Vics Blog

Last week I was conducting a photography workshop in the mountains up around Estes Park. We had scheduled the time a couple of weeks in advance hoping that the elk rut would have started and we’d get great shots of big bulls. Scouting the day before, I’d arrived at my favorite meadow at five in the morning hoping to hear bugling. Listening for over an hour in the darkness there was only silence and sun up produced nothing more. Needless to say, there was major apprehension on the part of this photographer as we started out the next morning. We arrived a little late, and there wasn’t an elk to be seen or heard. My workshops are all about learning to use the functions on your camera as well as working with the artsy side of taking good pictures but it’s really nice when the animals cooperate too.
We moved on and decided to start taking landscape pictures. Waterfalls make great subjects but the light was to bright and taking short time exposures burned out highlights on the water and made for lousy shots. Moving further upstream, we found some shaded pools and got some nice images working on the play of light and shadow but nothing great. As the day progressed we still couldn’t find any critters that wanted their portraits taken. Finally, after hours of searching we spotted a cow moose and her calf but they were so far away that pictures weren’t worth taking.
We continued looking for anything to photograph including chipmunks, ground squirrels and wildflowers. At six pm it started to rain. Now I’ve found over the years that if you stay patient (big hint) good things usually happen but I was beginning to have my doubts. We headed up the road, ascended past 10,000 feet, and the clouds started to break gingerly from the west.
Within half an hour things started looking up and we found several cow elk wanting to pose at timberline in the beautiful late afternoon light. We got some great pictures but the storm was moving quickly to the east and it looked like there might be a beautiful sunset so it was decided to head higher. At the top, and after searching all day, we finally found a huge bull elk and his harem but they were in the dark shadow of a hill which made for terrible images. They were however, moving up the slope toward the light at the top of the ridge. At the same time, two bright rainbows formed across the valley and the mountains lit up so we needed to make a quick decision, rainbows or elk? We went for the rainbows and jumped in the truck and headed back toward the west and in just five minutes were shooting awesome landscapes. Fortunately, the bands of color faded quickly, and we headed back down the road to see about the elk. Just as we arrived, the bull walked up to the summit and stood silhouetted against the fading five minutes of a splendiferous sunset. In the last twenty minutes of the day, staying patient to the end, we put several incredible images in the can.