The Bond

There are things in life that just aren’t able to be explained and remarkable at the same time. I have photographed the bison herd on the Cheyenne-Arapaho land a few times as it’[s not far from my home (20 Minutes). On my last time out I had a good friend Cynthia invite me out with her, her husband and a member of the Cheyenne-Arapaho tribe. To say Tommy was an incredible host would be an understatement. The man had lots of stories of their history and traditions that were truly fascinating. That on top of standing in the middle of a field with hundreds of bison surrounding me was truly incredible. One of the bison and sadly I don’t remember his number or name but he wanted to be right by me when I was outside the truck and photographing all his friends. He kept nudging me until I gave him attention by scratching his head. Yes he wanted his head scratched. This is something that I haven’t even been close to doing. As I stood there with my camera in my right hand scratching his head with my left I started thinking this might be the time I have waited for a long time or ever since I have been shooting bison….. I have thought to myself while photographing bison numerous times that one day maybe I would find a bison that might allow me to press my forehead against his/her head. As I scratched his head I told Cynthia to get her camera ready and I was going to try. As I leaned down and pressed my head against his it was amazing. I closed my eyes and from the images Cynthia took so did he.

I can’t explain the feeling you get from having that type of bond with a huge animal even if it was for only 10-15 seconds and yes it truly was that long. It was a once in a lifetime thing to get to do. As a wildlife photographer with a major focus on bison I can safely say I am not sure what even while photographing bison could match or beat this.

JBP