Predatory Animals: North Dakota Badlands

In 1883, at the age of 24, Theodore Roosevelt, stepped off a train in the Dakota Territory and began an enduring relationship with the Badlands. His frontier experience eventually gave rise to the preservation of millions of acres as public lands. None are more intriguing and less well-known than the maze of deeply-eroded and colorful landscapes in the national park that now bears his name. Surrounded by the Little Missouri National Grasslands—where the Badlands meet the prairie—our private acreage provides a wonderful variety of habitats and backdrops for this extraordinary wildlife models shoot.

Game-farm animals—transported to these unique and expansive landscapes by experienced handlers—are carefully placed in private grassland, sagebrush and Badlands settings. From a facility that is a principal breeding center for a variety of animals: cougars, wolves, bobcats, coyotes, badgers and porcupines, these emblematic Badlands species present wonderful opportunities to compose unique animal images almost impossible for most photographers to create in the wild. Four early mornings and evenings are devoted to the digital capture of these vigorous animals in distinctive natural settings.

The nearby Theodore Roosevelt National Park boasts abundant and photogenic wildlife. During these long spring days, our midday breaks with the animal models allow us to venture into the park to shoot both wildlife and landscapes in this unique environment. Our tour is timed for the birthing of bison calves and for wild horse foals taking their first tentative steps. Other photogenic wildlife are possible to shoot—prairie dogs at their burrows, golden eagles coursing the sky, grazing elk, pronghorn and mule deer, and foraging wild turkeys.

In addition, we have opportunities to photograph the varied colors, shapes and textures of hoodoos, caprocked pillars, canyons and cliffs and big-sky panoramas of the Badlands.

Join us on this exceptional photo shoot of animal models and wildlife in the surprisingly diverse landscapes of the Badlands—under the dramatic and limitless expanse of North Dakota skies.