tonybruguiere
FollowOnce the large buffalo herd of 1100 animals gets moving at Custer State Park in South Dakota, the cowboys are really there just to keep them going. If the herd ...
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Once the large buffalo herd of 1100 animals gets moving at Custer State Park in South Dakota, the cowboys are really there just to keep them going. If the herd breaks apart, there is not much a horse can do to stop it. The correct name for this animal is American Bison (Bison bison), but in the US you will hear buffalo as much as bison.
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Awards
Action Award
Zenith Award
Creative Winter Award
Curator's Selection
Legendary Award
Contest Finalist in Colossal Wildlife Photo Contest
Winner in Buffalo Photo Challenge
Contest Finalist in The Brown Color Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in ViewBug Photography Awards
Winner in Animals in hordes Photo Challenge
Featured
Extensive Exposure Bundle
Contest Finalist in Social Exposure Photo Contest Vol 6
Contest Finalist in Image Of The Month Photo Contest Vol 5
Curator's Choice
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Magnificent Capture
Outstanding Creativity
All Star
Superior Skill
Virtuoso
Genius
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bonniemoseley
January 28, 2016
Congratulations on being a finalist. This is such a great composition.
tonybruguiere
February 04, 2016
Thank you very much! It has been on my bucket list for a long time and well worth the wait.
tonybruguiere
February 04, 2016
Thank you very much! You have a good eye - the rider is one of the wranglers and not one of the ten lucky "guest riders".
stuartfoster
December 08, 2016
Like so many people have said....stunning photo!. I love the contrast of the rider against the repetition of all the bison in terms of shape, colour, light, sharpness. Beautiful composition. Nicely done.
tonybruguiere
December 13, 2017
Wow, Thanks so much for the very kind words. It was a wonderful trip and you really could feel the vibration from their passing through your feet - although I would not put it in the "earth shaking" catagory.
tazzlesteele
January 05, 2018
Incredible shot. Looks like you're right there in it! I'm sure that was an awesome sight to see!
tonybruguiere
January 05, 2018
Thank you very much for the kind words. It was indeed an awesome sight and I would reccomend it to anyone that is considering a visit to South Dakota.
RodeoPride
February 02, 2018
Amazing shot! I love how you captured the rider with the buffalo, this is truly a spectacular event and you captured it beautifully!
tonybruguiere
February 02, 2018
Thank you very much for the kind words. It was indeed an awesome sight and I would reccomend it to anyone that is considering a visit to South Dakota.
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken at the annual Buffalo Roundup at Custer State Park in South Dakota. The roundup has been taking place since 1966. The purpose is to reduce the herd size to what the grassland in the park can support. Each year they sell 300 - 400 live buffalo. I was fortunate to have media credentials, which did not give me closer access, but at least the shot was unobstructed.Time
The first buffalo are sighted about 10:30 am, but visitors have been waiting for a long time. People have had their cars stopped at the blockade on the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park for hours. They have been waiting in the dark for the road to open. The veterans have hot coffee and doughnuts and are dressed in layers to ward off the night chill of early fall. Finally, the road opens at 6:30 am and the long procession of cars will move along the eight mile road to the elevated south viewing area. The endless line of cars, trucks, motorcycles, and busses will continue for about three hours until the parking area is packed completely full. On the other side of the draw the process is being duplicated at the north viewing area. When both parking lots are full, there will be over 14,000 people lining the safety fences to witness what few people have seen since the early 1800s - eleven hundred American Bison running across the South Dakota prairie.Lighting
Nothing special about the lighting - just a beautiful early fall morning in South Dakota.Equipment
I used a Canon 7D with a 100-400 mm (L) IS f/4.5 - 5.6. I used a Manfrotto monopod. The lens is image stabilized, but the monopod really helps.Inspiration
This event has been on my bucket list for a long time. Market hunting of buffalo began in earnest in 1870 and almost caused the extinction of this magnificent animal. What saved the buffalo from going the way of the dodo bird were forward thinking men like Peter Norbeck, former Governor of South Dakota, who in 1914, purchased thirty-six buffalo to start the Custer herd. It is the descendants of those original thirty-six buffalo that fourteen thousand people come each year to see.Editing
There is more post processing on this image than I usually do. For safety reasons, visitors and media are not very close to the running buffalo. From a distance buffalo tend to be more or less brown blobs moving across the landscape in a cloud of dust - our eyes and brain fill in details that our cameras can not see. I tried adding Clarity in PS, which helped a little. I then tried Structure in Nik's Vivesa2. Better, but still not right. I finally went to Topaz Clarity, a wonderful plug-in that lets you individually control separate areas of contrast. I added more saturation than I usually do and used quite a few layer masks to apply the contrast and saturation where I wanted it.In my camera bag
Camera bodies are a Canon 40D and a 7D. My working bag consists of the 70-200mm (L) IS f/2.8, Canon 24-105 mm (L) IS f/4.0, and a Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM.Feedback
People come from all over the world to experience this many buffalo running over the prairie. Custer is a small town so make your plans well in advance. If you can't make the roundup, the buffalo are roaming freely year round. I would be remiss if I did not say something about the temperament of buffalo. They are wild animals with absolutely no fear of humans. Every year tourists are injured or killed because they got too near to a buffalo. Buffalo have attacked cars and they seem to have a special dislike for motorcycles. When you are moving in for that perfect shot, keep an eye on the tail of the buffalo. Normally the tail hangs straight down. If you see it flick upwards, the buffalo is becoming agitated and that is your signal to move away. If you see the tail ramrod straight up, the buffalo has entered what ranchers refer to as its "kill mode". Get in your car, be still, and hope that you are not what set it off. You could try running or driving away, but remember that the buffalo runs at 40 miles an hour. Long lenses are your friend when working with buffalo.