Elk Pursuit

One of the things I have learned in my early journey into wildlife photography is how it’s not just about taking pictures of wildlife but it’s having the opportunity to observe and learn the behavior of your subjects in their environment.  For me this has been fascinating and I have learned things about different species of wildlife that I never knew before. It has given me a whole new perspective of these incredible creatures that God has created.

One project I am currently working on is trying to get some good pictures of a local small heard of elk. I have put in place a trail camera in order to try and track their movement and hopefully find some pattern in that movement.  Although I have captured video of these animals complete with date and time stamps, I have not found a consistent pattern in their movement. … yet. Once a pattern is found the tricky thing is that it lines up with a time where the lighting is good enough for taking decent photographs.

Recently I did observe a very large elk bull on the trail camera just after sunrise two days in a row and had decided to try and put myself in its path early one morning. I got on site at about 3:30am in the dark and setup my blind and waited.  At the first hint of daylight, I noticed some movement about 30 yards away, but it was still too dark to really see what it was. Fortunately, I had some binoculars that work very well in low light and was able to identify that it was the bull that I was waiting for. He was there earlier than expected, just grazing on the side of the trail directly in front of me.  I have to say my heart at that point was beating half out of my chest as I was waiting for it to get light enough for me to photograph. I estimated that time to be another 15-20 minutes.  Unfortunately, I could only watch as he walked slowly away before I could ever press the shutter release. Although I was disappointed that I didn’t get the picture, the experience of seeing such an amazing animal in person was so much fun and only drives me to continue my pursuit. I have not seen him in a while, but I will get him one of these days and until then I will enjoy the journey. 

Having a blast!!!

Scott

PS – Check out the Trail Camera page on my website for videos of the different wildlife I have captured on video.