Okay, I’m not a Wildlife Photographer, and I even have a hard time calling myself a photographer, but I sure was able to get up close to some wildlife in Jasper – as most people are.
I do have to tell you the story of the Bull Elk you see below. You see he was basically sitting in our campsite when we got up in one morning, along with some female elk and calves. My mom saw the calves, but not the bull, while I saw the bull. We both quickly scrambled to get our camera, I going for the bull, my mother for the calves. She started towards the calves, slowly and not to close, but as she did she unknowingly was getting closer to the bull. I didn’t realize she didn’t see the bull – there were tree and different angles, etc – and when I said “whoa mom, that is close enough” she realized what was beside her. Well apparently so did the protective bull. As we quickly stepped back to give it space, he worked his way to his up and then started charging every other camper, vehicle and dog that would go near his females. Now, if this were anywhere else I would have moved on, but since it was practically in our campsite and were breaking camp we stayed. They moved away from us, but they could still be seen.
This is my odd experience with this bull elk. The wolf was also neat to see, but I was trying to drive and shoot at the same time.
From a photography stand point, I would do many different things better – like getting out of the vehicle. The bull elk was the only one I could “choose” my location and even now looking at it, I should have lined it up better.
