OREGON REVISITED 2010
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THE ADVENTURE OF THE BULL ELK ENCOUNTER
When I received an invitation to return to Oregon to photograph bull elk, I never dreamed what would happen to us on the very first day. Garry Wagner and Rod Miller, two brothers in Christ, were kind enough to guide me as we entered the nature conservancy outside of Enterprise, Oregon. These men were lifelong hunters and were very knowledgeable in locating and calling in bull elk. I have to also say that I had never met two men who were in such good physical condition and able to handle the difficult terrain as they were. They were amazing to watch and were kind enough to work with me in the low oxygen and difficult climbing. It was not long after entering the conservancy and while climbing up a ravine that Rod spotted elk. This was was part of a herd of around 40 and we began to stalk them in hopes of finding a good bull. Our first attempt resulted in a small bull who never really gave me a good situation for a photograph. We discovered later that a monster bull was in the herd and had slipped away. Eventually the group smelled us and took off. Garry continued to call and a bull responded a few hundred yards from us near where we had entered the area. His voice didn't indicate a big bull but we continued the effort to draw him in anyway. Eventually, he no longer responded nor did he seem to be moving toward us. I became a little complacent and began to look at some of the photographs I had taken. I had my Nikon D700 with a 300mm/2.8 lens and a 1.7x teleconverter on my monopod. This was to prove to be the wrong choice. All of a sudden the bull bugled and was coming over the hill right in front of us at around 40 yards. It seemed like he was right on top of me for he was huge (see largest bull above). Garry retreated backwards and kneeled down and put his face to the ground fearing the elk would spot him. He had no time to retreat further than around 20 yards from the bull. When the bull topped the hill I turned my camera vertical because I could not get the whole elk into my viewfinder. I took several head shots but knew I would have to remove the teleconverter . The bull was looking straight at me and then Garry's cow call drew his attention. Garry used the call to keep him close and I was able to remove the teleconverter. Garry told me later that he was wondering why I was not taking photographs. The bull stayed in front of us for around ten minutes before moving away giving me plenty of time to get the shots. Everyone then came out of hiding excited about what they had just witnessed. Garry said that this was the largest elk that he had ever seen and Rod had killed a bigger one but had never been that close to one that size. He was a six by six and estimated to weigh around 1K lbs. What a moment in the life of this wildlife photographer.
Before we left on this photo shoot, we had prayed that God would bless and give us success to His glory. Rod had said that others were praying as well. All of us were so excited for we had only been in the woods a couple of hours and I had photographed a bull larger than anything I had ever dreamed of and they had been up close and personal to a bull of a lifetime. We were so aware of God's presence with us and we knew that without a doubt we had seen His hand in what had just happened. Together we stopped and prayed, thanking God for what was obviously, to us, His handiwork. We were reminded of God's love and how He cares about the little things in our lives and desires to bless His children. We can truly say that God had blessed us that day.
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