Great Burn Pastoral

This video comes from a magical five day trip into the Great Burn Recommended Wilderness this past summer. I spent three of those days in a remote cirque with a pair of mountain goats I affectionately referred to as ‘Scarface’ and ‘Little Man’. I ended up spending the better part of my time up there observing the two.

The goats emerged each morning from the cliff face above my camp. As the day heated up they followed the shadow of the mountain until midday, when uncomfortably warm, they retreated to a snowfield. In the early evening, as the heat began to wane, they would leave the snowfield and follow the edge of the mountain's shadow toward my camp, sometimes stopping off in a wallow for further cooling. They grazed their way around the heather, nibbling on imperceptible bits of foliage as they went. Occasionally, their paths would converge upon the same bit of foliage and Little Man, though noticeably smaller, would chase Scarface off the patch. Little Man won every confrontation. When dusk came and the temperature dropped, the duo would return to the cliff face, disappearing until the next morning.

The title of this video refers to an image I was lucky to capture on my final day in the cirque. A few steps from my campsite, I found a composition that included the flow of a spring in the foreground leading to the south face of the cirque, skimmed by late day light, in the background. The lush meadow served as the connective tissue between those visual elements. I experimented with different shutter speeds, determining 1/2 second to be the sweet spot for capturing the motion of the water. After fine-tuning the composition, focus stack increments and exposure settings, I left the camera and tripod in place and returned to my camp for dinner. Scarface and Little Man, as if on cue, left their snowfield and began grazing their way towards me in the shadow of the peak. As they zig-zagged in my direction, I realized that Scarface was on a perfect bearing for the middle ground of my composition. I set my dinner down and walked slowly back to my camera. Just as I got there, Scarface walked into the left side of the frame. I moved my focus point to him. I didn’t have any time to adjust my exposure: I was locked into 1/2 second. It’d be a miracle if I could get him sharp. A few steps into the frame he stopped and looked at me, click. Just as the exposure finished, he moved on.

With adrenaline running through my veins, I quickly finished the focus stack to complete the image and hollered ‘thank you, Scarface’ to my gracious model.

The Great Burn Recommended Wilderness is truly a special place. 250,000+ roadless acres of pristine subalpine lakes, sweeping ridgelines and a Garden of Eden level of wildlife, the area is one of the last great unprotected tracts of land in the lower-48. Subject to the winds of the political climate, the rules of this land changes every 10-15 years, leaving the future of this vibrant ecosystem in question.

This video/images/music is dedicated to Scarface, Little Man and all the wild creatures that eke out a living in the spaces between humans.