Each year thousands of people descend on the village of Benezette and
Winslow Hill to experience the sights and sounds of the elk rut and I joined the throng this week.
The
first stirrings of the pre-rut begin once the bulls shed the velvet in
August. The actual rut begins in late August to early September and by
the middle of the month it becomes the full-blown rut. Below are some
photos taken at the Porcupine Run-Winslow Hill viewing area yesterday
afternoon and evening. I still usually refer to this as the Gilbert
Viewing Area or the Gilbert Farm, but I can understand the other name as
the Gilbert is only a portion of the total overall viewing area. Just
before the photos below were taken there was a dominance fight between
two bulls. I have no still photos as I devoted my attention to filming
the fight. I stopped the camera briefly a few times to change settings
and ended up with 7 minutes and 34 seconds of recording. The fight
lasted a minute or so longer than that and it would be longer still if
one counts the bulls behavior immediately after the encounter. We were
surprised that the action began as early as it did, as it was very warm
with bright sunshine. I have not downloaded the video files yet and
cannot tell exactly what time the fight occurred, but my best guess would
be shortly after 3:00 p.m. We spent some time watching the herd from
that vantage point after the fight was over before moving to a different
location that gave a closer perspective on the herd. It was 4:31 and
later when I took the photos below.
 |
| Herd at Gilbert Farm: Canon 70D-Canon 24-105mm@55mm-ISO 100-1/200 Sec. f 8 |
 |
| Bull Herding Cows: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 300mm f2.8 IS+ 2x Extender II-ISO 100-1/500 Sec. f 7.1 |
 |
| Bull Herding Cows: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 300mm f2.8 IS+ 2x Extender II-ISO 100-1/500 Sec. f 7.1 |
 |
| Calf Panting: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 300mm f2.8 IS+ 1.4x Extender II-ISO 100-1/800 Sec. f 5.0 |
I took a photo of the entire herd from the original vantage point just before leaving to check out another area.
 |
| Herd at Gilbert: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS II.4x Extender II-ISO 100-1/250 Sec. f 8.0 |
In closing I must say that the Canon 70D is working
out even better than expected. Although most of the above photos were
taken with the 5D MK III, I find that I am using the 70D for most of my
still photography. Since I mostly shoot video I prefer it to the 5D MK
III for that purpose because of its' long range video ability and
auto-focus in video model. The clincher is that I am able to shift
between long range video and stills without having to change the camera
body.
There is no doubt the 5D MK III is better in very
low light, but the 70D is very good and seems to be a big step above
the 7D in this respect. I still think the Panasonic GH3 takes sharper
video as does the 5D MK III, but at present it seems that the ability of
the 70D to handle my Canon L lenses, without loss of automatic lens
functions, overrides the quality consideration. Perhaps I will regret it
when I look at my footage on a HDTV, but I don't thinks so at this
point.
Originally published at
Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.
