Arkansas Elk in Boxley Valley
Posted by paul | Filed under Photography Articles
Over the past weekend, I spent some time up at Ponca AR to photograph the Elk herd. The Elk in Arkansas are considered a great success as the heard now has grown to close to 500 animals. The viewing of the herd has become a big item at Ponca and on the weekends you can expect to get a lot of traffic along Hwy 43 as people stop to look. There were more photographers out looking for the Elk that I expected. Enough that it reminded me of photography in Yellowstone during the fall rut.
The Elk will come down into the main fields near Ponca early in the morning and later in the afternoon. I found that the later afternoon shooting provided the best opportunities for my shooting style. If you are working the fields around Boxley Valley, you are limited to the fence line. This means that most of the visible Elk are between 100 to 200 years out. Even with a 400mm lens, the distance was really too great to take a photo to feature an elk without an extreme amount of cropping. To really bring the animals into view, you would be better suited with at least a 500mm lens, even a 600 or 800mm. There were plenty of people using these huge pieces of glass. Enough that it reminded me of a sporting event.
Tags: Arkansas, Boxley Valley, Elk, Ponca, Yellowstone
