Ken Papaleo: X Marks the Shot: Elk calves, Evergreen, Colorado.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 800

Shutter - 1/500 sec.

F/stop - 4.5

Lens - 70/200 zoom

LOCATION.

1. Evergreen is about a 1/2 hour west of Denver.

2. Take the Evergreen Parkway exit off I-70.

3. You never know where the elk will be found, good places to start looking are Evergreen Lake, golf

course and any park or open space you come to.

THE CHALLENGE.

To get some nice shoots of the new calves in the Evergreen area. The biggest part of this was doing it safely. The cows are very protective of their young and will attack if you get to close!

THE SOLUTION.

I used a 500 mm lens whenever I could. It gave me nice access to the elk, without bothering them. Than I ran across a Evergreen mom and daughter, who informed me of a location where many calves could be found (By-the-way mom, THANKS). After viewing the location, the 500 lens was out, to tight of a situation. They were right next to the dirt road on a curve and I didn't want to take the chance of getting our of my vehicle. Over the years I have discovered that the elk in Evergreen are very use to automobiles. Using this, I put on my 70-200 zoom, opened my window and slowly drove in among them and stopped. They weren't upset and went on with their business while I shot for about 10 minutes. The images were very rewarding and I did it the safe way.

OTHER CALF PHOTOS FROM EVERGREEN.