Where’s the effing bear man?

(Warning: this article contains pictures of trees)

“Ya bunch of fu**ing limeys!” he shouted and spinning his tyres with an angry pedal-to-metal burst of acceleration, sprayed a sheet of gravel up into the air right beside me.

‘He’ was an Angry American On Vacation in Yellowstone, out at dawn in the autumn to capture ‘something wild’.

‘We’ were a group of UK tourists being led by me and my colleague Pete, visiting Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and doing exactly the same thing.  Angry A.O.V. had spotted us standing by the roadside in the early light as the first pink glow of dawn began to tinge the swirling morning mist.

Our lenses, some short, others large white and very obvious Canon 500mm f4’s a couple of feet long, were trained into an area of dead trees and marshy ground.

“What ya got there, a bear? A bison? A wolf?” he’d asked as his electric window revealed his eager face.

 

“Trees” I replied, and adding for politeness:   “….and a good morning to you too. It’s a lovely one isn’t it!”

“Gotta be a bear man, where is it?” he replied

“No, only trees” I reassured him “…..just getting them in the early light.”

“Man it’s gotta be a wolf, its a wolf, isn’t it, is it in that thicket?” he asked with a growing sense of frustration.

“No, its just trees, we couldn’t find anything else. We’ve been looking for bison since before dawn with no luck, so we thought we’d just capture some of the nice light on the trees. Here look at my camera…”

But sadly before I could pull my dslr off my large tripod, he offered me a choice mouthful of curses and roared off into the distance. The next car arrived minutes later….

“What ya got man, is it a wolf, a bear?” asked the eager driver.

 

“Er um no only trees” I tentatively replied.

“What, trees? Ya think I’m stupid man, do ya? Well do ya?”

“Well if you don’t get out to look and enjoy the trees, I’ll have to assume you might be.” I replied gently.

“Might be what?” he responded more curiously.

“Oh you work it out for yourself, you look quite bright, I’m going back to the trees, have a good day.”

Engine revs, more curses, more spinning tyres. And more gravel. This happened again, and again. Same routine every time. But to be fair many people just smiled at me, sympathetically and with a mildly concerned look, no doubt wondering if I was being well-looked after by my nurse.

So, if you’re one of the many folks who stopped to see what we were photographing, because you thought we had spotted something absolutely wonderful. You were right. We had. And here’s the evidence: trees.

Just trees, trees and a few more trees. Glorious.

It’s a well-worn saying, but as I’ve slowly come to realize, it’s so true: sometime people just can’t see the wood for the trees.