Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas & A Short Elk Video


I wish all a Merry Christmas. For an added bonus today, I am posting a short video of the highlights of the 2012 Pennsylvania elk rut.  This is an extremely short (2min.-45 sec.), action packed video of the best action and most dramatic scenes I filmed during the 2012 Pennsylvania elk rut.

The film begins shortly after dawn. Early morning  fog shrouds elk country as the scream of bugling bulls fills the air.  There are several clips of bulls locking antlers in brief fights or sparring matches and three segments of a lengthy dominance fight.  Much of the footage of both elk and scenery is exposed and processed somewhat on the dark side as it was taken extremely early or late and I tried to maintain this type of look.



Cameras used were the Canon 5D MK III and the Panasonic GH2. The Canon 500mm F4 was the lens of choice for the dramatic close-ups and the Canon 24-105mm L was used for the scenic clips.  The lengthy fight that was far away and very late in the evening was filmed with the GH2 and Canon 300mm F2.8 L at ISO 3200.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

4 comments:

Lindsjö taxar said...

Merry Christmas to you.
Could you maybe get the video on Youtube?
I cant watch Vimeo Plus as it says.
Would be very interesting to watch.
Regards Majsan//

Willard said...

Merry Christmas, Lindsjö.

I am sorry the video doesn't work for you. You should be able to play it from the blog as there should only be restrictions on downloading and embedding it, but not on who can play it. I will check the settings out and be sure I have not inadvertently blocked someone from playing it. (I may enable the download function on this if that would help you.

I hate to put it on You Tube because the commenting there can turn into a real free for all with a lot of upsetting remarks.

Linda G. said...

Love the photograph of the woodpecker! Your video was awesome! I hope to one day to visit Benezette during elk rut season. Merry Christmas!

Lindsjö taxar said...

Hi Willard!

It says:

The creator of this video has not given you permission to embed it on this domain. This is a Vimeo Plus feature.

If you cant do it its no problem. I put out some on youtube about hunting and the dogs but no comments about that, cant you block comment function?

We planned for mooshunt tomorrow but it been cold and the snow is hard for the dogs paws and also for the moose. But its more critical for the roes with their thin legs.

I managed to get a moose on a picture today nearby our home, a bull without the antlers...