First person: A fox in winter

I’d been to Yellowstone National Park numerous times but never in winter. It wasn’t until a 2015 trip with the Yellowstone Park Foundation (now called Yellowstone Forever) that I visited the park when it was blanketed in snow. Never had I felt such peaceful solitude there. Seeing Old Faithful’s hot steam billow and rise to meet the cresting morning sun made me forgot the numbness of my hands and feet. 

I was in love. So much so that I conned eight of my friends to return with me the next year so we could have our own snow coach and take as much time as we wanted exploring the park.

The highlight of that 2016 trip was the foxes. We saw almost 20 of them. One in particular stood out. We spotted him about 500 feet in the distance as he hunted. Watching him pounce headlong into the snow was something I thought I’d only ever see on the National Geographic Channel.

The coach pulled over. As we got out, the fox looked up and walked toward us. Within a minute he was next to the road. We weren’t sure what to expect. He stopped, peed on a nearby tree, then trotted across the road.

I made my image “Year of the Fox,” during that encounter and was rewarded as a 2018 Grand Imaging Award finalist.

CAMERA & LENS: Nikon D610, AF-S Nikkor 300mm F2.8 ED VR II, Nikkon TC -14E II

EXPOSURE: 1/1000 second at f/7.1, ISO 800

LIGHTING: natural light

POST-CAPTURE: The image was imported with Lightroom, where minimal adjusts were made. It was then opened in Photoshop and Nik Collection where the bulk of processing happened. Final touchups were made in Photoshop.

Erica Lane Harvey operates Erica Lane Photography in Rapid City, South Dakota, and specializes in nature photography.