Pennsylvania Bulls Shed Velvet

Early Stages Of Shedding: Canon 1DXMKII- Canon 500mm F4.0 IS

Pennsylvania bull elk usually shed their velvet in a time frame centered around mid-August.  This is likely why the annual Elk Expo is scheduled for mid-month as it is an especially good time to visit the elk range..  As I did not plan on attending the Expo this year I decided to avoid the large crowds that are there that weekend so it was a question of whether to go the week before or the week after.  I finally decided on the week before and as we shall see it was good that I did.

I got there late  in the afternoon on August 14th. There was only a slight chance of thunderstorms that evening, so I took a long walk and checked out several remote food plots. As I did on the last two trips, I carried the Panasonic FZ2500 on the tripod for video and the Canon 1DXMKII with 100-400mm IS II lens in a shoulder bag to take stills.  It was hot as usual and the sweat ran freely, but I was rewarded handsomely when I came to the edge of a back country food plot and saw a fine 6x6 grazing. I filmed him for some time and when he lifted his head I switched to the 1DXMKII for  a few still photos. . You cannot see it in the photo below, but when I looked at the video of the encounter it was easy to see blood spots and several cracks in the velvet.

6x6 Before Shedding: Canon 1DXMKII- Canon 100-400mm IS II

Eventually a small bachelor group of young bulls came out and none of them had shed the velvet yet either.

Bachelor Group: Canon 1DXMKII- Canon 100-400mm IS II

Next evening I repeated the walk. The 6x6 was with a group of smaller bulls and now his velvet was hanging in strips. 

Bachelor Group: Canon 1DXMKII- Canon 100-400mm IS II

Velvet Hanging In Strips: Canon 1DXMKII- Canon 100-400mm IS II

I didn't make that walk again during the August trip, so I didn't get to record this bull once his antlers were completely bare.

A few large bulls showed no signs of shedding yet which was the case with a fine 6x7 that I photographed  shortly after dawn on Wednesday morning. As is usually the case in Pennsylvania Country, it was a foggy morning and I saw several other bulls but got no more good still photos.

6x7 On Foggy Morning: Canon 1DXMKII- Canon 70-200mm IS II

Thursday morning was also foggy and I saw several bulls in a meadow shortly after dawn.  A large 7x7 had not yet shed.

7x7 In Fog: Canon 1DXMKII- Canon 100-400mm IS II

7x7-Another View: Canon 1DMKII- Canon 300mm F2.8 IS

The 7x7 was with a large group of  bulls which were in various stages of shedding.  At one point two squared off in a sparring match, which gave a good photo opportunity.

Bulls Sparring As Dawn: Canon 1DXMKII- Canon 300mm F2.8 IS

Bulls Sparring As Pre-rut Begins: Canon 1DXMKII- Canon 100-400mm IS II

After sunrise I found more bulls sparring in a meadow quite a distance from where I photographed the other bachelor group.

Sparring After Sunrise:Canon 1DXMKII- Canon 500mm IS-1.4x extender

Sparring After Sunrise:Canon 1DXMKII- Canon 500mm IS-1.4x extender

On Friday morning there was time for a short trip around the Benezette area before leaving for home. I found the bull that is shown at the beginning of the post and he was just beginning to lose the velvet. A bit later I  photographed one that was completely shed and had  a branch caught in his antlers from polishing his antlers in trees and branches.

Completely Shed:Canon 1DXMKII- Canon 500mm F4.0 IS

As it turned out choosing this week was the right decision as few of the bulls had shed when I arrived on Monday, but by Thursday and Friday mornings most were well along in the process. Had I waited until the week after the expo, opportunities for getting velvet shedding photos and film clips would have been mostly over.

With the velvet  shed, the bulls are sparring as the pre-rut gets underway. In a short time the full-blown rut will begin and it will peak sometime after mid-month and then wind down in October.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Pennsylvania Bulls Shed Velvet

I spent most of last week in Pennsylvania Elk Country with my primary objective being to film and photograph the shedding of the velvet from the bulls' antlers.  Many of the bulls had already shed by the time I arrived late Monday afternoon, but I found a bachelor group on Tuesday morning in which some of the bulls still had velvet.

6x6 With Velvet

This was a dark, overcast morning with a light shower of rain or two so the Canon 5D MK III and the 300mm f2.8 lens were the perfect choice for this situation.  This bull was in the edge of the woods along a meadow and most of the other bulls were feeding and horning bushes that were scattered throughout the meadow. While I took a few still images, I spent most of the time filming them on video with the Panasonic GH4 and Canon 100-400mm lens.

This is a 4K camera and I film in UHD mode.  With this one is able to capture 8 megapixel stills from the video.  Panasonic has a method for doing this, but I have not tried it.  I simply load the video into  my video editing program, Vegas Pro 13,  and scroll through the timeline until I find a suitable frame and then capture it.  Below are two stills captured in this manner that shows how the velvet cracks and bloody spots appear before the actual shedding occurs.

On Thursday morning I photographed two bulls that were feeding on apples.  The first photo shows how the velvet shedding process progresses from the stage depicted in the the photos above.

Almost Shed

The second photo shows a bull that is completely shed and also documents how bulls dislodge apples from the trees by striking the branches with their antlers.

Trying To Dislodge Apples

With the shedding of the velvet, the bulls begin sparring with other bulls and engaging in other pre-rut activity.  On this trip I did not get to photograph this activity , but I did get to see a mature bulls herding cows  late one evening as darkness fell in a remote wilderness meadow.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

The Shedding Of The Velvet-2015

Ready To Shed Velvet

The last two weeks have been a period of change in Pennsylvania Elk Country, as the bull elk shed the velvet. The new velvet covered antlers begin growing soon after the previous years rack is shed in late winter and early spring. with new antler growth beginning almost immediately. The new antlers are covered with "velvet" which is composed of a soft velvety feeling tissue, which contains a network of blood vessels that carry nourishment to the developing antlers. The antlers reach their full size during July and by early August the velvet begins to dry and crack and eventually peel away, exposing the hard bone like antlers that the animal will carry throughout the autumn and winter.

The bull in the photo below is starting the process with small bits of loose velvet hanging from the antlers and bloody areas with patches of the underlying antler structure showing through.

 Starting To Shed

When the velvet is completely ready to be shed, the animals hasten the process along by aggressively horning trees, saplings, and the ground. At this point it is common to see the velvet hanging from the antlers in long, loose strips.

Shedding Almost Completed

The process  is usually completed in a day or so and the bull is left with the hard, bone like antlers that he  will carry throughout the autumn and winter.

Shedding Completed

Now that the velvet is gone sparring intensifies as the first stirrings of the pre-rut sweep through the herd. While I prefer to photograph elk in a natural setting, it seems that many of the bulls were hanging close to cabins and houses this week and on Wednesday morning I photographed two fine bulls sparring close to a cabin.

 Sparring Beside A Camp

By late August or early September the full-blown rut will get underway and thousands will travel to Benezette to experience the exciting sights and sounds of the rut.  The rut should be very intense by mid-September and should peak late in the month, or in early October.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Elk Expo 2013-Bulls Shed Velvet and Spar

Benezett Store Booth

There was great weather for last week's Elk Expo which was held at Elk Country Visitor Center near Benezette.  A steady stream of visitors passed through the grounds throughout the day on Saturday. It  is my understanding that there was not the overflow crowd that was expected, but it was still a successful day.  According to reports, most were able to park at the visitor center and the shuttle from Benezette received little use.

Founding members of Benezette Elk Camera Club, Richard Coy and wife discuss new elk photo book, "Pennsylvania Elk" with author/editor/photographer, Marci Geise

Benny The Elk Ambassador greets vendors

John Geissler, Chairman Of The Board Keystone Elk Country Alliance in his role as "The Sheriff"

After spending the majority of Saturday and  Sunday morning and most of Sunday afternoon at the Expo, it was time for some serious elk photography, but unfortunately the skies were murky that evening as a front started to move through the area. Most of the bulls I found this evening had already shed their velvet or it was mostly gone with strips of velvet dangling from the antlers.  I did see a few  that had not yet shed; however.

6x6 In Velvet: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 500mm F4- ISO 400, 1/500 sec. f4.5

As dusk settled over the countryside, I found a bachelor groups grazing and at one point two briefly locked antlers. 

Ron "Buckwheat" Saffer was also photographing in the area and I found him photographing three young bulls nearby.  These bulls were really into the sparring and Buckwheat got several still photos.  At this point I was taking video with the GH3 and 70-200mm f2.8 lens.  As sparring and fighting are ideal subjects for video I didn't take any stills of this encounter so the following images  are video still captures.

Young Bulls Sparring

Sparring is not to be confused with serious fighting

Soon the bulls stopped sparring and moved away.  The other bachelor group was still in the meadow behind me. Most of the bulls were grazing, but I  picked out two that were in an alert pose and took a few frames with the5D MK III  and the 500mm at ISO 6400. 

Bulls At Dusk: 5D MK III-Canon 500mm F4-ISO 6400, 1/100 sec. f4

We saw another small bachelor group somewhat later.  It was nearly dark by then, but I still took a few photos at ISO 12800 and 25600, but that is for another post, if I decide to process them.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Elk Calves'-The Spots Fade- Using the 5D MK III & GH2 in Elk Country

Spots Fade on Calf Elk: Panasonic GH2-Canon 500mm F4

 During August, most visitors to elk country may be focused on the bulls and the shedding of the velvet and the first stirrings of the pre-rut, but other important changes are occurring in the herd as well.  Like whitetail fawns, the calves are spotted at birth, which creates a camouflage pattern that helps them escape predators, but the spots start to fade in late July and this process continues until the coat is a solid color. The process begins at the top of the back and gradually works down.  By mid-August most of the calves are only partially changed such as the one in the photo above, but a small number have only a few spots still faintly visible. By the time the rut peaks in mid to late September most of the calves will have completely lost the spots or will have only a few faint ones.

Cow and Two Calves at Gilbert Viewing Area- one with spots almost gone: Still capture from video Panasonic GH2-Canon 500mm F4

 Two Calves at Gilbert Viewing Area- one with spots almost gone: Still capture from video -Panasonic GH2-Canon 500mm F4 -extended telephoto mode -35mm equivalent focal length approximately 2,000mm

This is the second trip to elk country that I have used the Panasonic GH2 as my primary video camera.  I was very unhappy when Canon did not include  the 3x crop mode in the 5D MK II or the new Rebel T4i.  I have no personal experience with The T4i, but I am told that the it does not have a better picture quality than the T3i.  I do have a fair amount of experience with the MK III in video mode and it is significantly better than the T3i in either still or video mode.  I am very happy with it when one can get close enough to the subject, but I missed the reach of the old Canon XL-H1 and the big L lenses, so after extensive research, I decided to try the Panasonic GH2 hybrid camera.

The GH2  uses a micro-4/3 lens mount and the sensor has a 2x crop factor.  The camera also has an extended telephoto mode, which takes the 2mp of resolution required for video from a small central portion of the sensor. This is how one can "really reach out and touch them" in video mode.  A decided down factor to this equation is that to use the Canon mount glass, one must use an adapter, and one that will electronically control the aperture costs almost as much, or more than the camera body--depending on which particular adapter one buys.  The bottom line; however,  is that the 500mm F4 , which is just that on a MK III becomes a 1,000mm F4 equivalent focal length on the GH2.  This is true in either still or video mode.  It becomes a 2,000mm focal length equivalent  in video mode when the extended telephoto mode is engaged.  The image is degraded somewhat , but it is still very usable.  I understand that unlike the T3i, one can also use this mode while shooting stills, but it will no longer utilize the full resolution of the sensor and as this is primarily a video camera in my case, I have not tried this yet.

Although one may not be able to tell from images posted on the internet, the bottom line is the GH2 cannot compete with any of the later Canon DSLRs as a still camera, but it is very usable and when one is concentrating on video it is an acceptable option to switch to still mode and take photographs.  Stills captured from video after the fact will be only 2MP resolution and will not be nearly as good as stills actually shot in still mode.

Calf Near Winslow Hill Road: Canon 5D MK III: Canon 500mm F4-ISO 400 1/640 sec. F4

A decided plus for the GH2 is that this is the first DSLR with which I have been able to follow-focus on moving animals or birds, in video mode, with any degree of success .So far manual focus  must be used in filming with a DSLR to have any hope of success and the LCDs are simply too low in resolution to reliably maintain sharp focus on moving subjects, even with the Zacuto Finder attached(the Rebel T3i did work better in this aspect than anything I had used previously).   The GH2 works better, because it has a blistering sharp electronic view finder in addition to a decent LCD.  I prefer to shoot video with the camera slightly above waist level and the LCD swiveled out and at a 45 degree angle, so I am standing above the camera, looking, down, and bent slightly forward.  This often gives a better perspective on the subject than standing erect, and using the eye-level finer, and it  is a good position to follow action from as one's head is not bumping the camera to disturb smooth camera motion, but the downside is of course the focus thing.  I find I am using the eye-level finder on this camera more and more, simply because I no longer have so much problem focusing.  

The bottom line is that one needs to keep an open mind about some of the options out there with the new high end Canon video cameras costing $16,000.00 without lens. 

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Pennsylvania Bulls Shed Velvet

I have spent most of the summer filming wildlife in the mornings and evenings, and editing the new Pennsylvania elk film in the mid-part of the day and after dark.  In addition I have spent about one week each month since June, documenting the elk herd, so last  week I traveled to elk country to document the shedding of the velvet and the fading of the spots on the calves.  The bulls begin to shed the velvet in early August, but the timing of the process does seem to vary somewhat from year to year.  In general it is safe to say that the peak of shedding activity occurs about the middle of the month.  As it turned out I was a bit late to record the beginning of the process on the mature bulls.

I arrived on Monday afternoon and spent the evening in the saddle.  This yielded some great encounters with cows and calves, but no bulls.  Tuesday morning yielded more encounters with cows and calves, but again no mature bulls shedding velvet were seen.

Spots Are Fading On The Calves: Canon 5D MK III- 500mm F4 ISO 400 1/640 sec. F4

I saw one mature bull known among the elk watching circle as "Attitude" on Tuesday evening, but he was feeding near a cabin and in such a situation that I did not feel comfortable photographing him so I passed on the situation.

The following morning I found him along Winslow Hill Road and did get a few photographs of him, along with several video clips of him rubbing his antlers on trees and bushes.

"Attitude"Near Winslow Hill Road : Canon 5D MK III-70-200mm F2.8  ISO 1600 1/160 sec. F2.8

"Attitude"Rubs Antlers on Fallen Branch: Canon 5D MK III-70-200mm F2.8  ISO 1600 1/200 sec. F2.8

That evening I encountered two bulls that are frequently seen working the north end of Winslow Hill along Winslow Hill Road.  I had checked repeatedly for them, throughout the evening, but they did not arrive in the meadow until almost dark.  The largest bull remained at a distance and was partially obscured by vegetation so I concentrated on the smaller 6x6.  In this case the low light capability of the 5D MK III really paid off as I used an ISO of 10,000 and I am very pleased with the results.

6x6 With Velvet Almost Shed : Canon 5D MK III-500mm F4  ISO 10,000 1/60 sec. F4

I turn off all in camera noise reduction and then use either the Noise Ninja plug-in or the noise reduction tools included in Adobe CS6 Camera Raw Processor.  In my experience Noise Ninja does quite well until I start dealing with the higher ISOs.  I need more experience to determine the exact point, but at present I usually use noise Ninja as my tool of first resort for speeds up to 1,000,   Beyond that I try Noise Ninja first and then turn to the Photoshop tools  if I am not pleased with the results.  It seems that beyond a certain point with Noise Ninja that I either have too much noise remaining or end up with a plastic looking result.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

The Velvet Is Shed As Pennsylvania Elk Rut Approaches

August is a month of change for the Pennsylvania elk herd.  The antlers complete their development in July and the velvet dries out and cracks in early to mid-August with many bulls starting the shedding process during the second week of August.  I was in Pennsylvania Elk Country from August 15th through the 19th, looking to document this process and  found what would prove to be the largest bull of the trip lying in a meadow beside Winslow Hill Road on Monday evening.

9x8 Bull Elk Starting To Shed Velvet

It is difficult to see with the size of the photo on the blog, but count forward three points from the back of the left beam and then look just below the two points that are clustered together and you can see the first bloody, partially bare patch on his antlers.  Eventually he got up, dislodged some apples from a nearby tree with his antlers, and rubbed the velvet against the limbs.  At this point one could also see some blood and partially bare areas on the other antler as well.

I found him in the same spot at dawn on Tuesday morning and the shedding was much more advanced, but he still had a long way to go.

Bare Spots Are Larger Next Morning With Strips Of Velvet Hanging Loose

I was at this meadow at dawn on Thursday morning , but he was not there so I went on the Hick's Run viewing area where I saw a lot of whitetail deer, but sometime after I left  well known elk watcher and photographer Lamie Wheler saw him crossing the meadow and took a series of photos of  him as he violently rubbed an autumn olive bush less than twenty yards from the road.  This was exactly what I wanted to film with the video camera, but alas I was in the wrong place.  Later in the morning I encountered him at the edge of some woodlands and only a few strips of velvet remained.

Shedding Almost Complete On Thursday Morning

I checked the meadow again that evening as dusk was falling and he was moving across it in such a manner that  it was obvious that he was not going to linger long enough to take still photographs so I mounted the Canon XL-H1 camcorder and got a a few video clips before he vanished from sight.  As best as I could tell the antlers were completely bare by this point.  All of the above photos were taken with the Canon 500mmF4 IS.  The first two are with the Canon 7D and the third with the T3i.

I hope to post more photographs from the trip over the next few days, but the trip was not only about photography, but  elk management issues as well. With the annual  drawing for elk licenses being held in September and elk season being held from October 31--November 5th and the extended season from November 7th through the 12th--there is is quite a bit of talk about the events of the past season and the decision to issue 10 of the 18 bull tags for Zone 2, 8, and 10 this year.  These are the zones that most directly impact the areas where most visitors look for elk.  If one includes the special conservation tag, this means a total of 11 of the bulls that frequent the center of elk related tourism could be killed.  With hunter success rate running between approximately 90-100% on bulls this effectively means that there is a high possibility that at least 10 of the bulls that you see on Winslow Hill this September will be dead by mid-November.

As disturbing as this is, it was eclipsed by an eyewitness account of the killing of a bull during the past season.  I hope to share at least portions of this story in the next post.

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.