Last Gasp Of Winter Assignment Winner Dawn Wilson
Congratulations to Dawn Wilson for winning the recent Last Gasp Of Winter Assignment with the image, âShoots Of Grass In The Snow.â See more of Wilsonâs photography at www.dawnwilsonphotography.com.
View the winning image and a selection of submissions in the gallery below. And be sure to check out our current photography assignment here and enter your best shots!
âPikas donât hibernate but rather survive on caches of food called hay piles during the winter,â says Wilson. âBecause of their high-elevation habitat, they can be hard to photograph in the winter in Colorado because of limited access and therefore theyâre not frequently photographed in snow. In most years, Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado opens to hikers and bikers for a couple of weeks before the road opens to vehicles for the season on Memorial Day weekend. This short window of time is a great opportunity to hike up above the treeline to find pikas in snow. I found this little guy at about 11,500 feet enjoying some fresh shoots of grass poking through the snow. Iâm sure those were a refreshing meal after a winter of dried grass. Unfortunately, this year the park remains closedâfor nowâdue to the coronavirus pandemic and there will be no time spent with pikas in snow.â
Nikon D5, Nikon 80-400mm lens. Exposure: 1/4000 sec., f/8, ISO 640.
