Photo Story: Where the Mountain Goats Live

Near the Northeast Entrance to Yellowstone National Park is a mountain called Barronette Peak.  Barronette Peak is 10,354 feet tall and is home to Mountain Goats and Big Horn Sheep.

Mountain Goats on Barronette Peak

There is a pullout on the left hand side next to a large field as you are heading toward the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone.  Across the large field you can’t miss Barronette Peak.

You will need a very long lens or a spotting scope to see the Mountain Goats.  This photo was taken at 1000mm and I cropped in around 40%.

 You will also need a lot of patience to find the Mountain Goats as they are only little white specs to the naked eye.  If there are other spotters there, you may want to ask if they’ve spotted anything.  This could save a lot of time scanning the mountain for wildlife.

I cropped in tighter on the second photo to give a little better view of this small Mountain Goat herd.   There were two adult goats and two kids living in this rocky terrain.

Mountain Goats Photo Details

Camera:  Canon 5d Mark III
Lens:   Canon 500mm f/4 + 2.0x Teleconverter
Focal Length:  1000mm
ISO:  500
Aperture:   f/13
Shutter Speed: 1/400 of a second
Exposure Compensation: +1/3
Lighting: Bright, Sunny Morning

Mountain Goats Photo Processing

• Cropped the photo in Lightroom 5.
• Used the Color and Contrast Boost 3 filter in Topaz Clarity to give the photo some contrast pop and saturation.
• Selectively lightened and darkened the image using Viveza 2 from the Nik Collection.
• Used the Detail Extractor filter in in Color Efex Pro 4 to bring out the details in the image
• Sharpened the photo using the Sharpening Slider in Lightroom 5.

Written by Martin Belan

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