Bull Moose

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Denali, Photos, Travel 16 Comments

A couple of bull moose in front of Mt McKinley, Denali National Park, Alaska.

A couple of bull moose in front of Mt McKinley, Denali National Park, Alaska.

It seems weird to call it Mt McKinley since no one, including myself ever calls it that in conversation, but I guess that is the official name.

Anyone who has hiked on tundra can tell you how hard and slow it is to move on such soft, uneven ground.  Well, now I can tell you it is even harder to run on the tundra, especially in Xtra tuffs boots, but that is what I had to do to keep “The Mountain” directly behind these massive moose.  They would take 10 steps to the right, I would have to take 50!

I knew the moose would still be in velvet during this trip.  That initially was disappointing, but in hindsight it did make exposing for them much easier as I didn’t have to worry about blowing out the exposure on the racks which is so easy to do.

Normally I would use a two or 3 stop hard edge graduated neutral density filter here, but I had left mine back in the truck.  So I auto bracketed exposure, and I used Photo shop to manually combine two images captured two stops apart after I returned to the office.

Comments 16

  1. Ron,
    I was with those same moose a few days earlier, but oh my, not with that backgound! Very nice image. I know it is not that easy to get one, let alone two bulls in a scene like that especially with their legs visible.

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  6. Great photo Ron! I’m headed to Denali next week and camping at Wonder Lake. Do you typically ride the buses when you are in the park? Any suggestions for great locations in Denali this year?

  7. Brilliant, Ron! Just brilliant!

    Did I ever mention that I named my cat Denali after this mountain? Western Australia is so flat, that seeing this great one rise above the already high mountain ranges blew our minds! Seeing it in your photos, it still does!

    What an amazing photo – it was worth the hard work. You must have felt very excited once you captured your desired composition.

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    Hi Noella – thanks! I was really excited to finally be able to capture this image!

    Hi Joe. I was fortunate to have an pro pass. I would watch closely from the bus as you ride out to Wonder Lake, and then return to the places you spot moose the next morning . That usually don’t move too far from day to day.

  9. Really beautiful image! such a great sense of place with the mountains in the background, and its cool to see an animal that is so large look comparatively so small.

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    @ Pat Thanks! The mountains due provide some neat sense of scale.

    @ Joe Thank you. That bear was captured during the end of the season drive in out by the Eielson Visitor center. I was in my truck, and he was above me a bit when it decided to walk out to the rock outcropping – lucky timing!

    @ Dennis Thanks!

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