Float like a Butterfly, Sting like an Elk

One more photo from day one of the left coast trip, then we’ll move onto day two.

As I mentioned previously, we had ended up out near the Tule Elk Reserve in Point Reyes National Park. A little bit of google searching shows that this breed of Elk is one of the smallest when compared to the Roosevelt Elk that you can run into up in the Northwest.

I’d say having them come within 50 yards or so, they still look to be a fair bit bigger than most of the deer you see throughout the USA.  Its all relative.

At  first we ran into the heard as they were moving up a hill behind us with the sun coming from the right as it was starting to dip down.  Not the best angles for getting natural light on the subject.

They were probably 100 yards or so up the hill just over the crest so they were being sillouetted to boot.  I was shooting with the Canon 100-400L lens, one of my favorites, so it was bringing them in, but still needed a little more.  I remembered that the road actually curved up around the hill as we came down.

So I was hoping to get a little closer but still keep a safe/healthy distance.  We drove around back over the hill and sure enough, the herd was moving towards the road.

We pulled off and parked and set up as they were moving towards us but off to the right a little bit.  More importantly the late afternoon sun was hitting them in the face, making for much better light. Part of the golden hour(s).

Beyond just getting good angles and photographs, the elk really participated as well.  A couple of the “younger appearing” bucks were sparring and locking their horns.  Its a pretty cool sound to listen listen too when your standing out in the middle of nowhere.

Anyways, here is one of my favorite Elk photographs from the trip.  Hope you enjoy it.

Canon 5d Mk II, ISO 800, Canon 100-400L @ 400 mm, f7.1, 1/4000 sec