I'm still not done with sorting through my 2012 archive. The Rocky Mountain Elks were one of the reasons that we really wanted to visit Rocky Mountain National Park last year. We had plenty of encounters of these wonderful animals and have enjoyed watching them very much. The best time to see them is quite often during the evenings, which at the other hand can be quite a challenge with exposure. Using a tripod is highly recommended for managing the low light situations.
I'm sure you know the feeling when you have postponed something for a long time and after you got it done finally you get into a great state of mind. That's how I feel today. It bothered me since quite some time that my photography portfolio could not be opened on an iPhone or iPad, because the portfolio was created with flash galleries and those don't work on Apple's devices.
Beside updating my portfolio and creating a new design I made finally the switch to html-galleries which will work on Apple's mobile devices as well.
Please feel free to have a look at my new LANDSCAPE and WILDLIFE portfolio by clicking on the tab PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO on the left side bar. I hope you enjoy! :-)
Rocky Mountain National Park is known for being a good location to see Rocky Mountain Elk, also called Wapiti. The rut was in full swing and we had many opportunities to see the male elks wrangle for control over the harem and fight for the right to mate with the females. For me there is no better sound in the world than the one from a bugling bull elk. We even had two nights at Timber Creek on the Westside of the mountains with the herd in the campground, spending the night between tents and RV's or nearby. I can tell you, it can keep you awake but didn't bother me a bit.
The elks I can show you here belonged to a group of seven bull elk, resting and grazing during the day at Milner Pass, just slightly below the alpine tundra. They obviously didn't "own" the harem yet, some were probably still too young to challenge the big bull that claimed control over the herd. Most of the time the elks had their heads down eating grass. The challenge was to catch moments of an interesting pose or at least when they stopped chewing for a moment so that the faces didn't get all blurred. I hope you enjoy!
Another place in the Great Smoky Mountains where elks are often present is the vicinity of the Oconaluftee Visitor Center on the south side of the mountains. It is a wide open space in the valley and a herd of elks can be seen there quite often. Despite a dark overcast and the low light in the late afternoon most pictures of this grazing elk turned out with a decent sharpness. One of the best experiences with the new Nikon D300s is the way its focus works. It is much better than it was with my beloved D200. This elk bull was really close and I didn't have to use the full 500mm focus length of the SIGMA 50-500. The elk didn't move too fast and this gave me a great opportunity to play and check out the focus system.
Another reason that sharpness turned out better than in similar situations before might be the fact that I'm using a taller tripod now. The Calumet 8156, a 4-section carbon fiber tripod, allows me to stand upright between its legs while shooting. I feel much more relaxed and the upright position while shooting makes it easier to apply correct long lens shooting technique.
Beside enjoying the close presence of this majestic elk I also got a kick out of the excitement from other visitors that had their first elk encounter in life. I believe it is important that many people, especially young folks, experience wildlife encounters. This will ensure that more people become aware what we loose if we don't protect the habitat of these animals and also understand that economical things cannot play the only role in our lives.
The next opportunity for more wildlife photography came during a trip to Cataloochee on the east side of the Smokies. In 2001 the National Park Service began to reintroduce elks in the National Park. One of the places were they can be viewed is Cataloochee Valley. Most of the elks wear radio collars around their neck and have ear tags. This makes a lot of sense for the biologists who control the reintroduction program but not every photographer may like it. It didn't bother me a bit.
The rut was already slowing down but we still could hear some male elks bugling. For me there is no better sound in nature than this! This twelve-pointer was chasing the ladies in his harem and made clear to the competition who owns the place.
I could have shot most of the pictures with ISO 200 but I really wanted to test how the D300s performs with higher ISO settings. I used mostly ISO 560 or 800, something that never turned out well with my old D200. Yes, noise is there but it is still manageable. However, noise reduction takes out detail and I know that I will stay away from the higher ISO settings as much as possible.
