Tag Archives: herd

Wild Winter Solstice

Herd of Mule Deer

It was a wild morning on this 2020 winter solstice! I was much relieved to see the Three Amigos again, I haven’t seen them for months and was afraid a hunter had gotten them. Actually I am thinking of calling them the Fab Four since they have been roaming with another buddy since the fall, the fourth member was already at the tree line when I took this shot. Of course I know the Fab Four is also the name for the Beatles, but if you ask me the musicians don’t hold a candle to these big boys! They didn’t stick around long though, soon after they spotted me they began meandering toward the dense woods on the north and west side of the mountain.

Herd of Mule Deer

As my trek veered toward the north I spotted the rest of the herd making their way west as well, enjoying some mountain grass along the way. It looked to me like I would get some really nice shots in good light if I used some patience and waited for them to pass, so I took a seat on a big rock and waited. They were actually moving along pretty steadily so it wasn’t long before I began to get some good opportunities. However I noticed that they started nervously looking back and moving a little faster. I was pretty sure I wasn’t disturbing them as I peered into the distance to see what might be coming out of the trees over the hill, a coyote perhaps? Soon the disturbance came into view… my nemesis with the two dogs was coming up the trail behind me, and soon the deer were galloping

Herd of Mule Deer

toward the safety of the trees to the north. I did my best to capture the herd running, but I wasn’t exactly prepared for such an event. The original plan was to leisurely shoot them grazing in the grass at a relatively slow shutter speed and correspondingly low ISO value. I scrambled to reset the camera and fired a few frames off over a few seconds and then they were gone. I tell you, this guy is ruining my life, every day chasing away my livelihood 😦 I hope he moves on soon… or maybe this is a sign that it’s time for me to move on, perhaps closer to Rocky Mountain National Park, or maybe even Montana.

Such a brief encounter wasn’t enough to satisfy my wildlife fix today so I decided to drive on up to Eleven Mile Canyon in hopes of spotting some eagles or maybe some more deer or even a herd of elk! The initial drive up the canyon yielded exactly nothing, except that I did see the eagle lady driving back down the canyon… peering intently into the trees along the river. At the top I just turned around and headed back down hoping for a more fruitful pass through the canyon on the return trip. On my way down I spotted the eagle lady headed back up, I guess I should find out her name…

Bald Eagle in Eleven Mile Canyon

Eventually my journey came to an end and I had nothing to show for it. I pondered the eagle lady’s strategy and began to wonder if I should make a second trip? What the heck, I had already paid the fee and I wouldn’t be coming back for a while so I turned big blue back around and began a second pass through the beautiful wilderness along the headwaters of the South Platte. Soon I came upon the eagle lady out of her car with camera in hand, so I pulled up behind her and got out to see what the excitement was. Sure enough she had spotted a baldy in a pine tree looking intently at a section of open water, for fish I presume!

Red Tailed Hawk in Eleven Mile CanyonEventually he flew off in the opposite direction and I continued my drive up the canyon. No more eagle sightings but I did find a nice red-tailed hawk, also fishing along the river. He didn’t stay perched for long and I managed to get a nice shot of him in flight before he drifted away, well out of range for pictures.

I hoped for more on the way down but I was satisfied with the days good fortune and just enjoyed the scenery and the solitude the rest of the way down.

As always, the best of these images and hundreds more are available for purchase on my website as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas and traditional matting and framing. Tons of cool household and gift items are also available with any image you like including coffee mugs, t-shirts, blankets and pillows, battery chargers, phone cases, stationary and much much more! Just click on any image you like and all the choices, sizes and prices will appear! For my viewers interested in images for commercial use, please visit my image licensing portal!

Red Tailed Hawk in Eleven Mile Canyon

Elk Herd on a Rocky Mountain Autumn Evening by Steven Krull

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Elk in the Sunshine

These elk appear to be having a relaxing morning! I saw them grazing on the mountain

Elk Herd in the Wilderness

grass near the edge of the dense pine forest. For some reason they saw me but did not retreat into the safety of the trees, but slowly walked along the edge of the wilderness while I snapped away using my big 400mm Canon lens. Usually they disappear like ghosts into the forest the moment they spot me. This was my favorite one with the rugged snow capped Sangre de Cristo mountain range in the background  🙂

Elk Herd and the Sangre de Cristo

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Sun Drenched Spring Morning

Deer on a Warm Colorado Spring Morning

It’s amazing how fast we go from spring to summer in Colorado… I guess I should say we go from winter to summer, there is no spring here. In fact some say we only have two seasons in the high country, winter and the 4th of July! Never the less.. today it was a glorious spring morning and I’m glad I went out to enjoy it!

By the time I finally got going we were burning daylight and I was worried the animals

Deer on a Warm Colorado Spring Morning

had all gone deep into the woods to rest in the cool shade, but as we cleared the ridge I thought I saw a deer’s ears going on alert as we made our way towards them. Closer inspection revealed that there were three deer peering out from the shade of the tall pines on top of the mountain. Two were in the shade but the third had a bit of light on his face, enough I hoped to get a nice picture! Since it was a bit shady I chose ISO 400 for my speed and exposed for the animal that was in partial sunlight. The other two deer I hoped would make a nice backdrop for the big handsome deer in the light.

Deer on a Warm Colorado Spring Morning

I captured a few more of that group and then made my way down the other side and around the south side of the summit where I thought I might get another view. Unfortunately I didn’t get the closeup I was hoping for but I did get a nice shot of them on the mountain top making their way towards the cool shade of the wilderness.

As always, these images and more are available for purchase on my website as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas and traditional framing and matting.  Tons of cool gift household, tech, apparel and gift items are available as well! Just click on an image you like and the menu will appear!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Heavens Were Shining Upon Me

Dogs woke me up early this morning… so at o’dark:30 I thought I might as well take advantage of the early start and get some sunrise pictures.  After a quick glance out the window and a check of the weather site on my phone, I decided otherwise. Freezing fog, light snow and 25 degrees were enough to send me back to the coffee pot. Even Big Dog wanted back inside to catch some more zzzz’s. So I just relaxed with some waffles and steaming black coffee with puppy dogs for a blanket. Three hours later I awoke again feeling considerably more rested, and it looked like the sun was going to shine a bit as well!

Herd of mule deer in the morning sun

Dense fog still filled the Arkansas River Valley so the Sangre de Cristo were totally obscured, but as we cleared the ridge I could see some unusual objects on the hillside, must be deer or elk I thought. Closer inspection with my big Canon glass revealed a small herd of deer grazing on a beautiful hillside, bathed in the warm Colorado springtime morning sun. I snapped a couple from a distance assuming that the deer were going to run as soon as they noticed us, before stealthily meandering closer. As luck would have it the trail approached them at an angle… proceeding directly at wild animals is usually a recipe for photographic disaster. They looked up with a small amount of interest but fortunately they didn’t run.

Ever so quietly, I found a place to sit in the lovely sunshine and just shoot for a while while the deer were

Herd of Mule Deer in the Sun

occupied with their morning feeding. Finally they began to wander around the hillside in search of better grass I suppose, but by then I had accumulated 150 amazing images and was ready to finish hiking with the big dog anyway.

This afternoon the clouds cold and fog are back along with a few flurries now and then, perfect weather for processing pictures on the computer! I thought the day was going to be a bust but the Heavens were definitely shining upon me and for that brief period the Almighty split the skies and gave me a shot at a better day than usual 🙂

As always these images and more are available on my website as wall art and cool gift, tech and household items. Just click a gallery that you are interested in, click an image and wait for all the products and pricing to become available! You can also browse by product category if you already know what you are interested in! 

Herd of Mule Deer in the Sun

 

On the Run

Morning Sun Deer Herd

Not much to say about today… we woke up and hit the trail early. We found the animals and tried to get close for some good captures. But all things don’t always go according to plan and as you can see all we have to show for this morning’s work is the backside of some deer running away from us 😦

Hopefully tomorrow will be better, another trip to Waterton Canyon is planned and with God’s grace my camera chip will once again be filled with images of majestic bighorn sheep! And hopefully maybe some deer and a bear 🙂

The Privilege of Wildlife

On a morning like this I feel so privileged. There are very few places where a person can regularly go out a few minutes from home and suddenly find himself in the midst of a wilderness scene like the one I experienced this today 🙂

Elk Herd on a Winter Morning

I was at the trailhead early, just before sunrise and just in time to see the elk herd again. I think there were even more animals in the herd today and I could here them calling, talking to each other I guess. Anyway it was amazing to be in the presences of complete silence other than the breeze in the pine trees and the sound of pure wilderness. Well, there was no time to waste, all the talk I was hearing could be an elk discussion about heading up the mountainside! So I raised the big 400mm to my eye and steadied it on a fence post for a few shots. I always make sure I set up and start shooting as quickly as possible. Nothing worse than fiddling around and ending up with no record at all of your encounter!

Once I was sure I had something to show for the day I began slowly moving up the trail for a better view of the action. There is a fence at the trailhead to keep in the free range cattle so the

Elk Herd on a Winter Morning

elk had to negotiate that before moving higher. There is a gate which is kind of like a mini maze which does a good job of keeping in the cows. But the elk have figured it out just fine and most of the animals were just walking right through it, but some decided to jump the fence instead. Elk and deer have no trouble at all in jumping a five foot fence. They don’t even have to take a run at it. From a standing start they just hop right over.

Elk Herd on a Winter MorningSoon all the magnificent beasts were on the other side and they began the journey to the dense pine forest on the other side of the mountain top. I followed on my snowshoes for a while hoping they would stop. They did gather in the meadow at the top where I was able to capture a few more images, but they soon noticed me and vanished into the wilderness. Pretty much all the imagery I captured there was elk butt heading in the other direction!

I hiked another mile or so around the mountain in hopes of another encounter to no

Elk Herd on a Winter Morning

avail. However there was a good view of the sun rising on the southern mountains which made the extra miles worth the effort. Hopefully I’ll have time to process those in the next couple of days.

As a side note to myself, I may have accidentally learned a new trick. In all the excitement I accidentally bumped the exposure compensation wheel and shifted it from +2/3 of a stop to 0 compensation. I thought for sure I had blown the entire shoot, but as it turns out a quick check of the histogram showed a decent exposure to the left and the unintended benefit of that was a faster shutter speed. The images were well within tolerance of Camera Raw to be able to drag the exposure over and the faster shutter speed resulted in those images being sharper than the more accurately exposed ones! Don’t think I would make such an extreme adjustment on purpose, but I might consider a third of a stop shutter speed increase to be a good choice some morning!

As always these images and more are available as wall art on my website on glossy acrylic and metal sheets, canvas and traditional framing and matting. Cool household, tech, and gift items are also available! Just click the “elk” gallery to view only images of elk and then click an image you like to view all the product options and pricing!

Morning Delight

As I pulled the old Dodge into the trailhead parking this morning I thought I could see movement in the predawn light so I parked a little sideways to get a better look. Sure enough, there was an elk herd grazing and moseying up the mountainside from where

Morning Elk Herd

ever they were bedded down last night. Rather than charging up the hill with Big Dog like I usually do I got the camera ready and lingered a bit, hoping for the sun to crest the ridge to the east so I could have better light for a shot of the magnificent beasts.

Patience paid off as the sun finally did poke through bathing the mountain top in a beautiful warm morning glow. By then the animals had noticed me and were moving up the mountain into the light and I was able to capture this nice image of the mini migration. Lol, except for this young fellow below who had apparently found something else to do rather than pay attention to what the adults were doing. By this time he had noticed and was scrambling to catch up 🙂

Young Elk on the Run

I was hoping that as we rounded the hillside on the trail that we would get a chance to see them again in the high meadow, but by the time we arrived up there the elk were all gone. Vanished like ghosts into the dense wilderness to the south. Got a few more images of this herd that I will probably try to work on later… unless of course I just decide to go shooting again!

The Fawns

Yesterday was too hot to do anything most of the day and not a cloud in sight. Top that off with some horrendous Labor Day traffic going through town and it was just a nice day to hang out in the air conditioning and rest up a bit from the long week before.

Mule Deer FawnsHowever the late afternoon light was just a bit too enticing for a photographer and it had cooled off enough that I could take the puppies out for some exercise.

It was a nice leisurely stroll along one of my favorite trails in the Pike National Forest near Woodland… All the people and all their dogs off doing holiday things with all the other people doing holiday things. Perhaps that is why the small family of mule deer I have been getting glimpses of all summer were finally standing still in the open where I could finally get a decent shot of them! They weren’t afraid of me this time and just looked up from their feeding to wonder what the heck I was doing 🙂

I captured some of just the two fawns and a couple with mamma deer in the frame too. I will be processing all of  them in the coming days and they will be available for purchase on my website.

When I was done hiking I decided to take a drive in the cool of the evening down Ed Lowe Road, a place of great beauty and always a good source of wildlife pictures. This visit paid off too, when I spotted a small herd of doe mule deer feeding down by the stream in the deep foliage. They were hearing a dog in the distance though and would not look at me as they were more interested in the dog. But I did get a couple of nice portrait views of one of the does.

Huge BuckLater on my way back I spotted this huge buck mule deer foraging for food on a steep mountainside. He was a ways off but I think it is an interesting picture with the angle of the background so steep. I tried cropping it, but it didn’t really bring out the deer any more and cropping took away from the effect of the mountainside. So I steadied the camera with my elbows on the hood of my old Dodge truck and here we have the distant buck looking curiously at me from a range of about 100 yards captured with my Canon F4L 70-200.

BierwerksDusk was settling in on my way home back through Woodland Park on a beautiful and unusually warm evening. The outdoor beer garden at Bierwerks was just a bit too enticing to pass by, so I stopped in for a pale ale and a chance to bask in the glow of the outdoor fire pit and contemplate life. I am happy to announce that after a summer of turmoil and stress dealing with the real estate market I’m only days away from closing on a house and a move to Cripple Creek. My head is just swimming from all the ups and downs of trying to qualify for the loan and it was nice just to sit and look at the fire while sipping one of my favorites. For a bit I felt like I was joining the rest of the world on vacation to the mountains…

These pictures and more will be for sale on my website as wall art on glossy metal and acrylic sheets, canvas, framed and matted prints and also as novelty items including t-shirts and coffee mugs. Commercial editorial stock versions of the images is also available at the image licensing portal of my website.

Steve Krull is a prolific sports and nature photographer selling prints and stock images online as S.W. Krull Imaging at various sites and agencies. Click this link to view all the products and services offered by Steve Krull and S. W. Krull Imaging. Additional services include, wedding photography, portraiture and model portfolios, and event photography. Additional products include fine art stock imagery, prints and gift items

 

 

The Fold

I was out hiking in the woods with my Samoyed some time ago when we came upon a situation I wasn’t expecting. There are a lot of deer around here and some coyotes too. The two don’t usually have much to do with each other as there are plenty of rabbits and squirrels and the deer are too big for the coyotes to want to mess with. However this day a fawn had failed to keep up with the herd and soon it was scrambling for it’s life with a big coyote in hot pursuit. Fortunately for the fawn, Klondike was way more interested in the coyote than he was in deer and he was the only thing standing in the way of some very ugly business. The coyote spotted Klondike and decided to make a wide circle around him while the desperate fawn just sped right past us. Klondike gave the fawn just enough time to make it back to the herd of does who quickly turned the tables and had the coyote fleeing in the other direction.

Fold

Almost every species from cockroaches to giant musk oxen is the target of another greater species seeking food. What occurs to me is that God has given each animal a unique method of defense. Some have been given camouflage, some great speed, others teeth and claws. However for most large and relatively defenseless species like the deer, the only defense is numbers. Predators often set their sights on the young as the most likely candidates for a kill. Without their parents the youngsters would be completely defenseless. They have not yet acquired the speed or size of the adult animals and would have no chance of surviving without the protection of their parents and their herds. When the herd detects danger a protective circle will often be formed around the babies to keep the predators at bay.

It occurs to me that humans are no different. When we get separated from our families and friends we are vulnerable. For children, parents are the first line of defense while watchful neighbors, teachers and friends come in a close second. As adults we are not as vulnerable as children, but danger still lurks once we are alone. Illness, job loss, natural disasters and society’s criminal element can all cause catastrophe for individuals and families. For many, the extended family may make the difference between safety and disaster. For some, the extended family might be aunts uncles and cousins. For others who have moved far from home in quest of a career, a church family may close the gap.

More importantly, as spiritual beings our struggles are not always with an enemy we can see. Sometimes “our battle is not against flesh and blood, but with the principalities and powers of the air”. Just like the deer our enemy is a roaring predator roaming about “seeking whom he may destroy”. The bible refers to us as sheep and of course sheep are most vulnerable when they are separated from the others. Perhaps it would be wise not to stray too far from from “the fold”, but will I follow my own advice?