Tag: wildlife photography

Tule Elk

Two Young Bulls Debate Who Has the Right of Way on Game Trail, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of two tule elk bulls facing each other on a game trail.
“Outta My Way!”  “No, outta my way!”

Yesterday’s photo of the elk calf was taken an hour before sunset.  The light was still pretty strong as you could see.  This photo was taken at sunset and these young tule elk bulls are in the shade.  Much nicer light and color in the shade, especially at sunset.

Each of these young bulls has five points per antler.  Points are an indicator of age in elk.  According to the Park Service, one-year old bulls have a single spike.  Two-year olds usually have slender antlers with four  to five points.  Three year olds have thicker antlers with four to five points and four year old and older bulls usually have  six points on each antler and they get thicker each year.   Yellowstone Resources and Issues 2009 at p. 126.    While the Park Service document was focusing on Rocky Mountain elk, I don’t believe there is any difference with regard to the antlers of these tule elk at Point Reyes National Seashore.

So, are these five-point elk two or three years old?  I’m not sure, but I’m guessing they are three year olds.  Their antlers aren’t that slender and I’ve seen bulls with skinny antlers and four or five points and they’re still hanging out with the cows and yearlings.  These guys in the photo are hanging out with the big six (and seven) point bulls.

Tule Elk

Tule Elk Calf, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of tule elk calf.
One of Many Tule Elk Calves, Pierce Point Ranch

At the end of my most recent day out at Point Reyes I did what I usually do, which is to drive out the Tomales Peninsula to the Pierce Point Ranch area to photograph the elk that move to the east side of the road in the last light before sunset.  It’s great that they do that because you can use your car as a blind and be fairly close to them.   That they cross the road then is crucial so you don’t have to shoot into the sun.

Luckily, the cow elk do this most of the time about an hour before sunset.  They were right on schedule that day.   There were about 50 cows and yearlings and another 20 to 30 calves.  I don’t recall nearly as many calves there last year.   If you want to photograph elk calves this is a good time to do it there.

Deer

“My, What Big Ears You Have.”

Photo of mule deer doe in snow.
Mule Deer Doe, Yellowstone National Park

There are two species of deer in Yellowstone, the mule deer and the somewhat rare white-tailed deer.  There are various ways to tell them apart.  One way is by the size of the ears.  Mule deer have, as you might guess, mule-like or big ears.   When white-tails run, at least when fleeing, they raise their tails and wave them like a white flag.  A mule deer has a black tip on its tail and it doesn’t raise and wave it when it runs.  A mule deer has an unusual gait in that it bounds with all four feet off the ground at the same time.  It is believed they evolved this way to make it easier to move quickly through sage and other large shrubs.  You can also tell the bucks apart by the way the antlers divide (or don’t divide in the case of the white-tail).  Mule deer give birth much later than the other ungulates in the park, including white-tails.

Rocky Mountain Elk

Nervous Cow Elk, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of a cow elk.
“Nervous Nellie”

As I was driving from Mammoth to Tower shortly after sunrise one morning I spotted this lone cow elk looking at me.  She seemed very nervous.  She looks like she may be pregnant and I assume she was close to giving birth.  When cow elk are close to giving birth they go off by themselves for the birthing.    The calf is kept hidden for about a week.  The cow moves her calf (or calves) several times a day during that seven days and they stay motionless until their mom comes back to feed and move them.  Even so, predators find a lot of them.

The lighting was very bad for this photo.  You can see from the rim lighting around the elk’s body that the sun was coming from behind it.  The number one rule in outdoor photography is keep the sun at your back.  Well, you can’t always follow the rules in wildlife photography.  Elk aren’t models you can move around.  I did what I could at the time which was to compensate some by overexposing a bit and then compensated some more in Photoshop.  In the film days one could do, or attempt to do, the same thing in printing by dodging and burning, but the methods then were somewhat crude compared to what Photoshop allows one to do to mitigate exposure problems.   In this case I used the adjustment brush in Adobe Camera Raw to lighten the face and neck and then further refined the lighting/exposure using Shadows/Highlights and Curves.

Photo of underexposed elk.
Backlit Cow Elk

Here is what the image would have looked like, but for the adjustments described above in camera and Photoshop.  (The other difference from the top image is that I didn’t bother to crop this image.)

Grizzly Bear

A Grizzly Hunts for Food, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of a grizzly bear.
A Grizzly Feeds Near Soda Butte Creek

This young grizzly is the same individual I photographed yesterday.  It was looking for food by overturning rocks and turning over clumps of dirt.  While what it was finding will keep this bear going, it would really benefit by finding some meat.  It’s eyes don’t look sad anymore.  It’s looking at me.  Hmmm.

It has been raining and snowing for the past few days.  Today it snowed lightly almost all day in the park and caused me some focusing problems.  The snow stuck to vegetation, but melted quickly when it hit dirt and asphalt.  The forecast is for more of the same.

Tule Elk

Seven-Point Bull

Photo of a 7-point bull bugling during the rut.
Tule Elk Bull Bugles, Point Reyes National Seashore

I’m still upgrading my website by making each image larger.  It’s a lot of work, but I think it will be a nice improvement to the site.  One extra benefit is that I’m finding some images that I like that I didn’t know I had.  This photo was taken in early August.  As I often do, I came back to this photo after I published the blog and was struck by how wide this bull can open its mouth.  For some reason, I pictured a set of canine teeth in there, developed for defensive purposes.  I wonder what wolves would say — if they had any say in it?  For that matter, I wonder what elk hunters would say?

Uncategorized

Review of Window Mounts

I do a lot of wildlife photography from my car using a heavy Canon super-telephoto lens as my main lens.  A few months ago I read about a new type of window mount that is very light and inexpensive, so I ordered one.  It’s called a Puffin Pad.  Together with my Kirk Window Mount and my BLUBB bean bag I now have three window mounts.  I use the term “window mount” loosely here.  The Kirk is the only one of the three that “mounts” to the window, but I couldn’t think of a better term to cover all three.  In any event, I’ve used all three now and I want to pass along my thoughts on them to those who may be contemplating the purchase of a window mount.

Photo of car window with three windowmounts on it or on sill.
Three Types of Window Mounts

I have attached all three of them to the driver’s side window area of my 2011 Subaru Outback.   From left they are: (1) the BLUBB bean bag, (2) the Kirk Window Mount (which requires a separate tripod head) and (3) the Puffin Pad.  By the way, when I mounted the Kirk I just lowered it onto the top of the window without trying to level it.  It can be mounted so it’s parallel to the ground on a sloping window.   Note the slope of the Outback’s window along almost its entire length and where it disappears into the door.  (more…)