Sky Watch Friday: More Pennsylvania Elk Photos

Ronald "Buckwheat" Saffer and I encountered a herd of cow elk with a spike bull last Wednesday evening. It was one of those evenings with a lot of clouds in the sky. There were periods of sunshine, interspersed with times that the sun was behind the clouds. When the sun did shine, there was very dramatic lighting. Since we were busily photographing the elk, I did not want to change lenses, so at one point I took this shot of the sky with the 100-400mm. This photo is cropped to give it a panoramic look as it is actually more appealing in this format.

Taken From Winslow Hill Toward Quehanna Wild Area: Canon 40D-100-400mmF5.6L at 100mm

One seldom gets to photograph elk against such dramatic cloud formations. I have taken some very effective shots of animals later in the evening, when the shot was exposed to make a silhouette of the foreground and the animals against the sky, but this is one of the few times that I have been able to get good detail and exposure in both the animals ands the sky. I used the f13 aperture to get both the foreground and sky as sharp as possible.

Canon 40D-100-400mmF5.6L at 250mm 1/125 sec. F13 ISO 200

The final photo was taken at 1/350 sec. so as to stop the action. It did work in this case, but sometimes even more speed is required for successful action shooting. Notice that the depth of field is not as great in this case so there is not as much detail in the sky!

Canon 40D-100-400mmF5.6L at 300mm 1/350 sec. F8 ISO 200

I have not used the 100-400mm much in the last year, but both Salty and Billie Cromwell reported good results with it on the Canon 30D, so I pressed it back into service, and I must say that I am pleased with the results. It did work well on the Canon 10D which I previously used as long as the image was not cropped a significant amount. It seems to be a different story with the 30D and 40D and stands up well to cropping. Is it as good as the 500mmF4? No, but the 500mm is not nearly as versatile. In this case I could not have been shooting video also, but would have had to have the 500mm on a tripod and been further away to get the same composition. As it were, I could use the video camera on the tripod and carry the 40D with 100-400mm on my chest. My favorite shooting method in this case is to rest the rear of the 40D on an accessory bracket on the back of the XL-H1 camcorder and rest the lens in my left hand which is in turn supported by the top of the camcorder near the front of the body. This combined with the image stabilization gives one excellent potential for sharp images.

For more Sky Watch photos, visit Tom at Wigger's World!

More Pennsylvania Bull Elk In Velvet

Here are more photographs from last week's trip to Elk County. The primary purpose of the trip was to videotape calves, so as usual the camcorder came first. I couldn't carry my big gun-the 500mmF4 as it requires a tripod.

I almost never shoot video without a tripod as I cannot stand an jiggle whatsoever. This means that I have to make still photography secondary, so I carry the 300mmF4, and the 70-200mmF2.8, both of which have image stabilization. I also carried the 100-400mm F5.6 for the first time in well over a year (in the elk range) and I was pleased with the results. All of the above lenses have image stabilization, and are reasonably portable, so I can shoot them without a tripod. In addition they can be fitted to the Canon XL-H1 Camcorder in which cases their focal length is multiplied by a factor of 7.2 due to the 1/3" sensors of that camera. This gives a 400mm an effective focal length of over 2,800mm. It is amazing at what distances one can take excellent video, if the atmosphere is free of haze or heat waves.

At any rate, I encountered a very nice bull in the backcountry, late on Tuesday evening. He was with a bachelor group of small bulls that were resting in a nearby meadow. I concentrated on him and got the following shot. The photo is cropped severely. I would have liked to have been closer but there was no opportunity to do so!

For those familiar with the Pennsylvania elk herd, this is bull number 62. Unless there is a particular reason to let it there, I usually remove the collar with Photoshop as I detest the way they detract from the natural look of the animal, so yes this animal had a bright yellow collar with large black numbers before Photoshop worked its' magic.

Canon 40D: 100-400mmL F5.6 at 400mm-1/180 sec. f5.6 ISO 400

"Buckwheat" and I were shooting together on Thursday evening when we had an encounter with a small but beautiful bull. I used to like photographing wildlife best in the autumn and especially liked to photograph deer and elk during the rut, when there is a lot of exciting action, but now I find that I like summer as much when it is not too hot and humid. An evening like this is hard to beat with beautiful late evening light, a nice tang in the air, and best of all-complete peace and quiet!

Canon 40D: 300mmL F4 a-1/125 sec. f4 ISO 500

The young bull was completely trusting and allowed us to photograph from about 50 yards or so. This was a good comfortable working range and we had no reason to get closer. Buckwheat also shoots a Canon 40D and was using his tried and true 300mmF2.8.

Canon 40D: 300mmL F4 a-1/125 sec. f4 ISO 500

What better way to spend an evening than photographing wildlife in the great outdoors!

Pennsylvania Elk: The Calves Are Born

Most Pennsylvania elk calves are born from mid-May through mid-June, so I spent Tuesday through Friday of this week on Winslow Hill and surrounding areas photographing and recording calves.

I met Ronald "Buckwheat" Saffer there, and we photographed the elk extensively and reviewed a semi-finished draft of a portion of the elk video. He and Billie Cromwell are assisting as script consultants, and contributing video footage and still photos to the production.

View from Winslow Hill toward St. Mary's-Canon 40D: 17-40mm at 29mm 1/90 f8 ISO 100

I focused on filming, as I do not have a great deal of video of the young animals. I did see several, but most were at long range and the encounters were usually very fleeting, as the animals were very spooky. This is normal to a certain extent as the cows are very protective of the young and will avoid humans more than at other times of year.

I also heard from reliable sources that the Game Commission was capturing calves and fitting them with ear tags, and breakaway collars. This was likely responsible for the extreme skittishness.


I did get a modest amount of video footage at long range with the big telephotos, but finally on Thursday evening, Buckwheat and I had a close encounter with a calf in a wooded area. It initially crouched down at our approach, but soon stood erect. I videotaped this segment and then tried some still shots with the 300mmF4. A small bull was in the woods to the left of the calf. He made a sudden movement and the calf bolted so I didn't get a shot of him facing me.

Young Calf Elk-Canon 40D: 300mmF4-1/180 f4 ISO 800

Two bulls were grazing and browsing by the roadside at the entrance to the Dent's Run Viewing Area on Friday morning and I couldn't resist taking this photograph as it looked like the bull was reading the sign.

Canon 40D: 100-400mm at 105mm 1/250 f5.6 ISO 400

I hope to post more photographs from this trip in addition to more fawn photographs.

I wish to thank everyone for their comments on the last fawn post and I will try to visit your blogs over the next few days!

For more Camera Critters photos visit Misty Dawn.

More Whitetail Fawn Encounters

Slowly but surely, encounters with the newborn fawns are increasing. Shown immediately below is the doe, which was featured in the post of June 5th, when she was obviously very pregnant. She vanished on June 10th and I didn't see her again until the 14th when she came to the meadow with sunken flanks. As of yet I have not seen her fawn or fawns.

Canon 40-D: 17-40mm at 17mm-1/90 sec. f8 400 ISO

I finally saw another fawn on Sunday morning. No fawns followed the does to the meadow so eventually I left and took a short walk. When I returned a doe was walking from the meadow to the nearby woods. She was passing through an area with areas of tall grass interspersed with mowed strips. A small fawn was with her. I have suspected for the last week or so that this doe had a fawn nearby as her flanks were shrunken and she spent a lot of time in the brush near the meadow, emerging to feed for a few moments and then slipping back into the woods. Luckily she went on into the woods but the fawn walked into the tall grass and lay down, giving me a decent photo opportunity.

Canon 40-D: 17-40mm at 40 mm-1/60 sec. f8 400 ISO

I had no sooner than arrived at the meadow when the doe and fawn featured in the post of June 9th (the first one I saw this year) came running into the meadow, stopped quite near me and began nursing. I wish you could have heard the soft, rapid, mewing noise that the fawn made as it fed. (This was definitely the same doe, but if she had twins I can't say if this was the same fawn-only time will tell!

Canon 40-D: 70-200 mm at 200 mm-1/125 sec. f5.6 400 ISO

Due to a busy schedule, this will be the last post until Friday or Saturday when I hope to be able to return with further updates!