Michael,

I’m headed to the Rocky Mountain national park in early July. It will be my first time there and I was wondering with your experience do you have any advice on shooting wildlife there and around moraine park? My longest lens is a 300mm 2.8 and that is probably too short but I’m just looking for advice on where to go or any other tips you have. I’m hoping to get some shots of big horn sheep elk and some smaller animals and a few landscapes.Thanks for you time.

Nick

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Nick,

You should have a great time in RMNP this July.  It’s an awesome time to be in one of the neatest parks in the system.  Your 300mm f2.8 lens will be perfect for a lot of the wildlife that you will encounter.  You’ll see mule deer, elk, coyotes, and several small creatures like Richardson ground squirrels as well as Red squirrels and chipmunks.

I was just in RMNP and Trail Ridge Road has just opened for the season.  You’ll want to get up into the high country for sure.  There is way more snow up there this year than I can ever remember seeing but plenty to photograph.  In fact, I saw an elk calf being born at 12,000 ft.  The Never Summer mountain range which is on the west side of the park should hold snow all summer which will make for really beautiful landscapes in the early morning light.

Morraine and Horseshoe Parks are excellent places to see bighorn sheep, elk and mule deer.  I’ve included a few images from this last trip which was more of a family Sunday drive than a photo expedition but I still took a few images.

I’ve also had great luck photographing birds…mountain blue birds, pygmy nuthatches and tree swallows are almost guaranteed.  Good Luck and I hope this helps.

Since it’s a national park with lots of people traffic most of the animals are acclimated to humans which allows you to get fairly close.  Keep in mind these are wild animals and you’ll want to maintain a safe distance for both you and your subject.  With my background in biology and the 20 something years I have spent photographing in the outdoors, I feel very confident about the distance that I choose to photograph an animal from and I’ve never had a problem.  Most problems I see occur when a “pro” or Pro looking photographer walks right out in front of a bunch of people trying to get “closer” to get an image.  While he/she might be totally safe and the animal is tolerant the message that was just sent to the group of people watching (with none or very limited wildlife experience) is that it’s cool to approach wildlife to get that shot.  Sorry for jumping on my soap box but I think it’s a professional wildlife photographers responsibility to lead by example.

Best,
Michael

As a rule, I don’t modify (saturation, vibrancy, color temp.) the images I capture in nature, mostly because I want the viewer to see exactly what I experienced when the picture was shot.  Recently, however, I’ve been seeing more and more nature images with HDR (high dynamic range) treatments and I really like the process.  They are still real photographs but the process of HDR allows the photographer to capture an exposure range closer to what a human eye sees as opposed the limits of a single exposed image.

My wheels began spinning…could I actually get a decent shot of a wild animal using HDR.  I knew the conditions would have to be almost perfect and I would have to have the right scene and more importantly the right lens to allow for a big scenic with an animal subject.  Below you’ll see my first attempt at a HDR image in wildlife photography.  It’s an image of a wild horse that was shot up near Craig, Colorado this past week.  The shot is comprised of only two images, ideally I would like to have three or four images shot about 2/3 of a stop apart.  I shot three images of this scene but on the third image the horse slightly moved his head which gave me a bit of ghosting in the final 3 image output.  So I choose to only use the two shots that matched up perfectly.  I really like the image but would love to hear your comments.

Wild Horse in Northwest Colorado

I’m frequently asked if we have any fine art images in our gallery of wild horses.  I’ve photographed horses and the ranching life style but I’ve never had the opportunity to do the research and locate any of the wild horses in the four documented wild horse areas in Colorado. Yesterday, I decided to take the time and travel three hours to the closest wild horse area near Grand Junction, Colorado. The plan was to drive into the back country area on a four wheel drive road and try to locate the horses. All was going well until we got back in the remote area on the two track 4×4 road, when all of a sudden my trusted 1987 Toyota 4Runner decided to stop running. What a sinking feeling.

Now what?  My focus immediately switched from finding wild horses to figuring out how we are going to get out of this remote area before dark and more importantly, before the storm that was supposed to arrive the next day. We had not seen another person all day so I knew I was going to have to figure it out by myself.  This really was a remote area and my cell did not have a signal. The one bit of reassurance was that I was asked to be on the Spot Connect Beta team and I had the beta unit with me. For those that are not familiar with the Spot Connect, it’s a new device by Spot that allows 40 character messages to be sent via satellite when paired with the Apple iPhone.

findmespot.com

I knew in a worse case scenario I would be able to send a series of messages to my best friend who lives near Durango which is about three and a half hours away. Although the situation was serious, it was not drastic. We had the supplies required to spend a night or two if needed. Rather than getting my friend on high alert I decided to fiddle with the truck to try to determine the problem. After 30 minutes and several attempts to start the vehicle with no luck the last resort was to try and push start it. With a lot of heavy breathing and pushing down the slight incline, what do you know, it started! Now all I had to do was keep it running and get back 30 miles to a paved road.

After about six miles all was going well, when all of a sudden the gray glider quit again! This time it stopped on flat ground, push starting was not an option. After about 15 perplexing minutes under the hood, out of nowhere, came an old four wheel drive Chevy Blazer. Turns out Robert (driver of the blazer) was out doing some scouting for his upcoming turkey hunt and he was headed home. I’ve met some of the nicest people in the back country and this was no exception. Robert parked his truck, came over and poked his head under the hood. Together we tried to identify the problem. I was certain it was a fuel issue but Robert continued to poke around and noticed one of the radiator hoses was not pressurized. He slowly unscrewed the radiator cap and wouldn’t you know it was low on fluid. Ah ha…vapor lock? Without hesitation Robert pulls a brand new bottle of antifreeze from his truck and filled the radiator. Now all we had to do is get it started and try once again to make it out. Knowing that I didn’t want to stop if we got it started again we took a few minutes to exchange information. I wanted his address so I could send a token of my appreciation once we got back to civilization. Putting his card in my pocket, closing the hood, and with Roberts help we pushed. The gray glider sputtered to life and we were running again. This time, however, Robert was behind us which gave us the piece of mind that at the very least we would not have to spend the night out in the woods. We had a little over twenty miles to get back to pavement and two hundred plus miles to get back home. In the end, we made it all two hundred and some odd miles with no further problems.

As far as finding wild horses the day was a bust but we did meet a very nice person and realized that always being prepared with survival gear is essential.  We would have been okay, knowing that we had the SPOT Connect with it’s custom messaging capabilities . Not only would our contacts know our exact location we could have also requested they bring parts and tools in hopes we could repair the truck in the field.

You would think the story ends here…but I’m embarrassed to say it doesn’t.  The next day I decided it would be neat to shoot fly fishing images in the snow.  I knew it was snowing in Estes Park, load up the glider…let’s go.  We drove all the way to into Rocky Mountain National Park only to find 30-40 mile/hour winds and blowing snow.  Not good for fly fishing or photography.  Plan B…let’s head back towards Denver and get into the canyons where the wind wasn’t blowing as bad.  Just as we leave the town of Estes Park the truck starts to sputter and eventually it quits again. Yep you guessed it that same sinking feeling was back.  This time we were less than a 100 miles from home but we were still stranded. Fortunately, we were stalled on a hill and we just might be able to get it push started.

If you’ve ever been to Estes Park you know that it is pretty much downhill all the way back to Boulder.  I’m here to tell you it’s pretty much downhill if you are in a running vehicle. When you are trying to push start a vehicle it quickly becomes apparent, it’s not all downhill, there are quite a few flat spots.  After about a mile of pushing I realized the inevitable, it was time to find a pullout and figure things out.  Just like yesterday out of the snow and fog comes a couple who stopped to see if we were okay or if we needed help.

The vapor lock theory was busted, it was in the 30′s or 40′s and snow was falling.  It had to be the fuel filter or fuel pump.  Brendon and Sue our rescuers offered a ride into Estes Park to pick up the needed parts at the local NAPA parts house.

Long story short, I ended up replacing the fuel pump on the side of the road in freezing temp’s (so cold that my fingers could not feel the bolts as I tried to put everything back together).  Brendon and I crossed our fingers as I turned the key in the ignition…badda boom badda bing the gray glider fired right up.

All I could think about was how in the world was I able to drive back 240 miles from Grand Junction the night before when the fuel pump was obviously on it’s last legs.  After many thank you’s, everything was loaded back into the truck and we were headed back to Denver.  Over the course of two days that were originally scheduled for photography I’d not shot a picture (except for my iPhone images) but I met some really nice people, realized the mechanic skills I learned while working on ranches in high school and college still come in handy and survival tools are essential.  You never know when something might happen.  Oh and if you have a smart phone I would highly recommend a SPOT Connect it really gives you a piece of mind when you are out of cell coverage.

Images shot just one or two years ago often pale in comparison to images that are taken today.  Much like everything else…xGames, mountain climbing, etc…it continues to evolve and limits are continually pushed.  Some say that every shot has been taken but I find that hard to believe.   I do know this…if you want to compete you got to get your A game on! Here’s a cool video about getting one of those rare shots that required the A game.

Terry Cox working his horse while out on the New Mexico winter pasture rounding up the herd for the annual spring drive into the high country Colorado pasture.

© Michael Mauro 2010

It’s that time of year again, when I get to travel back to my hometown and hang out with my buddies at their ranch and photograph the old west.  I’m not kidding if it weren’t for cell phones and sunglasses you would think I was documenting the late 1800′s.

Image © Michael Mauro 2010

A nice piece on photographer Adam Barker by Hip Visual Arts.
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