Bull Elk Among the Pines, Rocky Mountain National Park

I usually instruct my wildlife photography workshop participants to first think like a landscape photographer, prioritizing seeing and capturing the environmental wildlife photo option when the right scenario unfolds. While I love tight wildlife portraits, those are often more readily available than an image of the animal in a beautiful landscape.

Following such advice is complicated by using a long focal length prime lens, especially those in the 600mm F4 class. While these lenses create the best tightly framed, blurred background wildlife imagery, prime lenses require sneaker zoom to adjust the amount of the scene in the composition, and wildlife is not often patient enough to wait for the long sneaker zooming this narrow angle of view requires to sufficiently change the composition.

The long-lens environmental portrait strategy that more frequently works is watching for distant animals. On this afternoon, my crew was photographing a relatively close bull when another bull appeared far behind us at almost the perfect distance for 600mm. I say almost because the composition was slightly tight. Capturing some additional canvas in subsequent images enabled stitching a slight panorama that provided a little breathing room to the pines.

A common problem with long focal length long-distance photography is heat shimmer. While this image is mostly void of that problem, small indications of it still exist.

Join me to photograph the elk rut in Rocky Mountain National Park this September (2025). I recently learned that a repeat tour participant had to cancel their reservation for both weeks due to medical reasons, so I have one opening for each or both weeks of this not previously announced yet filled tour.

Special Offer: Sign up for both weeks and get two bonus days plus transportation from and to Denver.

Learn more: Elk Rut in Rocky Mountain National Park Photo Tour

Contact me for more information or to sign up.

A larger version of this image is available here.