Pennsylvania Elk Rut 2014 With The Panasonic GH4

I arrived in Pennsylvania Elk Country on Sunday, September 21st to find the rut going full-bore and there were several days of intense activity, but then the rut abruptly crashed on Wednesday night and Thursday was very slow.  Things were a bit better on Friday, but the rut never really took off again during the next week and good filming opportunities were difficult to find.  I went home after the morning shoot on Friday October 3rd and have not heard if there was an upswing after that.

Starting in 2012 I have made a short video each year featuring the most dramatic  video footage from that year's elk rut and today's post features the 2014 video which I just completed yesterday. All of the dramatic footage of the bulls running about and fighting was taken on the first four days of the trip.

Today I have posted the same video on both Vimeo and You Tube to show help analyze the difference between them.

Vimeo Version

You Tube Version

The video was filmed with the Panasonic GH4, with the exception of the sunset scene used in closing which was shot with a Panasonic GH3. I used the14-140mm Lumix for the scenic clips and some of the close encounters with elk, but most of the material was taken with the Canon 100-400mm L lens. The 70-200mm f 2.8 L IS II was used in some cases, most notably the shot of the bulls in velvet in the fog. The  100-300mm Lumix  was used to film the bull following cows and calves into the woods near the end of the video.  Use of the Canon lenses was made possible by the Metabones Canon EF MFT Speed Booster, which enables the GH4 to control the aperture of the Canon lenses and permits image stabilization to be used. An added benefit is that it increases the maximum aperture of the lens making the 70-200mm f2.8 a f2.0 and the 100-400 f4.5-5.6 becomes f 3.2-f4.0, which is a big help in low light. The bad news is that it does not support auto-focus with the Canon lenses.

GH4   fitted with external mike, video cage external monitor.and Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS II Lens Note Metabones Adapter at rear of lens

This video is the first I have made that was shot in what is commonly referred to as 4K, although it is actually Ultra-HD (UHD)which has a frame size of 3840x2160 versus the 4096x2160 of true 4K and the 1920X1080 of full HD.  As few, including me, have 4K TVs to view this on some might ask what the benefit is of using this technology at present? There are several valid reasons,

4K edited on a 1080P time line supposedly yields a better 1080P finished product than using 1080P original footage.  Another advantage and the one perhaps most important to me is the ability to crop the footage substantially in post production and still maintain a 1080P or more resolution.  Of almost equal importance is that 4K is the immediate future of video and it is likely that the trend will continue through 6K and eventually 8K, etc.  Shooting 4K now means that one's footage will hopefully retain commercial value for a longer period of time.

Unfortunately the advantage is not visible on Vimeo.  I rendered the file to 1080P, but when the upload was complete a message came up that it was advisable to allow Vimeo to convert the clip to 720P so that it would play better for those that have a slow internet connection and I permitted it to do so. The clip was uploaded at full 1080P to You Tube.  Be sure to selected that playback setting for best quality.  If it gives problems with playing back smoothly, allow it to play through once while you are doing something else and then play it again and it should go better. This is a major reason that I hesitate to post a lot of video.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

January Wildlife

The ground has been bare more often than not this winter and snowfalls to date have been light, although as I write this it is snowing and more snow is forecast over the next several days. The lack of snow has not helped winter photography as the countryside is drab looking without it. I see wildlife each day, but it is difficult to capture it in exceptional poses or doing something extraordinary.  It seems most of the local turkeys have congregated in a large flock some distance from where I ordinarily set up to photograph. I saw a large flock in a distant food plot on both January 19th and 20th on a farm which I drive past each day.  This field is one of the first spots that the early morning sun hits and on both mornings they were taking advantage of the relative warmth of this area. Both of the photos below were taken from about 250 yards away.
 

Distant Flock: Panasonic GH 2-Lumix 14-140mm@48mm-ISO 200-1/200 sec. f 11.0

I continually write about how far away something is and I think this comes from my  first futile attempts to photograph wildlife back in the mid to late 1960s, with an old fashioned 120 roll film box camera and a small 127 roll film point and shoot.  Both of these cameras had wide-angle lenses.  Deer were scarce back then and bolted at the sight of a human so it was hard to get within 30-50 yards of one. When I finally got some photos at ranges like this, I was discouraged to find that the deer were only small blobs in the picture. Consequently, I am most appreciative of how far we can reach with the equipment that is easily available today. I used the Panasonic GH2 for the wide shot as I had it on the front seat of the Bronco with a 14-140mm zoom lens fitted to it, which was perfect for an "environmental" type shot. The camera/lens combination of choice for the long shot was the Canon 7D and the 600mm f 4.0.

There were several mature gobblers with the flock. They were feeling the first stirrings of the fast approaching mating season for turkeys and were strutting and gobbling. 

Strutting and Gobbling: Canon 7D-Canon 600mm f4.0 IS- ISO 400-1/160 sec. f  4.5

The local whitetail herd is dealing with the winter quite well and I see them every day, but I seldom see them doing anything that is especially noteworthy or photogenic. I have only seen one rack buck since season, but two spikes were frequently seen. One of these shed his antlers in late December as was reported in the December 24th post, "Whitetail Buck Sheds Antlers".  The other buck carried his spikes through most of January and I photographed him on several occassions.

Yearling Spike Buck: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm f4.0 IS- ISO 400-1/250 sec. f  8.0

Spike 2 Days Before Shedding: Panasonic GH 2-Lumix 14-140mm@140mm-ISO 200-1/200 sec. f 11.0

 He still had both spikes when he came into the meadow last Monday morning, but in a few minutes I noticed that one was gone.

 Spike After Shedding: Canon 5D MK III-Canon24-105mm f4.0L@105mm  IS- ISO 400-1/800 sec. f  4.5

Bleeding Pedicle: Canon 5D MK III-Canon24-105mm f4.0L@55mm  IS- ISO 400-1/160 sec. f  4.5

The other spike was gone on the following morning. This buck has good potential for another year.  If he is lucky he will grow a 12+" rack of eight or more points in his second year with antlers.  Deer may grow larger at a younger age in other parts of the state, but this is normal for this area.  As for those who think we need less deer to have larger bucks-that may be true to a CERTAIN extent, but herd reduction programs all too often result in deer being extremely difficult or next to impossible to see.  This is a never ending discussion and it is beyond the scope of today's post to discuss this in detail, but deer that live in a mixture of woodlands and mountain meadows are not as likely to grow large racks as those that feed regularly in grain fields.

We had only a modest deer herd in this area back the late 50s and one into the early 80s.  Most of the bucks killed were spikes, and small four and six-points with the occasional eight-point.  Sometimes a truly large buck was taken, but it was rare.  The point I am making is that back then the herd was not large enough to severely impact the habitat and most yearlings were still spikes or small rack bucks.  Based on what I know now, I suspect that many of the bucks of four or more points were not yearlings but were  two years or more old.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.