How To Photograph Elk In The Tetons - A Handful Of Tips And Tricks 

Best pictures of Elk I got in the Grand Tetons was in a private community. Royal Elk and his harem of about twenty does. I was the only person there talking pictures and it was awesome. Listening to the bulls call out during the rut is an Awe moment in life.

I got lucky when I went, We went October 11th, right outside Teton village on the backroad heading to moose, right around 6:30 AM before sunrise, we saw multiple Elk in about 30 minutes on the same road, about 40 feet away. Was so amazing, no one else around. Thanks for the tips, enjoy your videos!

On my way to Tetons soon. Watching your videos for all the tips.

Great tips Steve. One I would like to add is when shooting from the vehicle, is to make sure your car is turned off. Those engine vibrations can ruin a good photo, especially with those low shutter speeds.

Ramble away, I’m listening to you while staring at the scenery.

Another great vid with tips I can use! Stay safe... 👍👍👍

Tip #1 - have a great place like GTNP and the elk refuge to look for Elk in. 😉 Great tips and another very enjoyable video. Keep shooting and sharing.

Thank You Steve!

I know I have watched this for the last 2 years in a row right before I head up in the hope of some elk rut pics

Good stuff Steve

Great advice and very timely for me since I’ll be in the tetons in a couple of weeks!

Great tips and images Steve.

I really enjoy your videos! OK, we have elks here in Sweden also but they are not that common where I live. However, yesterday morning on my short roadtrip I spotted in total 17 roe deer. Not all in the same place. The round trip takes about an hour and a half. Even moose can be found there, but not yesterdag!

Correct Sir! That's similar to the way to shoot elk in Cherokee, NC. Thanks for sharing your perspective!

Great stuff Steve. I went down that same road last week. I didn't find any either. Lol

Great down to earth advice, loved the shots with the Elk small in the landscape as well. I have the D850 and the 70-200f2.8 but I have the 300f4 as my longest lens, really need something bigger

Talk about perfect timing. I arrived in the Jackson from Yellowstone this morning. Unfortunately, so did the smoke from the coast. I am here only a couple days. Landscape shots look like a bust. I got to Oxbow Bend this a.m. at 5:45 and thought the Tetons were covered with fog this morning, but it didn't go away...SMOKE! This was great timing...I will check the weather in the a.m. for the smoke, but may end up hunting wildlife. Thanks Steve, another great video.

Super tips and place!!! Wow

Awesome informative video Steve! Really helpful. I hope I can go there soon.

Great video. Love the channel. Any tips on owls? More specific, finding owls?

Enjoyed your discussion and the scenery.

great video as usual Steve. i shoot Canon and when i use a bean bag with the 600 i have to put some gaffers tale on the manual focus ring to keep it from moving. works pretty well. thanks again. danny hancock

Super helpful

Another great video, Steve. I particularly liked your tips on composition and creative choices (e.g. silhouettes and dragging the shutter) that turn low light into an advantage. Your tip to shoot with a full frame camera is well-taken, assuming one is filling the frame and doing only minimal cropping. Cropping literally throws away light captured during an exposure and, if one crops the final image to match the field of view that would be captured using an APS-C, the full-frame camera loses its comparative advantage in light-gathering and noise. Thanks, again, for another fine video, Steve. Be well. Stay safe.

awesome as always Steve, Ill be out for a week the first week of october, hope to run into you again!

Early morning late evenings I keep two Canon 7d mii (crop)bodies along with my 600mm f4 L i.s. (still working today since 1999).For hand held I prefer the 100mm -400mm version 2, or on a monopod. With speeds up to 3200 i get exceptable noise results. Also the 1dx mii (full frame)with either of these lenses or my 300mm 2.8. For wildlife portraits I use the 5d sr and 5d m iv. Decades of photographing with super telephoto so keeping things steady is easier for me as well.

Great video...thank you for all the tips. Much appreciated...!!

Thanks for the timely video! I’m in Victor ID for the week in my RV, so I’m going to head over to the inner loop tomorrow morning to see if I can find any nice bull elk :-)

I would very happily watch a video of just driving around the roads in the Tetons. The Scenery and wildlife there is just outstanding. Hopefully some day I will see it in all its glory. Great tips Steve 👍🏻

I saw 2 bull elk in the Tetons 😃. One was rubbing the velvet off his head on a tree and people were very close

Perfect tips!

As I often do with your videos, I went back and watched this sweet elk video for the second or third time now that fall is approaching. Thanks so much for making it! You mention that you use noise-reduction software in post production after using the high ISOs often necessary with elk early in the morning. Can you please let me know what your favorite such software is? Thanks again, Steve!

Great tips. No elk here in Ohio but the tips are still great for other animals. Thanks.

I was there all last week and the only time I saw bulls were early morning as you said. I went out the morning after the storm and didn't have any luck but it sure was beautiful. Wonderful trip except seeing the teenager hit the moose by the airport... My Canon 100-400mm F4-5.6 gave me some noisy elk photos due to the dim light. Could have used this video a week ago lol

Thanks for the book recomandation Steve! You should do that more often, I'm listening all the time while driving to my photo locations. My recommendation for you is "Bunker" by Bradley Garrett. It's about preppers and prepping for social and environmental collapse. You can also listen to the author's convention with Joe Rogan on the Rogan podcast before you decide do go for a book. Cheers✌

Last time we were there, the rangers had brought a dead elk down from the high country for the bears to eat. It was about a 1/4 mile shot,it but came pretty good.

Thanks for the ride-along and the tips. I hope you and other wildlife photographers will do a few more videos like this concerning photographing wildlife-etiquette and safety tips (for subject and photographer). With more and more people using our national and state parks you hear stories about roadside wildlife "jams" and people getting too close to potentially dangerous animals with I-pads and cellphones.

There are some people that ramble on and I almost fall asleep while watching their videos. You are not one of those people.

Great tips!

Great Tutorial!

👌👌👌

Two favorite elk moments: 1. Working on a conservation ranch in western Montana, where the elk in the Bitterroot gather during the rut. Driving home at 1 in the morning, the entire herd crosses the road. I turn off my jeep, and listen to the otherworldly sounds of 100+ elk wandering their way towards the creek where the action happens. 2. During a talk on Yellowstone elk population dynamics in Yellowstone, a bull elk standing right outside the door gives a loud bugle, which echoes through the room. Incredible creatures! Look forward to watching. :)

If necessary to get out of the vehicle, get out on the side opposite the elk, and keep the vehicle between you and the elk. Often they will be ok with it if you do this.

Cool, now I have to do is find a money tree so I can get some better equipment, ha ha. Great video though.

Is your sandbag something you built or did you buy it somewhere?