Colorado - "X Marks the Shot" put on hold.

 New entries to my photo blog "X Marks the Shot" will be put on hold for awhile. It seems that I have MDS, a type of terminal bone marrow cancer. They tell me I have 1 to 3 years. After I get use to the side effects of chemo and get my life back into some order, I will be back out shooting. Until then I have almost 10 years of posts from all around Colorado, please check some of them out.

Thanks for all your views over the years.

Be Back Soon!

Ken

Colorado, Mount Evans, Idaho Springs - Mountain Goats.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 400

Shutter - 1/1000 sec.

F/stop - 5.6

Lens - 70/200 zoom

This year Mount Evans will stay open until the first major snow storm, instead of closing Labor Day weekend. This will be the first opportunity to photograph the fall colors in this area, in a long time.

More images from Mount Evans Below.

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Wildlife Photographer

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

303-674-0615

Summer Wildlife in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

ISO - 1250

Shutter - 1/800 sec.

F/stop - 4.0

Lens - 500 mm

LOCATION.

1. Rocky Mountain National Park is about a 3 hour drive from Denver.

2. Elk were located in the higher elevations of Trail Ridge Road.

3. Best time to locate wildlife is mornings and evenings. 

THE CHALLENGE. 

I wanted to get a nice shoot of a bull elk with its antlers still covered in velvet. Before the elk rut starts, they bulls will rub off the velvet.

THE SOLUTION. 

To get this shot I had to go to the park in mid August, when the antlers would be big and still covered with velvet. Once finding the bulls, which wasn't easy, only saw four during my whole trip, I used a 500 mm lens to get a close shot. The main thing you want to do is have your camera, with your choice of lens, ready to shoot! To do this I put my camera on auto exposure, if the animal sticks around, than I will go to manual exposure, to fine tune it.  I use two cameras, one with a 80-200 zoom and the other with my 500 mm lens. The elk might hang around for awhile or take off as soon as they see you, so be ready to jump into action and shoot quickly. 

OTHER WILDLIFE PHOTOS FROM THIS SHOOT.

ALL PHOTOS ARE FOR SALE, CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW.

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Wildlife Photographer

303-674-0615

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.

ALL PHOTOS ARE FOR SALE, CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW.

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Wold Life Photographer

303-674-0615

Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge - Monte Vista, Colorado.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 500

Shutter - 1/1000 sec.

F/stop - 8

Lens - 500 mm

LOCATION.

1. Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, Monte Vista, Colorado.

2. Drive time form Denver is about 4 hours.

3. Cranes are gone, think about going next March.

THE CHALLENGE.

I think this was the 20th time photographing the cranes and I always came out of there with something

new. With so many birds and the changing weather, its almost impossible to come up empty.  Therefor  

there really isn't any challenge, just plan on spending a lot of time with the birds to see all of their activities.  

SOLUTION.

When covering something that provides shooting possibilities that last all day, you want to avoid having  your images looking similar. The best way to do this is by using all your lenses. Don't get caught only using big glass. For fun I would decide on using a certain lens and stick with it until I got something good.

Note - An earlier blog was dedicated to the "Dance of the Cranes", posted March 19th, 2012 and this

           is the second blog devoted to Monte Vista Wildlife Refuge, first posted last week, 3/36/12.

OTHER WILDLIFE REFUGE PHOTOS.

ALL PHOTOS ARE FOR SALE, CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW.

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Wildlife Photographer

303-674-0615