Mid-July Trip To Pennsylvania Elk Country

The River

Temperatures were hot and humid when I arrived in Benezette in mid-afternoon on Monday July 17th for several days of elk filming and photography.  Reports indicated that few elk were being seen in town or on Winslow Hill, but in spite of this I felt optimistic of success.

Even though it was stifling hot, there was little haze in the air with only a slight threat of a thunderstorm and it was a good evening to take a walk with the cameras if you didn't mind being soaked with sweat. Since I usually concentrate on taking video, I carried a Panasonic FZ2500 fitted with a 5" Small HD monitor on the tripod for that purpose and a Canon 1DKMKII with the Canon 100mm-400mm IS II lens in my camera bag for still photography. I saw several small bulls that evening and one was close enough for good still photos.

Alert 5x5

5x5 Looks At Distant Bulls

The best bull of the evening was a decent 6x6, but unfortunately he was in short grass, which provided a less than deal setting and he was always looking directly at me when I was taking stills.

6x6 Pauses From Grazing

Three of the most important parts of elk photography in the summer is being out early in the morning and staying late in the evening.  When I walked I never got back to the vehicle until after dark.  The down side to this of course is that lighting conditions are often less than ideal when you encounter the elk. I prefer the mornings if it is not too foggy, but that is a big problem in elk country as it seems most mornings are foggy--some of them so bad that photography is almost impossible. Fortunately the morning I encountered a fine 6x7 with a bachelor group of smaller bulls, the fog was spotty and there were relatively clear periods at times.

6x7 On A Foggy Morning

4K Video Frame Grab of Bachelor Group

On Wednesday morning another fine 6x7 was grazing in a meadow of tall grasses and I photographed him with the 1DXMKII and 500mm F 4 lens.

6x7  Looks To Distant Hill Side

Another View

Eventually he returned to feeding and worked past my position and I used the 5DMKIII with the Canon 100-400mm IS II to photograph him with a bit more of the surroundings included in the photo.

6x7: Taken with 5DMKIII and 100-400mm IS II at 371 mm

I spent very little time driving around Winslow Hill. I did check for the bulls that I saw last month along the road at the upper end of the hill, but I only saw a small one and didn't film him. Late on Tuesday morning I played tourist and photographed a herd of elk in a camp lawn with the Panasonic FZ1000, which I usually use for close-up video filming when I am not able to set the tripod up. I also used it to take the river photo at the beginning of the post and it does a creditable job with stills as long as one keeps at the lower ISO settings.

A Typical Sighting On Winslow Hill

All in all I have had better July trips to elk country, but this one still gave a lot of photo and video opportunities.  The summer has moved so quickly and it seems impossible to think that very shortly most of the bulls will shed the velvet and soon another rut will begin.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Mid-February Wildlife-Canon 100-400mm L IS II Problems

Whitetail Herd In Snowstorm

 Just a short time ago we were plunged into the depth of winter with deep snow and bitter cold.  This changed quickly; however, as we saw in the Ice-Out post. While snow still remained on the ground in most places, life was much easier for the deer and turkeys as they could now travel about easily looking for food.

Alert Gobbler

Travel Was Easy

Three days later, there was even less snow in the spot the turkeys were photographed  and deer liked to stand there, basking in the rays of the afternoon sun.

Doe Basking In Late Winter Sun

Doe Grooming Fawn

There was even less snow by yesterday morning and I photographed a buck, that was a small spike last fall, and some does feeding in a neighbor's rye field.

Last Year's Spike

Deer Pause From Grazing In Rye

After a chilly start, yesterday turned into a balmy day  that reached the mid 60s.  This made my thoughts turn to the coming spring waterfowl migration and hopefully a trip or two to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area.  If the current weather pattern does not change, the peak of the snow geese and tundra swan migration should be much earlier than in the past two years.

All photos were taken with the Canon 7D MK II.  The 24-105mm IS L lens was used for the first photo and the 70-200mm 2.8 L IS II was used for the remainder. I love the sharpness of the new Canon 100-400mm IS II, and have been using it a lot this winter, but I have had problems with it (or the camera it is mounted on) locking up (auto-focus stops and the IS doesn't work).  Seldom a day goes by without this happening at least once.  Strangely it seems to do it more often with the 7D MK II, but it does it occasionally with the 5D MK III, the 70D, and the original 7D.  Sometimes simply moving the focusing ring a bit will restore function, while other times re-seating the lens will do the trick, but sometimes the battery must be removed and re-inserted.  I returned the lens and the 7D MK II to Canon at the end of December, and they changed the focus assembly and other parts and calibrated the camera with the lens, but the problem was still there.  I sent the lens back at the beginning of the week and Canon is currently servicing it so I could not use it for the photos in today's post and the 70-200mm is filling in as the telephoto lens to use when photographing from the vehicle until it gets back. Hopefully they will find the problem this time

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.