Conversing with nature: neither driving snow, frost-bitten cameras, nor hungry wolves could deter cinematographer Shane Moore from braving the "holiday" elements at America's most famous national park

I sat down for a conversation with Shane Moore, the principal cinematographer on "Christmas in Yellowstone," to discuss the making of this special. Moore has been a nature and wildlife filmmaker for three decades, and previously collaborated with "Nature" on "The Good, the Bad and the Grizzly" and "A Mystery in Alaska." He also is a native of Jackson, Wyo., and his deep familiarity with the local environment and expertise as a filmmaker were crucial in capturing the spellbinding natural history moments of "Christmas in Yellowstone."

Q: You live in Jackson Hole. Does your proximity to Yellowstone take away from the excitement of shooting there?

A: No, I wouldn't say that. I have a real passion for the place, and Yellowstone is particularly stunning in the winter. That's my favorite time; it's just so magical, and it's really the best time to see a lot of the wildlife. The wolves, for example, are quite visible in the wintertime.

Q: You captured so many different animals in the film. Which one was the most difficult?

A: The wolves were difficult. We could see them nearly every day, but often the distances were very great and we really had to be careful not to disturb them in what they [were] doing. Often, it's just a real waiting game with the wolves. Some of the other animals were not so easy either, like the foxes. We really wanted to catch the foxes mousing. That's always very hit-or-miss. It just takes a lot of time in the field to see that kind of behavior.

Q: Can you explain what "mousing" is?

A: It's incredible. The foxes can walk around on that snow; it's firm enough to support their weight. Yet, they leap five feet up in the air and come down on their nose and have to break through that hard crust to get at the mice down below. It just seems like a remarkable way to earn a living!

Q: How much does luck factor into wildlife filmmaking--in terms of spotting the animals to begin with, and then capturing fascinating behavior?

A: It's a combination of the right opportunity and being prepared. My formula has always been that, if you spend a lot of time in the field, you will see magical things. It's hard to predict what they might be. We knew we wanted to film wolves, and we dreamed about actually filming a hunt, and so those sorts of things do take time and luck--and obviously, a lot goes into knowing where to be and when to be there.

Q: How much time did you spend filming in Yellowstone?

A: I spent about 100 days in the field myself, and another cinematographer, Bob Poole, spent about 35. We were never really together, though. We tried to maximize our opportunities by splitting up.

Q: What does a typical day of filming look like? Are you up before dawn?

A: Oh, well before dawn. With wolves, for example, we would often go out when there were several hours of darkness left, and simply listen. Their howls carry very far; you can hear them howling at least five or more miles away. Often, that's the way we located them, just by standing in the cold and listening.

Q: And would you stay out until dusk?

A: Sometimes. A lot of the filming was even done during the night. We wanted to film a lot of night scenes and time-lapses, so we used some of the newest in digital SLR cameras, which are now actually able to do exposures that will give night scenes some real punch. We did a lot with stars and night-lit scenes, so, yes, we had some very long days.

Q: Talk about time-lapse filming; is that something where you can push "record" and walk away for two hours, or do you have to be present the whole time to monitor the shot?

A: It's somewhere in between. We actually have to be careful that frost doesn't form on the lenses, which, of course, will ruin a shot. We have to watch the batteries, too. It's fraught with technical problems; we kind of had to babysit the cameras so that, in the event something went wrong, we could immediately restart.

Q: Speaking of frost, what was the coldest it got during your filming?

A: Forty-five below, according to the official National Park Service recording of that day. It was around mid December.

Q: And were you actually out in the field that day?

A: Yes, I was out filming, and some of those scenes from that day actually ended up in the film. The bison, for example--something about that first real cold snap really seems to set the animals moving, and the bison were streaming to lower elevations in big herds. The sound of their feet squeaking on the snow at that temperature is just surreal! Some people might think we actually made a fake sound, but it is the real sound, and it's really striking.

Q: Besides frost on lenses, how else does the extreme cold affect filming?

A: For one, cables can snap with a slight touch when it's minus-40, so you have to be very careful moving [them]. Batteries, of course, don't perform very well in the cold, so often we have to keep a battery inside the parka to keep it warm. At times, we could hardly see through the cameras' viewfinders because they don't react that well to the cold either. Almost all of our cameras say "for use to 32 degrees Fahrenheit," so we were really pushing that.