Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Pa Elk Rut 2008


I have just returned from a three day shoot in the Pennsylvania Elk Range.

I met Willard in Benezette early Monday morning and daylight found us on foot moving towards the thrilling sounds of bugling bulls. This trip proved to be my most thrilling elk shoot ever with repeated close encounters with rutting bulls and with one encounter just a tad too close for comfort, but that is a story for another day.

I have returned exhausted and happy with a collection of 1050 images to sort through. Many will be deleted and a few will make the grade. For now I will share an image that caught my attention as I was quickly reviewing the images on the computer. It may become my favorite image from this trip.

I shot this image with the 100-400mm lens set on 400mm, f5.6 ISO 200 and a 1.3 second shutter speed. The sun had been down for some time and the bull was barely visible with the naked eye in the darkness. Skylineing him against the rising fog on the distant mountains made capturing an image possible.

The bull pictured here is in most probabilities the oldest in the state. He is known by many as Fred, others call him Dog Rope and the Pa Game Commission simply calls him Bull #36. For more information on this majestic old animal estimated to be approximately fifteen years old, visit Willard’s blog, Pa Wildlife Photographer.

10 comments:

Meggie said...

Wow! Fred is one good looking elk. Can't wait to see more shots from your trip. Thanks for the answer to my question about lighting.

Chad Oneil Myers said...

One of your best Elk images.

Ivar Østtun said...

Hats off for this one. Great composition. The light and the mist is just beautiful.
Well done :-D

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Salty: A bull for the ages, is he protected during the Elk hunt. I would be a shame to loose that beauty. Your picture on a scale of 1 to 10 is a 15. WOW, you went way out of the range.

Shelley said...

Great shot!!

photowannabe said...

Totally awesome Salty. I run out of supurlatives when looking at your photos.
This is one of those dream shots that should be reproduced for something someplace...a wall,a calendar or wildlife book...

David Pentecost said...

incredible!!!!

Unknown said...

This shot is absolutely breathtaking Salty. Everything about it perfect including the background story. Contrats of this shot.

Wolf Lover Girl said...

That is a GREAT shot. Glad you were able to get it.

~ Wolf Lover Girl

JYoung said...

Man a multiple second exposure. Super shot and thanks for sharing this!