Elk of The West Coast - Part 2

If you have read my last post, you will know that I am eager to photograph elk in more of a natural state rather than just off of the side of the road. I dream of capturing a majestic and atmospheric photograph of an elk, ideally, within a forest with fog and some nice lighting from a rising or sinking sun.. We all can dream, right? Let’s just say, it may take me a long time to get the photo of my dreams.. And that is okay!

Near the end of December, I went out on my second outing to find and photograph elk in the wild. I set out towards the same location that I had spotted the big bull from my last outing, towards the most North-Western tip of Oregon. This time, I had encountered a herd of elk way sooner than I had last time. Just 15 minutes into my drive out towards Astoria I found a large herd off to the left of the road resting in out in this farmer’s field. I had spotted elk here before, a long time ago, but I was still surprised to see them as it has been some time since I had.

I drove a little past them so that I could do a safe u-turn using the next driveway I spotted. After turning around, I luckily found some room off of the side of the road to pull off directly in front of them. I jumped out of my car and quickly setup my camera. Initially, I threw on my telephoto lens to get some quick honed in shots and scout for any bulls hiding within the herd. There were some younger bulls, but not very many.

Nikon Z8 w/ Nikkor 24-120mm f/4

After taking a few shots with my telephoto, I quickly realized that hills behind the elk would make for a great composition. I swapped to my 24-120mm lens and fired off this shot. It always ends up being some of the first photos that turn out the best for me, I don’t know why. This first photo is my favorite from this encounter by far.
I love the way that the elk will just look up at you, curious to what you are and why you have this big object pointed at them. And others not interested at all. You can see some elk still laying, others stretching, all getting ready to get back to moving along. I fired off a few more shots with the 24-120mm and then got back to my car to get a head of the way they were beginning to move.

Nikon Z8 w/ Tamron 100-400mm f/4.5-6.3

I got back into my car and positioned myself further down the road to wait for them to walk into my line of sight. As they appeared again, several of them were walking beyond this large tree that had great characteristics about it. I framed the tree into my shots as they continued to walk past it, getting some shots I was really happy with, this shot was my favorite. The tree fills most of the frame and has decent separation from the trees on the hill behind it. The gnarly branches sprawling out of it make for a more interesting photograph as well. The elk just help tie the photo together, to give it more purpose and counter the weight the tree has in the photo.

I had spent some more time taking photos of other groups of the herd as they all slowly made their way out of sight. I then jumped back into my car and headed out to my destination. As I approached the location where I had gotten photos of the large bull elk last time, there were no elk to be seen. I stopped and waiting a little while before heading towards the wildlife viewing area. When I got to the wildlife viewing area, I took the boardwalk to the shoreline of what is Jetty Lagoon. I knew that the spot I saw the elk last time was not all too far from this viewing area, so I walked along the shore in that direction for some time, hoping to see elk off in the distance.

After not seeing anything promising, I decided to take this path that went into the forest that separates the lagoon from the main road. I had noticed a vehicle parked there last time, so I knew there was something worth investigating. As I began to enter this forest, I could not help but notice how beautiful it was. It was so lush and mossy but not as thick as the typical PNW forest, I could actually take several routes throughout it. While traversing this forest, I spotted what appeared to be coyote scat (first photo of scat). Following that, I found more and more scat. Three small piles that I did not recognize at first, almost like a miniature bear scat pile, to which I later discovered that they were actually elk droppings. I also learned that their scat differs from winter to summer. These piles were the summer scats of the elk, they must had been still in transition to their winter diets. Along with that, I had seen more coyote scat.

This was all very promising intel, as now I know that there are opportunities to encounter elk and coyotes within this beautiful forest. Now, I cannot stop imaging the incredible photos that could come from this place. As it is exciting, it is also quite scary. An encounter with elk too close could be quite dangerous, and I am often out here alone. Coyotes can be dangerous as well, so my next visits here will be filled with extreme caution, that is for sure..

I spent some time slowly making my way through this forest, scanning up and down every tree and out between the trees for any sort of wildlife. The only things I had encountered were the scat as well as some song sparrows here and there within the 30 minutes or so I spent walking in. My timing must have been off, perhaps it would have been more lively another time of day.

Since I was not having luck within this forest, I decided to turn around and head back towards the location where I had gotten photos of the elk bull last time. And as I drove by, there it was.. A big bull out in the same field, this time he was a lot further away. He was closer to the edge of the forest. The same forest that I was walking through earlier.. Basically, if I kept walking through that forest for another half mile, I may have found this bull. As I kept driving I realized that there were more than one bull, there were three of them! And they were all the same size, with magnificent antlers. I quickly turned around and knew that I had to go back to that forest and cut through it. So, that is what I did..

I found a place to park, roughly where I thought would be a good place to cut through the forest. Walking into this forest, there were clear paths that cut off in various directions. Paths that were certainly made from the elk, so I followed these towards the open field they were in. There was not much forest between the road and the field, it took me roughly 15 minutes to get through it. Once I got through, I encountered tall grass that blocked any view but still had paths from the elk, so I trudged through until I found a small hill. Upon getting to the top of this hill, there they were, there were two elk.. Walking away from me out towards the open field, grazing slowly as they walked. I quickly unclipped my camera and framed a couple quick shots (next two photos), which I actually really like. The atmosphere of the images with the silhouette of the elk along with the subtle fog off in the distance, all made for decent photos.

I carefully made my way closer and closer in as the elk continued to move away from me. I just really wanted to see if I could get a decent photo of one looking towards me or a side profile at least and I knew these two elk were not going to turn around.. So, I continued to make my way through this tall grass, avoiding massive mud holes downed trees and shrubs. I made my way another 50 yards in or so as I began to see another elk bull. And this one seemed to be making its way towards the lagoon viewing area, parallel to the forest I emerged from. This one allowed me to capture some shots of his side profile while he munched on some grass. Again, there is a decent atmosphere in these photos but these photos are not great by any means. Having only 400mm and being a cheap lens, I am not able to get great detail from this distance.. I am happy with these photos though as they are another step closer to what I want to achieve. Ideally, next time, I will see these elk within the forest and I will have a rental lens to help with quality. I look to return with a 600 or 800mm lens, this would be ideal.. We shall see what I can capture in the future here. It certainly is a promising location and I truly believe that I will get a grade A photo here one day.

This was a long one.. So if you made it this far, thank you for your time! If you like these entries and would like me to make more, please let me know by reaching out on my socials or through my contact page. Until next time! Cheers - Billy

Elk of The West Coast - Part 2

Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge, Washington