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September 10, 2008
Sacrebleu!
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Yeah, so Jen and I come rolling up to the house this evening. I'm fixing to unload my XR from the trailer and I glance out back to see what's cooking and there's a whole herd of cows grazing out there. They're in tight formation, fairly close to the house, eating everything that isn't nailed down. They're eating grass, choke cherries, scrub oaks, and mountain lilacs. Everything but the pine needles. Bulking up for the winter.
So I grab my camera out of the truck cause I'm thinking, "Where there's smoke, there's fire." As in, there's bound to be a bull pushing all these cows through. And, of course, not only is there a bull, but there's a massive one. Now, it's true that he's technically only a 6x, but this is one large bull. Notice the girth of his neck. The spread of his rack. The muscles in his neck and shoulders.
He's pushing about 20 mature cows, and several immature ones. To get better shots, I descend from the redwood deck, taking my life in my hands in the process. This elk is 500 pounds of raging testosterone in rut. He actually gets upset enough about my presence to start an aggressive, threatening display. He lowers his rack into the choke cherries and just starts thrashing them. Shredding them into pulpy ribbons.
Then he lowers his neck and tilts his head way back. It's really wild to see a display like this. I start shooting him (w/ camera) in my back yard (that's my picnic table in the photo above), and follow him across the property of two of my neighbors.
These images were all captured tonight with a Canon EOS 40D and a Canon L-Series image stabilized, ultra-sonic telescopic zoom lens (EF 100-400mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM) with an ET-83C hood.
I've posted some of the shots as a 7 Meg (2:45) Adobe Flash slideshow(2008_elk.swf) that you should be able to open and view with any browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.). To view the slideshow, just click on the photo above.
If you want to view the slideshow as a Windows executable, you can play this version (2008_elk.exe), and it allows you to play, pause, skip forward, etc.
Image post-processing was done in Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended. The slideshow was created using Imagematics Stillmotion Pro, which I highly recommend.
The soundtrack is Stephanie Says by The Velvet Underground off of The Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack. Lyrics in extended entry.
Click here to view the other slideshows.
The Velvet Underground
Stephanie Says
Stephanie says that she wants to know
Why she's given half her life, to people she hates now
Stephanie says when answering the phone
What country shall I say is calling from across the world
But she's not afraid to die, the people all call her Alaska
Between worlds so the people ask her 'cause it's all in her mind
It's all in her mind
Stephanie says that she wants to know
Why it is though she's the door She can't be the room
Stephanie says but doesn't hang up the phone
What sea shell she is calling from across the world
But she's not afraid to die, the people all cal her Alaska
Between worlds so the people ask her 'cause it's all in her mind
It's all in her mind
She asks you is it good or bad
It's such an icy feeling it's so cold in Alaska,
it's so cold in Alaska, it's so cold in Alaska
Posted by Rob Kiser on September 10, 2008 at 10:34 PM
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