropriate response and file that information to memory.

JohnAshleyFineArt > "Bighorn Brotherhood."

A younger bighorn ram rubs his forehead against the horns of the elder patriarch, in a friendly gesture of subordination.

Behind the lens.

This was spring time, and the rams weren't bashing heads together like they do during the fall rut. But they still pushed each other around and rubbed their heads together in a way that, to me, looked more like friendly play.

JohnAshleyFineArt > "Fall Elk"

Fall is when the mature bull elk expend almost all of the energy built up over summer. While the trees are golden, the bull elk spend almost all of their time following females and fighting other males, with a handfull of winners breeding and the rest waiting for another fall.

JohnAshleyFineArt > "Mother's Watchful Eye."

"Buffalo Girl" keeps a loving watch over her four-month-old foal, "Kitalpha." They are among the free-ranging horses at the Pryor Mtn. Wild Horse Range, in southeastern Montana. (Note cards available here.)

To learn more about Montana's wild mustangs, visit the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center.

JohnAshleyFineArt > "Rising Trout" (close up).

A westslope cutthroat trout briefly rises above the surface while jostling for position in a shallow spawning stream in western Montana.

Behind the lens.

While photographing this spawn, I noticed that the fish tend to push each other around to get the best pools, and again after they've paired off. So I watched and I waited, focusing over the most active individuals.

With time and patience -- and a little luck -- I finally captured the full-face, out-of-the-water portrait that I had pre-visualized. If you look closely below this fish, you can see the black spots of the other fish involved in this tussell.

Because I was working in dappled sunlight and shade, I used a strong fill flash to really bring out the bright colors of the spawning fish.

JohnAshleyFineArt > "Elk Mist."

A bull elk feeds peacefully in a misty meadow on a brisk, fall morning. (Note cards available here.)

Behind the lens.

Most professional photographers only look for the biggest horns or antlers, ignoring everything else. I tend to see animals in terms of ecology and behavior, and my images tend to reflect this different view.

So my bull elk image is as much a peaceful landscape as it is a wildlife photograph. As the first light of day creeps across the meadow, lighting up the steam from a creek, this elk just moves along slowly and chews contentedly.

JohnAshleyFineArt > "Mother Daughter."

A young mare, "Halo," nuzzles her very first foal, "Kaelia," at the Pryor Mtn. Wild Horse Range, in southeastern Montana. Both are free-ranging, wild horses.

To learn more about Montana's wild mustangs, visit the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center.

JohnAshleyFineArt > "Up a Creek."

A male arctic grayling swims upstream through the riffles of a small, western Montana spawing stream.

Behind the lens.

Male Arctic Grayling have large dorsal fins with irridescent blue spots and red trim, while the females' dorsal fins are about half as big and less colorful. I noticed that, as they swam upstream, they would sometimes come partially out of the water when moving through shallow riffles. So I hunkered down and watched and waited.

Every now and then a fin would appear, but the eye of the fish would almost always be distorted by the waves. Trust me, an oblong fish eye looks really wierd. After several arm-cramping hours of following fish through the riffles with my lens, this male finally made the image come alive. He's holding his dorsal fin high, and his eye actually looks like an eye. That's more than I could ask for from a preoccupied fish.

JohnAshleyFineArt > "Crayfish Reflections."

A Montana crayfish is reflected in the surface of a shallow lake. (I think the world needs more crayfish photos!)

JohnAshleyFineArt > "Moose Munchies."

A hungry moose turns an aspen sapling into a quick snack.

Behind the lens.

After photographing stars overnight, we wandered into Glacier Park's Many Glacier valley to watch the sunrise. No one else was up yet, except for this moose. She watched us watch her as she browsed her way through a patch of aspen saplings.

This is a good example of rim lighting, with low-angle light coming in from behind. I like this kind of lighting so much that I seldom even attempt photographs in straight-up daylight. The first and last hours of the day are almost always the best for photography.

JohnAshleyFineArt > "Billy the Kid."

A mountain goat mother listens attentively to her kid while the pair climbs down the mountainside on a crisp, fall day in Glacier National Park.

Behind the lens.

Mountain goats can be pretty tame during the summers in the park. Just about every visitor takes pictures of them up at Oberlin Bend and Logan Pass. Unfortunately, summer is when they shed their thick, beautiful coats, making the goats look pretty bad. Not their best side at all.

But if you climb around in late fall, just before the snows close off access, you just might find fluffy, white goats that are set for winter in their new coats -- like this nanny and her kid.

JohnAshleyFineArt > "The Boys in the Choir."

Wild arctic grayling work their way upstream, into the spring current of a small, unnamed spawning stream in western Montana. (Note cards available here.)

Behind the lens.

As our neighbor says, Montana is 10 months of winter followed by 2 months of bad sledding. But the poor sledding is more than made up for by the amazing wild lands and wildlife that surround us.

Take the rare Arctic Grayling, for example. In our neighborhood, there is a tiny trickle of water that swells up in the spring melt-off to become a bonifide creek (or "crik," depending on where you grew up). Part of the rhythm of our lives here is the return of the Grayling each spring to spawn in this unnamed creek. Tracy and I have more or less adopted this little natural wonder, and we get to help when the state biologists come here to collect Grayling eggs to raise and transplant into other lakes and rivers.

To provide a sense of the wildness in this photograph, I positioned the camera lens to be partially above water and partially below water, so that you get a feel for the underwater and streamside habitats that the fish need. I used a remote camera with a long "extension cord," and then sat back among the trees and waited for the Boys (and Girls) to arrive...

"Three Little Bears"

Learning to recognize sounds is a big part of growing up as a bear cub. When these black bear cubs hear something they don't recognize, they run together and look at mom. Based on her reaction, the cubs learn the appropriate response and file that information to memory.

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Keywords: montana glacier national park black bear bear cubs john ashley

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