Category Archives: Wildlife Photography

Check Out My New Book!

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I just published my first book! The title is “How I Photograph the Pennsylvania Elk.”

The book shares my approach to photographing the elk of Pennsylvania and includes tips on locating the elk, techniques on how get quality photos of the elk, as well as some tips on what to wear when photographing the elk. There is a brief history of the PA elk, too. I’ve been hiking the elk range in Pennsylvania for over twenty years now and I enjoy each and every outing. There is no place like the mountains and my book shares how I locate the elk and photograph them.

I got the idea of self-publishing a book from photographer, Dave Black. I listened to a podcast where he was interviewed and he talked about how he used Blurb to self-publish his book, “The Way I See It.” You can find out more about this by going to Dave Black’s article here.

In addition to sharing some practical tips and suggestions, I also share some personal stories from my experiences photographing the elk.

You can view a description of the book and see a preview of seven pages in the book here.

The PA Elk Rut is On!

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This weekend in Elk County proved to me that the PA elk rut has begun. We heard a lot of bugling, saw some bulls getting into a frenzy, and saw the aftermath of a fight for dominance. Yes, the rut has begun! I think it is only really starting and in my opinion will be in full swing sometime this week. I saw several bulls chasing cows, one intently, but I did not witness any mounts or breeding.

The traffic up on Winslow Hill was unbelievable to me. Admittedly, it has been quite some time since I was on the elk range on a Saturday, but the number of cars and traffic jams was surprising to me.

The elk did not seem to mind in the least though. They went about their business as usual. We saw some decent sized harems being managed by some nice bulls. And we saw bulls every time we went out. In fact, some bulls were nice. We saw two bulls that were at least a 7×7 or 8×7. Even the lesser bulls seemed to have nice mass to their antlers. The cows seemed healthy but not yet ready to mate. We also saw a few calves that are growing up quickly.

Here are four photographs from our one-day trip this weekend.

Wildlife Web Galleries

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I already mentioned previously that I like Lightroom. I’ve been using this software for well over a year now and I love it! Just last night I watched a tutorial on how to use the upload feature in the Web Gallery Module. It got me to thinking that I can not only save time by automatically uploading photos to my website directly from Lightroom, but I can also keep galleries of my wildlife photos and just keep updating them automatically from Lightroom.

It took me a little while to implement my idea, but after a few trials and errors it worked! I was excited last night about this possibility and thought, gee, this is almost too easy! I suppose this is what software really should provide for us, but I typically find the opposite to be true. Computers and software are supposed to work for us and make our work easier, right?

Well, last night I implemented an idea that really shows that Lightroom can work for me in some very positive ways. For example, I wanted to create a gallery for each different mammal that I photograph–deer, bear, squirrels, elk, etc. Previously I created a gallery in Dreamweaver for this but then had to edit each gallery every time I added some additional photographs to the gallery. So last night I got the brainstorm to create the galleries in Lightroom and have Lightroom upload the gallery for each mammal. Now, when I add more photos I just upload the gallery again, which overwrites the old one and automatically adds the new ones. Now that’s efficient!

So now my website is starting to feature some of these wildlife galleries. You can go to my website and see these galleries listed on the right-hand side. Click on any of the mammals listed there to see the corresponding galleries. Thanks, Lightroom, for making this task not only manageable but easy, too!

September Bulls

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I like the fall season. I suppose there are many reasons for me preferring this time of year. First, I played football on my  high school team, so this time of year always reminds me of that. I just received word last night that one of my coaches, Mr. Kuhnert, died this week. He was also my Earth Science teacher in 9th grade and he was a great teacher and encouraging coach. I will miss him but when the fall season approaches my thoughts always turn to football. Another reason I like fall is because I am a hunter. Last, but certainly not least, it is the most active time for the elk. It all starts in September and I cannot wait to get up on the elk range!

I posted a photo here today from a trip I was on last fall. It was a misty, foggy morning but the bull was bugling to beat the band. Have you ever heard an elk bugle? Have you ever watched two bull elk duke it out for breeding rights? These are just the tip of the iceberg sights and sounds that me excited at this time of year. I can’t wait to see the elk in action.

Wildlife Shows Up Unexpectedly

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You just never know. Last evening I was sitting in the living room when I saw a deer trying to eat the bird seed in our feeder. I went over to the window and started talking to this doe when I realized there were three young fawns eating the birdseed in the grass under the feeder. I was shocked that my talking did not completely scare the deer away–especially a protective mother. But food is an important priority at this time of year.

So I quickly escaped to grab my camera and was able to take a few photos before the deer wandered off. You just never know with wildlife subjects. Sometimes you can search for them all day and never see a thing. Then, all of a sudden, wildlife can show up unexpectedly.

Rounded Corners with Lightroom

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This tip came from Matt Kloskowski on his Killer Lightroom Tips blog.

I’ve mentioned previously that Lightroom is powerful. It really is. And this tip is just one more example behind some of the unexpected power in this interesting software package. One of the main selling points of Lightroom to me was that it manages my photos, allows me to edit them, and provides ways to export the photos for use on web galleries, in email messages, or as physical prints. This all-in-one software even has me reaching for Photoshop less and less. The latest upgrade to 3.0 includes some really nice features and I am still learning some of the many features found in Lightroom.

The rounded corners tip makes for some interesting prints or photos to display on the web. You can learn the steps to make your own rounded corners by checking out Matt Kloskowski’s blog.

Here is my example of Matt’s tip. Pretty cool, huh? And all done in Lightroom.

I Like Lightroom 3.0

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Two years ago, my good friend Dick McCreight, convinced me to download the trial version of Lightroom 2.0. I was hesitant because I had just starting using another software to manage my photos and I was not eager to shell out more money for another program. But after installing and trying the trail version of Lightroom I was absolutely sold. It also didn’t hurt that Dick is a guru with this software! Just watching him move around the computer screen and edit his photos was breathtaking for me. I still remember that day sitting in his office and watching in total disbelief at what this powerful software can do.

Now, two years later, I upgraded to version 3.0 and I couldn’t be happier. This software still rocks and has improved in some amazing ways over the previous version. The photo you see below was completely edited in Lightroom 3.0. I love the photo management that this software provides and I am slowly learning more and more about all the powerful editing features as well. Did I say Lightroom rocks? Well, it does!

These Photos Didn’t Quite Make the Cut

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I enjoy the editing process of photography. After an event or outdoor photo shoot, I come back to my studio to edit the photos and see just what I captured. The first part of the process for me is picking the best photos. I use Lightroom 3.0 now and have learned how to quickly go through a large number of photographs and select the best ones. I mark them as picked by pressing the “P” key. Then I go back over these selected photos again to really narrow down the very best of the best. I mark these with a green label and then give them a star rating depending on the strength of each individual photo.

Last week I came home and had 72 photos that I picked and then narrowed this down to 11 of what I considered to be the best of the best of this photo shoot. These are the ones I show on my website, to colleagues, and to friends. Most of my friends don’t have the patience or willingness to sit through a slide show of all the photos I took or even the ones I think are the best. Showing our best work is an important part of the editing process.

I make sure to take the time to edit my picked photos and spend a little extra editing time with the best of the best, which are going to be seen by others. I am quite picky in this process but then I expect big things of my photography. Sadly, this means there are many photos that almost make this selection process but are just out of reach to making the best of the best category.

Here are three examples. The first one was very close to being selected, but I just didn’t feel the colors were quite right and I wished I had more of this eating bull in the image. It’s close, but didn’t make my final cut. The second one was also close to making it. I really liked how we can see the bull’s tongue coming out of his mouth in this photo, but again the colors were kind of flat. (The light wasn’t very good that evening.) It was just shy of impressing me enough to be picked as the best of the best. The third image has some weeds in-between the camera and the bull. This was distracting enough to be the worst of these three and not good enough to make the final cut. I certainly won’t trash these photos, but they just didn’t quite make the final cut.

Eat Up!

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Female cows are getting ready for the upcoming rut, too. This results in a tremendous amount of eating!

Last week we saw a cow feeding right alongside the road. She was content to keep eating even as we slowed down and brought our truck to a stop. Remembering how Lennie Rue talks about using your vehicle as a blind, we stayed in our truck. The cow was on my driver’s side, so all I had to do was roll my window down and start shooting. My  son, James, rolled his window down and slowly sat up on top of the window opening and shot over the roof of the truck. And all the while, the cow just kept on eating. These two photographs show in detail the eating process and the content of what she was eating, too!

Cows and bulls both are getting ready for the rut. They will expend a lot of energy during the breeding season so they need to eat up now! They are eating and will be ready for the rut. Will you be ready to photograph them?

Yeah, We’re Friends Now

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These two bulls were posing side-by-side for us last week in the middle of August. They seem to be good friends as they stand there in the field. Next month it will be a different story!

These two boys will go from friends to foe as they will be competing for breeding rights. I cannot wait for the rut! I generally like fall anyway–in fact, it is my most favorite time of the year. But when the elk activity at this time of year is added in, this time of year is simply magical! Bulls will be bugling and getting very excited, which makes any wildlife photographer excited as well! The rut is just around the corner and I definitely plan to be on the elk range for this wonderful and wild experience!

Yep, they might  look like good friends now, but just wait until next month!