![\"Jeep-8047\"](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Jeep-8047.jpg\" "\\"Jeep-8047\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nLast Friday morning as we left Bridger Bay Campground we noticed that this\u00a0guy in a Jeep had decided to go for a cross-country joy ride across the prairie grasses to get a closer look at a couple of bison, despite the fact that they’re nearly always easy to find right next to the road.\u00a0 In the foreground you can see the flattened grass in his tracks\u00a0where he left the road.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The previous photo was taken\u00a0at a longer focal length.\u00a0 In this image taken at a more “normal” focal length you can see that he drove off-road\u00a0quite a distance to get to this vantage point for the bison.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n When we saw him out there we pulled off to the side of the road with our jaws dropped at his brazen behavior.\u00a0 Within seconds we saw a State Parks truck approaching from the east and it turned out to be a law enforcement officer.\u00a0 As he got close I pointed and gestured toward the Jeep (perhaps he had already seen it).\u00a0 As the officer left the road to confront the driver he asked us through his open\u00a0window “what’s he doing out there?”\u00a0 When we responded that he was apparently watching\/photographing bison I could tell by his response that he was incredulous at what he was seeing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The officer confronted the driver…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n and apparently told him to turn around, go back to the road and wait for him.\u00a0 Which he did.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We left the area,\u00a0traveling\u00a0toward the north end of the island.\u00a0 Seven minutes later from far away at the top of the hill near the visitors center I happened to look back and see that the officer and Jeep driver were still having a nice little “visit”.\u00a0 I\u00a0presume that a citation was issued.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I don’t believe that such flaunting of island regulations can reasonably be claimed to have been done out of ignorance.\u00a0 This sign is placed next to the road a very short distance from the entrance to the island.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And this sign is within a couple of hundred yards of where the Jeep driver left the road.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just before you begin to head south on the road leading to Fielding Garr\u00a0Ranch you pass through the gate of a large fence with a very conspicuous sign saying that visitors are to stay on either roads or trails on that part of the island.\u00a0 This gentleman apparently felt that such a regulation should not apply to him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n He left his vehicle and the road to approach and photograph a couple of bison that were just out of frame to the left in this photograph.\u00a0 He is not on a trail – the only trail in the area can be seen at the top of the image.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n These are the bison he was photographing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As we pulled away (again in awe at the impertinent\u00a0behavior of some folks) another\u00a0State Parks truck came along and stopped next to the photographer’s vehicle.\u00a0 I don’t know if this was an\u00a0enforcement officer or simply a park employee but the pickup stayed there for quite a while and I assume that he\/she waited until the photographer returned and that the photographer received a well deserved lecture on park regulations.<\/p>\n I must admit that I have a difficult time\u00a0not taking these kinds of behaviors from other photographers personally because it reflects badly on all\u00a0serious photographers.\u00a0 I’d hate to see park authorities have to tighten the screws on photographers in general because of the boorish and\u00a0unethical behavior of a few bad apples.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n However not all incidents on the island involving boorish and unethical behavior are terrestrial.\u00a0 Last November Mia and I were\u00a0driving on the road just east of Bridger Bay Campground (in almost the same spot as in the first incident I’ve reported here) when we spotted a couple of planes coming our way at a ridiculously low elevation.\u00a0 As soon as they spotted my pickup (there were no other vehicles in sight early that morning and the campground was empty)\u00a0they came even lower and deliberately buzzed us.\u00a0 At the time I estimated their elevation at significantly less than 200′.\u00a0\u00a0These two planes are souped-up home-made sports jobs (Lancairs)\u00a0and the noise was deafening.\u00a0 The best analogy I can come up with to explain how loud they were was to imagine\u00a0you’re traveling on the freeway with your windows down\u00a0and two bullet bikes or Harleys\u00a0with no mufflers start to pass you and gun their engines as they’re doing so.<\/p>\n This incident was\u00a0seriously\u00a0frightening because they were so low, so\u00a0loud and they were traveling so fast.\u00a0 As they passed over us and headed toward Bridger Bay we hopped out of my pickup and started taking photos.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is the second plane.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As we watched we couldn’t believe what we were seeing as both planes banked sharply over Bridger Bay then came back and buzzed us again at an even\u00a0lower elevation than their first pass. \u00a0But this time as they approached us both pilots could obviously see our big lenses pointed their way and after they passed over us they skedaddled quickly.<\/p>\n I can only imagine the effect this must have had on the bison and pronghorn that are virtually always present in that bowl of land between the campground and visitor center – not to mention all the birds and possibly coyotes that may have been in the area.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Then in late January of this year we got another rude surprise from the sky.\u00a0 We had just left the island and were traveling east on the causeway just past the “second bridge” when we spotted this plane coming at us.\u00a0 It was following the causeway at an extremely low elevation and very, very close to the road.\u00a0 I’ll try to show you just how close and how low.<\/p>\n In the above photo the darker horizontal line\u00a0in the background and marked by the red arrow is the causeway and road as it makes a big looping turn toward the mainland.\u00a0 \u00a0I’m taking the photo from the causeway road.\u00a0 As you can see the landing gear of the plane is significantly below\u00a0a straight line from my camera to the causeway in the background.\u00a0 Yesterday I\u00a0estimated the height of the causeway road above the water in that area to be roughly 12 feet.\u00a0 So the belly of the plane is approximately 12 feet above the water and ice\u00a0here and the wheels about 9 feet.<\/p>\n I’d estimate that as this plane passed by us the right wing tip was roughly 100 feet from my pickup and\u00a0about 50 feet from the causeway edge.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I took this photo yesterday at approximately the same spot (within 25 yards or so) of where we were parked on the causeway when this incident took place.\u00a0 I used a lens with much more depth of field so you can more clearly see the looping causeway road in the background.\u00a0 The red graphic marks my estimated position of the plane when I took the photo.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n After the plane passed us it stayed at a very low elevation as it passed the second bridge.\u00a0\u00a0There was no ice near the bridge and that area had lots of waterfowl that were frightened into the air by the very low plane.\u00a0 Here the pilot has already gained significant altitude in order to clear the island.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Another photo from yesterday with more depth of field to show the position of the plane (marked in red) when the previous shot was taken.\u00a0 From here the pilot veered to the right and passed over the first hill just to the right of the visitor center.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’ll end this long post with a couple of related incidents that I’ve reported on before.\u00a0 In March of last year we were camping at Bridger Bay Campground photographing nesting magpies when two cars loaded with adults and children pulled into one of the empty campsites to photograph some nearby bison.\u00a0 Most of those folks stayed in the protected and relatively safe confines of the campsite but this lady decided\u00a0she wanted\u00a0some close up shots\u00a0of one of the bison with her point and shoot.\u00a0\u00a0The first bison was turned at a poor angle for light (as you\u00a0 can see) so she walked by that animal within about 6 feet of it to get at the second bison which is just out of frame to the right.<\/p>\n This was simply a crazy thing to do.\u00a0 These huge creatures are unpredictable and incredibly fast for their size.\u00a0 If this bison had taken exception to her invading his space she would most certainly have been severely injured or even killed and the bison most likely would have been destroyed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Then a second lady from the same group, apparently inspired by her companions “bravery”, followed her friend and passed just as close to the same animal to get at the better photo op.\u00a0 At least this woman had the presence of mind to keep her\u00a0eye on the bison as she passed so close she could almost reach out\u00a0and touch\u00a0his rump.<\/p>\n I remember my heart pounding in fear as I watched this potential drama play out and I ran over to the men in their group at the campsite and quickly explained the potential danger the women were in but they didn’t really respond and seemed to dismiss my concerns as groundless.\u00a0\u00a0 In the end nothing happened and the ladies returned safely to their group.\u00a0 This time…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n