Ken Papaleo: X Marks the Shot: Fall in and around Walden, Colorado.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 2000

Shutter - 1/800 sec.

F/stop - 5.6

Lens - 500 mm

Note - a 1.4 extender and a monopod were used for this shot.

Challenge.

Anytime I go to Walden Colorado, my challenge is to get a real nice photo of a moose, but the real challenge is finding one. Their around but seeing one, in the short time I'm there, doesn't always happen.

Solution.

I was only spending one night in Walden, got there around 1pm and checked into my room. Evening and morning are the best times to spot wildlife. The Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge is a good place to check out, but it is very large, 23,464 acres. Preparing for this shoot, one camera was on a 500 mm lens, with a 1.4 extender, connected to a monopod. The other was carrying a 70/200 zoom. You need to be ready to jump into action, right away. You don't know what a moose will do once it sees you. I had them boult right away, just ignore me or get pissed off. Pulling into the refuge, there was a real strong, consistent wind. This is usually not a good situation to capture wildlife photos. With the wind, clouds started to cover the area with deep shadows. It was about a hour until sunset, hadn't seen any moose and it was time to make a decision. The clouds where starting to look like they could produce a nice sunset. Do I give up on the elk and move to a nicer location for the sunset? The winds just keep howling, so I packed up and headed to a lake. The winds weren't as bad there and the sunset turned out to be very impressive. Back out at the refuge, before sunrise, the next morning, did the trick. From a ridge, I could look around with my binoculars. The wind wasn't bad and I spotted a number of moose. Using my long set-up, a couple of nice images were recoded. Now knowing where they where located, I moved into a closer location. Got my "X Shot" and a few other images here. I took a longer way out of the refuge, on my way home and came upon a herd of pronghorn. They took off immediately but being ready to take a picture, I was able to capture a nice image. So make sure while your out looking for one thing, keep your eyes open for any nice photo situation and make sure you stop and shoot it. You might get skunked on your hopes, but you wont go home empty handed.