In the Field

Don't Mess with Ma! Sheep River Wildlife Sanctuary. July 20, 1983.

I grabbed this image while doing fieldwork during graduate school way too many years ago! I was studying little dicky birds (none of those macho large mammals for me back then!) but the area had a strong population of Bighorn Sheep.

Ironically, this image was going to be one of the lamb only as I had no idea where the mother was. About a second or two before I clicked the shutter the mother popped her head up from behind a ridge. While I didn't record (or recall) the exposure information, I remember struggling to find enough depth of field to keep both the ewe and lamb in sharp focus.

Behind the Camera

Don't Mess with Ma! Sheep River Wildlife Sanctuary. July 20, 1983.

Film Capture; Ektachrome 200; ISO 200.

Minolta X-700 film SLR with 300 mm Rokkor-X F4.5 lens - handheld.

Exposure information not recorded.

At the Computer

Don't Mess with Ma! Sheep River Wildlife Sanctuary. July 20, 1983.

Slide scan to 16-bit TIFF file using Nikon Super Coolscan 5000ED.

All further digital correction on 16-bit TIFF file using Adobe's Photoshop CS2, including tone curve adjustment, selective saturation enhancement, selective lens blur, selective noise reduction (using PictureCode's Noise Ninja Photoshop plug-in) and selective sharpening for web output.

Conservation

Don't Mess with Ma! Sheep River Wildlife Sanctuary. July 20, 1983.

Ten percent of the revenue generated by this image will be donated to the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.

Species Status in Canada*: This species is not designated as at risk.

Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis) are considered by many to be a symbol of mountain wilderness. They are distributed throughout much of the mountainous areas of western North America from central British Columbia south to northern Mexico. Local distribution of Bighorns appears to be limited by the availability of suitable foraging areas near "escape" terrain (cliffs or very steep terrain where they can escape predators).

This Bighorn ewe and lamb were photographed in the upper foothills of Alberta's western border. While this species is not currently considered at risk, the region this herd was photographed in is considered as of significant importance in maintaining genetic connectivity between northern and southern populations of bighorns.

The Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) Conservation Initiative seeks to ensure that the world-renowned wilderness, wildlife, native plants, and natural processes of the Yellowstone to Yukon region continue to function as an interconnected web of life, capable of supporting all of its natural and human communities, for current and future generations.

*as determined by COSEWIC: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada