Photographing Wildlife

Moose and calf along Bridger-Teton NF road 650 and Green River just north of Pinedale Wyoming.
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While camping at Many Glacier in Glacier NP, a couple of rangers brought out their powerful spotting scopes to view local fauna like this Ursus Arctos Horribilis and her cub at about two+ miles distant above and beyond the Many Glacier lodge. There were many photographers there with 2 & 3' long lenses who's pictures in focus of the bears were still just a tiny dot. These strong scopes that the rangers had gave great magnification and I was able to place my IPhone 6 lens into the view lens of the scope and by spreading my fingers on the screen and zooming in on the animals, I was able to get larger photos of the bear(s). I also got a very shaky video.
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Don't forget that you can rent lenses for special trips. For last year's big summer trip I was lucky enough to borrow a friend's Sigma 150-600 (c) for the hope of getting some fun wildlife shots. That lens retails for around $1000-1200, so as really long full-frame lenses it is really cheap, for my bank account it is really expensive. I have a nice monopod, so I was set.

As for where to photograph wildlife, the website is neat, but really it is possible to shoot literally in your own backyard. Use "cheap" time (that doesn't cost anything for a trip) at home to practice the skills of fast focusing and framing. I always use back button focus on my cameras, but if you don't you should for wildlife. I prefer single point AF, but for shooting animals I use an AF zone or point cluster with continuous servo selected for the AF motor. Both of these photos were taken in or near The Grand Teton National Park.
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