Ken Papaleo: X Marks the Shot: Moose and some other wild life, Walden, Colorado.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 800

Shutter - 1/1600 sec.

F/stop - 6.3

Lens - 500 mm

LOCATION.

1. Walden Colorado is about 3 hours from Denver.

2. A good place to stay is North Park Inn and Suites. They have air conditioned rooms.

3. I found most of my moose in the Arapaho National Wild Life Refuge, south of Walden on hwy 125.

4. The birds were found on the Auto Tour, also on hwy 125.

THE CHALLENGE.

To get a unique photo of a moose. Sometimes your lucky to see a moose let alone get something unusual. Plus moose get pissed-off if you bother them to much.

THE SOLUTION.

The first thing I did was to locate the moose, they were found in the wild life refuge, near the handicapped boardwalk area. This was done by driving to an overlook of the area and looking down with binoculars. The best chance to see a moose is early morning or late afternoon/evening. After locating the subject, I drove back to that area, parked my Jeep, armed myself with two cameras, with medium to long glass and headed to the area where to moose were hanging out. One thing, make sure to take precautions for the mosquitos, their really bad. Moving close to my destination, I heard water splashing. Looking around, a moose was located sitting in a pound of water, cooling off from the hot day. I had never seen this before and knew this was my shot. Using my 500 mm lens, on a mono pod, I got off a few frames before the moose saw me and took off.

OTHER PHOTOS FROM THE WALDEN AREA.