My First Trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park. Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 180-600

Finally! I went to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park back in June. This is a trip I have been dreaming about doing since I got serious with my wildlife photography. I hope you like to video!

Here is what I learned about Yellowstone/Tetons during my first trip:
1. The visitors can be rude.
2. The park rangers hate you. Had a couple bad experiences. Still trying to understand what I did wrong, but whatever you say boss.
3. You do a ton of driving (I don’t want to touch my car now). Plus how long it took to get there from Seattle area.
4. Where are the bears?
5. Hey a bison!
6. Hey another bison!
7. Hey more bison!
8. If you don’t nap/rest, you’re screwed.
9. The heat haze is god awful. I’ve noticed a couple hours after sunrise the heat haze begins and around 5:00PM it is mostly gone.
10. Apparently 45mph means 65mph.
11. Bring a 1.4x or 2x tele if you want to go for portrait shots of wildlife. Unless you have a lens that is like 800mm or want to be a touron and get close.
12. Bring a lens for landscape photography. I was hurting on this one.
13. Four night stay was not long enough for a first time trip. I wasted (and enjoyed) two full days just exploring and seeing where wildlife likes to hang out at. Need like a seven night stay at least for a first time trip. So much to explore and learn.
14. Bonus! A vehicle you can sleep/nap in so you won’t have to drive all the way back to where you’re staying to do a midday nap.
15. Obviously dawn and dusk is prime time to be looking. Within the first three hours of daylight and last three hours of daylight everything was most active.
16. Have fun at your own pace. I took photos of wildlife during the harsh light and awful heat haze. Didn’t care because it was my first time.

Gear used:
Nikon Z8
Nikkor Z 180-600
GoPro Hero 10

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