The assignment was to provide an Image of a ‘critter’. Well, most critters are hibernating underground or resting deep in the woods recovering from the end of hunting season. So as I thought about it, for some unknown reason I came up with a the idea of a Buffalo. It’s a critter ! So I did a quick google search which located the GEM Buffalo Farm in Castleton, NY, which lucky me, was only 2o minutes away.
Whenever I hear the word ‘critter’ it means big glass. At least a 70-200mm, but if you are serious, you have to have something like the Nikon 200-400 f/4 VRII and then add a tele-convertor like the TC-17e. This all mounts on the D3s and you will need to push your ISO because the TC eats a stop and half of light. So putting this all together, you starting out at F/6.5 at ISO 1000 just to get a shutter of 1/60 sec. The specs for the 200-400mm indicate that you are at the AF edge of the D3s with the TC on, so expecting the lens to AF with 100% reliability is not going to happen. However, if you get your initial bead and focus on a critter, then the AF does keep up quite well. This setup also means a very shallow depth of field of about a 2 inches. The technical challenges continue, because that big piece of glass mounted on the tripod is very susceptible to twitches and twitters of shutter releases, panning, wind..especially when you are racked out to 680 mm. So anyone want to get serious and shoot some critters ?
I was setup and shooting for a while, when I met the daughter in law of the farm. The first piece of info that was very cool to hear, that this was a 10th generation farm, meaning that it started sometime just after the revolutionary war. The current owners George and Gerry Mesick, both Cornell graduates, have had buffalo around since 1973, and the heard has ebb and flowed between 70-100 ‘horns’. They have a shop on the farm when you can pick up some frozen buffalo steaks and the like.
Buffalo are curious and skittish. They are also immensely powerful. They herd just like you read about and see in the movies. They do not like quick unrecognized movements. This herd had been brought up to a front pasture to make feeding them easier. This was a plus for me, because if they were not here, they were going to the ‘back 40′. This was all good ‘biology’ and location info, which I needed to know to get started.
My morning went fast as I took images during the various routines that the critters have; they eat, then herd up to digest, then herd up to walk to the back pasture, then come back up to eat. I was able to take a few solo Images but on those attempts either the background or foreground was not to my liking. Eventually, you can almost get a sense of buffalo personalities, in the case of #345, he was a curious guy who would always have a friend or two following him and his one forward twisted horn also seemed to further shape his character.
I was able to isolate a nice shot of him after tracking him for a while. So for those of you so inclined, Buffalo can be found for that special image without having to goto Yellowstone or the wild west. Thanks to the folks at GEM farms, they can be found right here in upstate NY.
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