Sunday, October 07, 2012

Photographing the Photographers: Pa Elk Country

Each September a dedicated group of photographers gather around Benezette, Pennsylvania to shoot the elk rut.  This is an informal group bound together with a common interest in photographing wildlife and elk in particular.  With wildlife photography growing rapidly in popularity so to is the number photographers showing on the elk range.

 Visiting, chatting about elk, equipment, technique and catching up on each others lives during lulls in the elk activity is a big part of the elk rut experience.  For most of us this is the only time we will meet during the year while others may meet up again during the whitetail rut in Virginia.

The elk here are accustomed to people and seldom shy away as the paparazzi moves in.

As you can see in this shot where the elk in the photo graze peacefully in front of the cameras.

Other years I returned from these trips finding that I had focused my attention upon the elk and had missed photographing the people.  This year I was determined to capture the shooters.  To remind myself I carried a camera around my neck at all times with either the 24-105 or the 100-400mm lens attached just for that purpose. 
 
Checking my cards after this trip I was satisfied that I had captured a suitable number of shots of the photographers in action on the Pa elk range.
 
I mentioned in an earlier post about dropping the 600mm lens on this trip and now as Paul Harvey would say here is "the rest of the story".  I dropped the lens off with FedX last Saturday and it arrived at Canon repair on Tuesday.  Before noon on Wed. I had a repair quote and promptly approved it.  The repaired lens was delivered to my home on Saturday!  I took it out for a test run this afternoon and it appears that the lens is every bit as good as it was before the accident.  Now that is Good Service!  

6 comments:

Ruth Hiebert said...

That is good and quick serves.The way it should be.
I can't help but think at all the money sitting around in some of these pictures. I do know that this kind of equipment does not come cheap.Fascinating pictures.

Lois Evensen said...

Glad to hear that lens is quickly back in service. I know how hard it is to lose the use of a special piece of equipment.

Love the images of the image takers. :)

Sharon M said...

There are some big lenses out there. It's nice that the elk put up with all this. ;-) Out of curiosity, do you ever see any women photographers out there? It seems a rather male-dominated sport.

Anonymous said...

Geeat job shooting the elk shooters.
Love the foggy silhouettes.

Coy Hill said...

Sharon,
Yes there are women and their numbers are increasing. In my experience most are shooting at the regulated viewing areas where good elk viewing can be had without humping the heavy equipment although more and more are showing up in more remote areas.
Thanks for asking.

PaWingers said...

Hey Coy, great pics! Glad to hear the 600 has been fixed and back in service. Hope they weren't too hard on you.