Herd of caribou in Denali National Park, Alaska. Canon 5D Mark III, 200-400mm f/4 L (400mm), 1/3200 sec @ f.6.3, ISO 500
I took this photo of a caribou herd in Denali National Park a few weeks ago. The caribou herds are larger than in many previous years, so it was an opportunity to visually portray the herd or migration aspect of these animals. The herd size is nothing like that of the caribou in northern Alaska, as there are some 2000 caribou in the Park, as opposed to hundreds of thousands in some of the Arctic herds.
As the basics of photography tell us, it is all about the light, and on this morning, I spotted a herd of caribou along a hillside with the light and contrast working well together. It was pretty much a grab shot with my 200-400mm, which explains the rather excessive shutter speed and ISO. Normally I would reduce the ISO in this case, although the quality of the file is fine at ISO 500. The better shot was about a minute before I could get set up, as the caribou were more silhouetted along the ridge against the sky.
