Sky Watch Friday-An August Visit To The Elk Range

The early morning sun breaks through the clouds on Monday morning August 18th, and illuminates a herd of Pennsylvania Elk Grazing in a meadow by the side of Winslow Hill Road.

Canon 30-D 17-40mm at 38mm L 1/125 sec. f 8 ISO 100

This is an exciting time of year when the bulls shed their velvet and clash their antlers together in what is known as sparring. While they may spar at any time of year, it occurs more often now and is more violent in nature. Soon it will escalate into serious fights between mature herd bulls, but for now it is more like an arm wrestling contest between humans with little to no chance of serious injury.

The mating season or rut as it is known will begin in early September and grow more intense toward the middle of the month, reach a peak toward the end, and then abruptly crash. That period is the most exciting time to visit Pennsylvania's Elk Range.

These bulls were in the village of Benezette at 6:33 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

Canon 40-D: 70-200mm f2.8L 1/125 sec. f2.8 ISO 1600

The best chance of seeing elk is early morning and late evening and high ISO speeds and low shutter speeds are often required. Even though I had to use lower shutter speeds than I would have liked I did get a few relatively sharp frames.

Canon 40-D: 70-200mm f2.8L 1/125 sec. f2.8 ISO 1600

I was in Elk County from Sunday Afternoon until this morning, looking for photos and video footage such as this and finalizing some details about the film on Elk. After reviewing it with Ronald Saffer and discussing details with others I have decided it needs only minimal revision in the final segment and so will soon be completely finished.


For more Sky Watch Photos click the sky watch icon at the top of the page. To see more photographs from Elk County, Pennsylvania visit Brad Myers, an excellent photographer who recently visited Pennsylvania's Elk Range for the first time.

It's Done-Well Almost!

As regular readers have noticed, I have not posted since August 9th, and have been doing very little commenting.

I had a deadline of sorts on the elk video of Sunday August 18th, and it became obvious that I was going to have to greatly increase the time I spent editing. (I do all of the post production work, including research and script writing) Each step of the process is extremely time consuming.

It is now in the can so as to speak, and is 2hrs-35 minutes long, which is more than I had anticipated.

It has taken thirteen years to shoot the video and one year to do the post production-although there were days that little was done.

In the last few weeks it has become a full time job and then some, but I finally was at the point at 3:30 A.M. this morning, that I was ready to burn the master DVD for the second Disc. (It is a 2 disc series)

I am sure there will be some minor tweaks after I get input from a variety of sources!

Here is a shot from the last trip to Elk County!

Canon 30-D: 300mmF4

Due to other commitments I will not be posting or commenting until at least Thursday!

I'll post more information on the video soon.

Nothing Special, Just Unusual

It was one of those situations where there were no other options to pursue. I was returning home Thursday from my almost daily morning photographic shoot when I spied a large hawk surveying a meadow from his perch atop a hay bale. I had the 300mm lens attached and decided to shoot a few shots before he flew, as these birds are quite skittish in this area.

I took a few frames and then tried to attach the 500mm, which was lying in the back seat of the Blazer, but I never got it mounted until he flew away. This is likely the same hawk that killed the rabbit in the previous post, as he was only a short distance from that spot.

Canon 30D: 300mmF4-1/500sec. f 5.6 ISO 200

This evening when I arrived at my favorite deer photography spot, I set the 40D up on a tripod and was standing a short distance away with the 30D and 70-200mm lens when one of the fawns came running up to the tripod for a close look at it. Again it wasn't a super pose as I would have liked to have captured a more inquisitive expression on its' face, but still I thought it was special to have the little fellow come that close to the photographic equipment. (Yes, the 40D has returned from repair for the second time and all systems seem to be functional!)

Canon 30D: 70-200mmF 2.8-1/160 sec. f 4.5 ISO 400

For more Camera Critters photos visit Misty Dawn.

Photographing Whitetail Fawn's-Jim Moore's Contest

One of my favorite activities is spending a summer evening relaxing, and photographing whitetail fawns.

Salty went along one evening last week and my favorite doe favored us by feeding quite near to us in the food plot.

Canon 30D: 17-40mm F4-1/40 sec. f8 at 40mm ISO 200

She has a pair of what I call, " classically beautiful" fawns. Some fawns have ears that are too long to be in correct proportion for the most perfect look, or have blemishes from insect bites or skin problems such as mange, but these are perfect. They soon arrived to spend most of the evening feeding and interacting quite near to us.

Canon 30D: 17-40mm F4-1/60 sec. f8 at 40mm ISO 200

Soon the spots will fade and by late September most fawns will have a brown or gray coat, but for now they still have that bright eyed, innocent look, and a beautiful coat that helps them escape detection by predators as the spots help camouflage them when they are in a woodland setting.

Canon 30D: 300mm F4-1/250sec. f8 ISO 200

Also I'm a little late on posting this, but if you haven't heard already Jim Moore is having a "Name the Newt" contest on his web site for a chance to win a September Print of the Month. You can read about it here.

Jim says, "The contest is from August 1-15 only and I'd like to see a blogger win, but I'm not a judge for the name either."

Jim is a world-class photographer and instructor, specializing in stunning scenic photographs. Be sure and visit his website if you can.

I'm sorry I haven't been commenting too much lately or posting, but I am pursing a heavy program of video editing as I try to bring the film on Pennsylvania Elk to a conclusion.