Category Archives: Winslow Hill

What a Week!

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There is no place like the mountains, especially when the rut is in! I love Elk County, Pennsylvania and just spent the last week there. It was nothing short of awesome!

Unfortunately, we had quite a bit of rain which tried to put a damper on things, but it didn’t work. Being with friends and fellow photographers and photographing the elk even in the rain made the week an exciting experience. I  had a blast and cannot wait to be back on the elk range again.

My friend and photographer, Dick McCreight, and I led our fifth Pennsylvania Elk Photography Experience and we sure saw a lot of elk throughout the week. Even when it did rain we still saw elk. In fact, they seemed much less bothered by the precipitation than we did. I find it amazing how well these beautiful creatures weather the storms literally! God made them special to be sure!

Here is one photograph of a bull elk standing the rain. It is a close-up shot of his face and antlers. You can see how wet he is from the rain but he was not bothered by it in the least. It all reminds me that many of us complain and complain to no avail. Life is what we make it. These elk live each day in both sunshine and rain, and so should we! Let it rain because it sure doesn’t seem to bother the elk!

Writing My Own Book was Great Fun!

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I earned a journalism degree from Temple University and enjoy writing. Recently I was motivated to self-publish my very own book. It actually was a thought in the back of my head for a number of years. I had some concrete ideas on what I wanted to write about and even pursued the idea seriously about three years ago. A lot has changed in three short years! Just a few months ago I listened to a podcast that introduced me to Blurb.com.

The podcast was an interview with Dave Black and he shared his process of how he self-published a photo book entitled, “The Way I See It.” Well, I was motivated enough to check out the Blurb.com website and it didn’t take me long to view the information online and decided that I was sold on this idea! Blurb.com makes the process very easy. So, I downloaded the software and began to write my own book.

It was an invigorating process and I enjoyed every step of the way. As I said, much of what I wanted to write was already somewhere in the my head, so I just had to discipline myself to sit down and get the words out. Of course, I made sure to include photographs of the PA elk in the book, too!

The book actually describes tips and techniques that are applicable to any wildlife photographer. You can see a more detailed description of the book and preview it here.

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.

Traffic on Winslow Hill

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I was in complete disbelief this past Saturday at just how many vehicles were on the road on Winslow Hill viewing the elk. Granted, I have not been there on a weekend for quite some time since I do prefer weekdays to weekends when viewing the elk. But the sheer number of cars, trucks, and motorcycles was absolutely amazing and mind-boggling to me!

At one point, as we were watching two nice bulls recovering from a fight, there was a line of vehicles almost as far as I could see slowly coming up the road. There was some cooperation among drivers as most vehicles pulled completely off the road to allow traffic to pass by, but it was slow going to be sure. Many passersby were shooting cameras through windows as they stopped briefly to snap a photo.

A few others were completely selfish and rude as they simply parked their car in the middle of their lane of travel, seemingly not caring about anyone else but themselves. This inconsiderate behavior is frowned upon by both locals and tourists alike. It needlessly ties up traffic and creates a bottleneck. The one place this happened had a parking lot not even 100 feet down the road. Trespassing and other acts of disrespect need to be pointed out before these unethical behaviors become habit.