First Snow

Blizzard Battle. Estes Park, Colorado, 2016

This first first significant snow of the season is a bit late–pushing toward late November. Usually it comes sometime in late October. It has been a very dry and warm autumn around these parts. And, unfortunately, this storm appears to be very short-lived. It will be here and gone in less than 24 hours.

No worries, though, as we all understand that global warming is nothing but a hoax instigated by the Chinese, right? Just a cycle…just a cycle…

Today’s image, to herald in the cold season, is a very real, but almost abstract, photograph of two bull elk clacking and cracking their antlers together in the midst of a blizzard. A frosty testosterone challenge. They already have their Gucci winter coats, so the sub-freezing temperatures didn’t seem to bother them whatsoever.

The elk here in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park are waaaay too tame, in my humble judgement. The above scene, for example, took place in someone’s backyard, not far from their charcoal grill. (Some judicious cropping and skillful cloning eliminated the cultural distractions.) What we need around here are a couple of packs of lean and hungry wolves to keep the elk on the tips of their hooves, and the herds svelte and healthy.

Photo tip: When you are presented with a scene like this–two bull elk going at it to impress the girls–it is very easy to simply focus on the obvious macho action taking place. However, once you note this, immediately start thinking about the background you want and do some quick “border patrol” around the outside frame of the image to make sure you have eliminated any distractions. In this case, this was the best I could do, but that tree in the middle kind of ruins it. I tried hard to work into the area at a different angle, but the surrounding herd of at least 100 animals was giving me a couple of hundred evil eyes, so I settled for this shot.