2012 In Retrospect Part 2

By far the most extensive project that I was involved with was the post production and release of a new film about Pennsylvania's elk herd, "Running Wild In Pennsylvania Elk Country"  While my first film, "The Truth About Pennsylvania's Elk Herd", did show other species of wildlife besides elk, they were shown only in passing and I decided to make the new film more inclusive.  While it still focused primarily on elk, Whitetail Deer came in a close second, with Eastern Wild Turkey not too far behind.  

Originally I had planned on calling the film "Pennsylvania Elk Country", but as it dealt with the other wildlife that could be found in elk country also, my brother Coy suggested that the "Running Wild" be added to the title and after some thought on the matter I decided to do so.  Coy also provided the cover photograph for the film.  This is a dramatic photographic of the character bull "Limpy" taken at sunset on top of "The Saddle".

Cover Photo by Coy D. Hill

Since Whitetail Deer were featured almost as much as elk, several  buck fights were included.  In my experience, it is not too difficult to film sparring matches between bucks during the pre-rut and rut, but it is very seldom that one sees an actual  serious whitetail fight and I have only filmed a few in my life.  The most dramatic I have seen was between two mature bucks in November of 2002.  In this case a large eight-point was standing guard over a doe in heat. At times smaller bucks would appear, but none would challenge him and they would move on, until a slightly smaller, but aggressive eight-point arrived and pitched into him.  This was back in standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio days and the fight was filmed with a Canon XL-1s and stock lens. Since it was so dramatic, I decided to include it in the film, even thought it was not shot in HD.  It was cropped to 16:9 Widescreen aspect ratio to better fit the format of the film.

Below is a brief segment of the first part of the fight.  




Also while I am on the subject of Whitetail Deer I would recommend that you read Coy's series on Whitetail Deer management in Pennsylvania.  He has written two posts about this on Country Captures, which provide a good balanced look at this situation.

 Whitetail Deer Management: My View Part 1
 Whitetail Deer Management: My View Part 2

He plans to write at least one more segment and possibly two more to cover the subject in the depth which it deserves.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

2012 In Retrospect-Part 1

Mature Bull Eating Apples

2012 was a challenging and rewarding year.  This marked my 38th year of photographing wildlife,my 21st year of video filming, and the fifth year of publishing the Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer blog

I was especially pleased to win first place in the Wilderness category of the Pennsylvania Magazine 2012 Photo Contest.  One is only notified if they place or win in the competition--they are not told the official reason why. I do have a good idea why this photograph was selected, however, and will pass those ideas along in hopes of helping other photographers.

First some technical information:  The photo was taken along Winslow Hill Road at 6:06 in the morning of July 14, 201. The lens used was a Canon 300mm f2.8 lens mounted on a Gitzo tripod with Wimberley Head.  The Camera was a Canon 7D, with ISO set at 400.  Exposure was 1/125 sec. f2.8, with the camera being set in manual mode. Evaluative metering mode was used with the reading being taken from the brightest part of the grass beside the elk.  I captured numerous poses that morning, some of which were portraits of the animal in the traditional alert pose, but most of my efforts were focused on capturing him getting apples from the tree.  In many cases he used the tips of his antlers to dislodge them and then ate them once they were on the ground. The photo above yielded the most pleasing composition as he attempted to reach an apple by stretching for it.

This reminds me of a piece of advice that PGC photographer/videographer Hal Korber shared many years ago.  He emphasized that one should try to capture wildlife doing something.  A certain amount of photographs of animals grazing, etc. are fine, but it is the ones that capture the animal doing something dramatic or unusual that are most likely to be successful.

In summary, I think this photograph succeeded because it captures an impressive animal in a beautiful natural setting,  the photo is technically acceptable, and most of all it captures the bull doing something unusual in an attractive way.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

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.

Deer Wars: Once A Spike--Always A Spike?

At one time it was commonly believed that a spike buck was never going to be anything but a spike, but this is not as widely accepted today.  In my experience it is not ordinarily so and in fact I have not seen one instance of this in a lifetime of watching and photographing whitetail deer.  Neither have I seen an old buck that declined to the point that he only grew a spike rack, although this does seem possible as I have seen this in Pennsylvania elk.

For today's photos, I will post a series of a whitetail buck that was taken from 2007 through September of 2010.  There is absolutely no doubt that this is the same animal.

Buck Whitetail Fawn-Summer 2007

This deer was born in late May or early June and soon came to my attention as it accompanied its' mother to feed in a meadow on most evenings. 

He  grew a modest set of spikes in 2008.  Although I saw him  almost daily, I took few photographs as he was so small.  Most bucks in this area grow antlers ranging from spikes to three or four points during their second summer ( 1 year of age)  with a rare animal growing a six or eight point rack. It seems that most bucks disperse from their home range during the summer or autumn that they have their first substantial rack (many points and decent spread), but many of the spikes and four points, etc. will remain until the following spring or in unusual cases until the rut begins the following fall.

Buck With Modest Spikes In 2008

As it turned out this buck didn't disperse in 2009 and I got to document him as he grew a decent eight-point rack of an estimated 12" in spread. A few years before this had I seen a buck such as this I would have estimated it to be a large  1 1/2 yr old instead of one of 2 1/2 years.

Buck With 8 point rack In 2009

Contrary to all expectations the buck did not disperse that autumn.  He was shot with a rifle in early October, but survived the wound.  Only bow season was in at the time, so this was the result of a failed poaching attempt.

Bullet Wound 2009

It seems likely that this injury prevented him from dispersing that fall as the wound did have a profound effect on him.  He appeared to be very stiff for a long time after this and his neck never became large and swollen for the rut as is normal for whitetail bucks.  He did chase does to a limited extent in November and was in a brief fight, which may be seen in "Running Wild In Pennsylvania Elk Country", but he lost that to a much smaller buck.  Whatever the case, for the first time, I got to see a buck remain in his home territory during his second year.

He did disperse the following May. I had given up all hope of seeing him again, but he returned one evening in early September of 2010.

Buck With 8 Point Rack 2010

He and a buck that was one year younger were traveling together (both had dispersed at the same time). The bucks were still at the meadows at dawn on the following morning, but they left soon after sunup to never be seen again in that area.

I have documented numerous other cases of small bucks eventually growing much larger racks over a period of years, but in the other cases these are bucks that dispersed into my area of operations when they left their home range and I have not been able to photograph another buck from the time he was a fawn until he was over three years old.

Eventually I hope to discuss what I consider to be the major factors in determining antler size and why I think drastic herd reduction is not  the panacea for growing larger bucks that many proclaim it to be.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.