Bubble Bath

I've had a lot of otter sightings over the years in Yellowstone. This one was pretty unique. We came across a trio of otters heading up the Gibbon River in late May.

They were generally sticking to the far shoreline, so at one point we drove on ahead and found a path down to the river, where I was hoping to shoot them at ground level from across the water. We were stationed next to a large cascade when, lo and behold, the otters popped out right in front of us on our side of the river.

We quickly backed up the hill to give them room. They played around a bit in the roiling foam at the bottom of the waterfall before clambering up over some logs and continuing upriver. Over the course of a couple miles, the otters provided several photographers with good photo ops at relatively close range, but we were fortunate to have them to ourselves during the "bubble bath."

Canon 1D Mark IV
Canon 70-200mm 2.8 IS
ISO 200
1/1250th
f/8

Max