In
an unprecedented move since this blog was founded in 2007, I have gone a
month without posting. This is partly because I had difficulty getting
internet access for with my laptop while I was in Pennsylvania Elk
Country for the last two weeks of September and I did not want to try
posting with a smart phone. Also I find it harder and harder to write a
post as time passes. It is relatively simple to post a few photos, but
I always like to do a bit more. To make a long story short, I found I
had a lot of other things that needed done when I returned from elk
country and it was easier to devote my time to that and put posting on
the back burner until now. For today's post, I will share a few images
from September's trip and refer you to a post by Bill Taylor on his
"Down The Fall Road" Blog that resonates with me in many ways. It is
titled,
"The Elk Rut, Photography, & Thoughts".
A
major point he makes is how each year seems to have a set of
circumstances that make it stand out from years past, For me this was
how elk activity was not centered nearly so much around the Dewey Rd
area as it usually was in the past several years, but perhaps this was
because I avoided this area as much as possible. With that being said, I
did have a few good experiences there and the first was late in the
afternoon on the first day of my trip. I arrived so late that there was
not time for more than a drive around the Benezette/ Winslow Hill area
and I found two bulls chasing a herd of cows over an area ranging from
the food plot by the cabin on the hill to the Gilbert meadows and
beyond. The first was one that many refer to as the U bull and he gave a
dramatic pose when he paused and looked over his shoulder at a rapidly
approaching 6x7 that was contending with him for control of the harem.
It was good to be joined by fellow photographers, Jim (Muck) McClelland
and then later by Tom Dorsey and his wife Jeanne.
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| The U Bull Looks Back At Rapidly Approaching 6x7 |
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| 6x7 Arrives |
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| 6x7 Pauses |
Another bull that was photographed by many is a fine
7x7 that frequented the river bottoms. This brings us to another point
that Bill Taylor made, which is that with so many photographing the
same animals in the same set of circumstances that it is very hard to
get a photo that is truly unique. I usually try to capture them either
in a dramatic pose in a good natural setting or capture them doing
something unusual, but of course most every one else is trying to do the
same thing. In the first photo below I tried to capture him at the
moment that he erupted from the woods in pursuit of a cow and then I got
him as he came almost sliding to a stop.
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| 7x7 Emerges From Woods In Pursuit Of Cow |
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| Sliding To A Stop |
Another dramatic opportunity was when he paused from tearing up the ground with his antlers and bugled.
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| Bugling With Grass In Antlers |
I would have liked to get photos and video of the elk
in the river, but I did not spend enough time in that spot this year to
be there when this happened. Whether one succeeds in capturing a unique
photo or not, it is good to see the increase in serious elk
photographers as it will hopefully help insure the future for wildlife
photography on public lands in Pennsylvania if this user group becomes
large enough to achieve recognition as stake-holders in or public lands
and the wildlife which inhabits it.
Like Bill, I would
usually rather be somewhere else than the areas where a lot of other
photographers are congregated in hopes of getting something different
(although I really enjoy the bull sessions), but many if not most times
trips to remote areas result in very little or no elk sightings or
filming opportunities.
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| Remote Food Plot In Clearfield County-No Elk Were Seen |
I had a lot of different spots that I wanted to check
out this year and I did get to a few of them, but in those cases I was
not successful in getting video or stills of bull elk although these
excursions were successful from the standpoint of seeing different
country.
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| Quehanna Wild Area |
When one is successful in places like this, it does
seem like you have accomplished more and it is truly an experience to
treasure. The photo below illustrates this and it is also a warning to
always be prepared. I took my brother Coy to see a remote meadow late
one morning. It was so late that I saw little reason to bother with a
big lens. As the 70-200 was mounted on my 5D MK III, I just carried it
and the 24-105mm. Needless to say this was the time that I would see a
large coyote close enough for an exceptional shot with a larger lens,
but there it was and I had to make the best of the situation. This is
cropped severely and I do mean severely. An image from the MK III is
22.1 megapixels when opened in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw), but in this case I
cropped it to 3.6 megapixels at 300 d.p.i. which is suitable for the
internet and actually good enough to print a modestly large print.
Actually I could probably have gotten away with 2 megapixels or less,
but this was a good compromise.
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| Quehanna Coyote |
The bottom line though is that with a limited
amount of time to spend and more problems from getting older, it gets
easier and easier to hang around the tourist areas and alternate between
watching what is going on and then pitching in and doing some serious
photography when the opportunity presents itself. This is what I was
doing on the last Thursday evening of my trip when I saw a large bull
bedded in the field beside the Woodring House. In time he stood up and I
took this photo and also the one featured at the beginning of the post.
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| Bugling |
Before someone gets their "shorts in a wad" about how
close this photo is, I will point out that this was taken at an
entirely safe and respectful distance with a 600mm lens and the photo
was cropped substantially also.
Originally published at
Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.
