May 09, 2013

A quiet morning near Yellowstone gets Hazed!...

A quiet morning near Yellowstone gets Hazed!...

Started off the day yesterday morning shooting in West Yellowstone. It was a beautiful morning, and I had set up the hexa-cam to fly up and get a few shots above the Madison Arm of Hebgen Lake for a new fishing book project.

Just before taking off, I noticed a few bison and their calves crossing the river, so I paused, took a few shots and did not think anything of it. After that shot was done, I proceeded to finalize setup of the chopper, and started the flight. Got up in the air and the shot I wanted, then noticed a few more bison crossing, so decided to take a few shots of them crossing the road.  It was then I started hearing whistling and yelling in the distance.

It is very hard to take your eye off of the chopper when flying and shooting, but the screaming kept coming, and I specifically heard "BISON RIGHT BEHIND YOU, LOOK OUT!" As I glanced back to see several Bison mothers and calves barreling down behind me like I was the enemy.

I was faced with a decision I did not want to make. Take my eyes off of the chopper and risk a crash landing, or get brutally gored by 5 charging bison. All within a split second, I also notice 6 men & women on horseback with badges, two sheriff trucks, and three dreadlocked buffalo field campaigners on bikes with video cameras driving right at me! Where had my peaceful moment gone?

Chaos ensued, and I decided a crash landing was probably the best course of action as I quickly ran to the cover behind some trees. A hard landing followed with a little damage to the chopper, then a short conversation with the Sheriff and the crew on horseback about the coolness of my camera. Moral of the story? I'm not quite sure....but one thing is for sure and everyone agrees, flying cameras are cool.

Slideshow Below: