Overview
Explore the wilderness of Northern Yellowstone through a photographer’s lens. This multi-day photography safari is an opportunity to practice and enhance your photography skills while you travel through Yellowstone National Park’s incredible landscapes, all with the guidance and keen attention of your professional photography guide. This diverse region offers photo opportunities you’ll only find here in Northern Yellowstone. Mountains, rivers, snow and ice, sunshine and shadow, wildlife from the greatest apex predators like wolves and bears to the smallest mammals and birds like red foxes, American dippers and river otters. Over several days you will have the best chance to capture the many changing scenarios of weather, wildlife and mystery that the National Park has to offer.
Highlights
- Premium Private or Small Group Safari
- Personalized Photography Instruction
- Northern Yellowstone Landscapes & Wildlife Sightings
Our professional photography tours are led by one of our passionate wildlife photography guides who are there to maximize your photography goals and build upon your skills. These tours are tailored to each guest and will benefit both amateur and professional photographers alike. Throughout the day, your guide will work with you to advance your skill set covering topics such as gear, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, framing, lighting, composition, editing, and more.
It’s important to keep in mind that landscape photography opportunities are subject to change due to weather conditions and wildlife photography is dependent on, well…wildlife, and there are no guarantees for close shots or perfect opportunities. Regardless of the conditions of the day, your guide will be happy to help you with your photography gear, answer any questions you may have about photography, and share some of their best photography practices.
This tour is van-based with ample time out of the vehicle for photography and instruction. We ask that our guests come prepared for a variety of weather conditions and terrain.
A full day private photography tour begins with an early morning pick up in the Bozeman or Gardiner areas in order to maximize wildlife and lighting opportunities. Pick up time will vary slightly depending on these factors, and our photography guides will cater the trip to your creative interests and goals. Whether you are looking to practice your landscape shots in a variety of light and perspective, or are hoping to home in on wildlife habits and behavior, this experience will afford you plenty of ways to practice and explore your photography amidst the wildly diverse setting of Yellowstone National Park.
Your guide will navigate you through over 50 miles of roadway within the park between Gardiner and Cooke City, MT, paying mindful attention to elements conducive to successful photography conditions. This region, known as the Northern Range, is filled with strategically placed pullouts offering dramatic vistas of sweeping valleys, winding rivers, crystalline bodies of water that mirror open sky, craggy, alpine peaks and the potential for spectacular wildlife sightings. Working in this wild space also results in no two pictures being the same; the weather, clouds and lighting vary on a near daily basis. Our guides are well-versed in popular photography spots and will also help encourage you to experiment at each location and challenge you to produce unique work.
The unpredictability of wildlife enhances the experience as well. While many animals, like bison, elk, moose and pronghorn, wolves and bears have distinct habitats they are typically found amongst during certain seasons, there is always the chance of finding them in unexpected places that could create the set up for an entirely unique photo. Then there are less frequently seen species, such as otters, fox, pika, badger, or great gray owls. These animals keep you on your toes, potentially darting along a river bank or dashing through an open field and vanishing before the click of a shutter.
Yellowstone’s wildlife and scenery change in every season of the year. We encourage you to book this unique photography experience specific to your landscape and wildlife of interest. Our office and guide staff are available to discuss these options at length.
To finish out our photography tour, your guide will accompany you to a local coffee shop to review your images, discuss successes, comment on areas of improvement, and expand your knowledge of Lightroom. Our guides will not only put you in the right habitat to get your dream shot, but also help bring your creative vision to life during our editing workshops. One goal of the tour is to see you go home with several successful images that demonstrate your growth and understanding of photographic concepts covered on the tour.
It is important to note that appropriate gear for the season is necessary to accommodate for times when we will need to walk short distances in variable weather conditions.
What's Included
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Hotel pickup
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Professional naturalist guide
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Private safari
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Lodging (1/2)
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Breakfast (2/3)
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Lunches (2/3)
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Dinner (1/2)
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Assorted snack basket
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Non-alcoholic beverages (hot and cold)
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Use of UHD binoculars and spotting scopes
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Guide gratuities
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National Park entrance fees
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Photography equipment
Private 2-Day Tour
Reservations are dependent on hotel availability at the time of booking.
Private 3-Day Tour
Reservations are dependent on hotel availability at the time of booking.
Pickup Information
For all private tours, all of our guests are picked up (and dropped off) at their lodging location. We pick up in Bozeman, Paradise Valley, Gardiner, Mammoth, Big Sky, West Yellowstone, and Cody. We also offer specialty pickups at West Yellowstone**, Madison Junction**, Canyon Lodge**, and Old Faithful Inn**. At the time of reservation, we’ll confirm your exact pickup time, based on the season, as well as your exact pickup location.
Please allow your guide an additional 5-10 minutes before and after the scheduled pickup time in case of weather delays or traffic conditions.
Approximate pickup times include:
Summer (April – October)
- 6:00AM Bozeman
- 6:45AM Paradise Valley
- 7:30AM Gardiner
- 7:45AM Mammoth
- 6:00AM Cody
- 6:45AM Big Sky
- 7:45AM West Yellowstone
Winter (November – April)
- 7:00AM Bozeman
- 7:45AM Paradise Valley
- 8:30AM Gardiner
- 8:45AM Mammoth
Specialty Pick-ups available for $100 (summer only)
- 6:00AM West Yellowstone (Early Bird)**
- 6:30AM Madison Junction**
- 7:00AM Canyon Lodge**
- 7:00AM Old Faithful Inn**
Our guide was one of the best guides we've ever had, hands down. Not only was he able to help us spot, track, photograph and view more species than we thought possible, he also did a great job of ensuring that we were comfortable, enjoying our experience, and had everything we could possibly need. Yes, we were keen to see wolves, but we also really enjoy all different kinds of species, big and small, and get excited by the little things like tracks and scat too. He did a great job of ensuring we had a varied experience based on what we enjoyed.
Safari Tour Gallery
All photography has been shot by our talented tour guides.
FAQs
How close are we going to be to the wildlife on this tour?
Wildlife are unpredictable and are often wary of the roads, but that is not always the case. We do sometimes see mammals and birds within distance for most lenses to capture, even if we walk to better viewing places not near the road. For those guests interested specifically in wildlife photography we recommend bringing or renting the longest lens you feel comfortable using.
Do you provide any photography equipment for this tour?
We do not provide any photography equipment for you on this tour, but do work with a local camera shop in Bozeman, MT where you can rent bodies and lenses for reasonable day-use rates. If you’d like to have camera gear reserved for your tour, you can rent a pro level kit and it will be ready and waiting for you when we pick you up from your lodging. Each rental package has a top of the line camera body (Canon, Sony, Nikon or similar) and two lenses, a telephoto zoom for capturing wildlife and a standard zoom (24mm-70mm) for shooting everything from landscapes to historical architecture and thermal features. **Rentals are subject to availability with our partner.
Will we see any geysers or thermal basins on this tour?
Most of Yellowstone National Park’s geysers, such as Old Faithful, and hot springs, such as Grand Prismatic Spring, are located in the southern half of the park. Our photography tour focuses mostly on Northern Yellowstone. However, if you are interested mostly in the volcanic region of the park we are happy to build a specific itinerary for you!
Further Reading
Understanding the Wolf Story in Yellowstone National Park
Nov 28, 2022
It is worthwhile for those of us who currently seek to view and understand these dynamic animals to look deeply at the heart of their story, to understand their place not only on the landscape…
A Month by Month Guide to Yellowstone National Park
Aug 17, 2022
No matter how or when you access the world’s first national park, each month provides its own outstanding experience…