Lens choice for Moose Photography

[sundaram_venkatachalam1]

I will be in Baxter State Park - Roaring Brook Campground - the

weekend of Oct 4th. My longest lens is a 70-300 zoom - any good?

 

I was thinking of renting a faster 300 prime lens and teleconverters

if the cheaper/slower zoom doesn't suffice. Any other advice on

moose photography would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[akajohndoe]

Rent a 300/2.8 or a 400/2.8 and the 1.4X and 2X teleconverters.

 

You'll want the speed to compensate for the loss in the teleconverters, the faster lens can also get you a higher shutter speed and blur out the background, and finally, the 400mm would give you a bit more working distance. You really don't want to get very close to moose!

[ligia_dovale]

Sundaram, the Moose at Sandy Pond could be very close to you when they are at your side of the shore. In this case, even a 200 mm would be sufficient,. I have taken portraits of Moose with a 300 mm at Sandy Pond. One time one Moose came within one foot from me (I did not make the slightest movement or shoot to avoid scaring him, another photographer in the distance took the picture of this Moose checking me out.) In any event, it is possible that the action would be happening at the opposite side of the pond. In this case, a 300 mm is not enough. Not even a 500 + the 1.4X. You would be getting environmental shots with lots of trees included, but not the Moose filling the frame. Another possibility is that you hike around the pond and try to get closer, but the trail does not circle the pond in its entirety, so all depends on where the Moose are. In all, I would say that you might be missing lots of pictures with just a 300 mm. I�ll be there after you, please send me an e-mail and let me know how it went. Thanks and best of luck!

[jimitoucan]

Where is Baxter State Park? Colorado?

 

Jim

[ligia_dovale]

Baxter State Park is in northern Maine. Mount Kathadin, which can be seen from Sandy Pond, is the north end of the Appalachian Mountain Trail.

[a long time ago]

rent something really,really big like a 1500/1.8 (to throw at him).more people are attacked by moose than grizzly bears...just kidding (kinda) ,have fun and make plenty of noise on overgrown trails.

[bobatkins]

If you are lucky it will be fine. If you are not lucky it won't be. I've had Moose pass within 10-15ft of me several times. If the photographers and other tourists just stay perfectly still, the Moose will pass by and ignore you. If you approach a Moose this close, you're an idiot and you're doing the Moose and all the other photographers a disservice. I have many nice shots taken with a 300mm lens, though your odds are better if you have a longer lens.

 

On the other hand on many days you'll be lucky to see a Moose at all and if you do it will be 200 yds away on the far side of the pond. There are days in late Sept/early Oct when no Moose at all are seen from sunrise to sunset.

 

The days of 10-15 Moose in the pond at one time are gone. Shooting them (with guns) just outside the park and increasing numbers of tourists seem to be making them more likely to stay in the woods under cover or find ponds that are not so popular as Sandy Stream.

 

On October 4th you're right in the middle of the Moose hunting season. While there is no hunting in most (but not all) of the park and there is no hunting in the Sandy Stream area, a few weeks of being shot at tends to make them a bit wary. The first part of the hunt this year stops on Sept 27th and picks up again on Oct 13th so there's no active hunting on the weekend of the 4th - but the Moose don't know that!

 

A word of warning. The park is clamping down on photographers because too many have been found off trail and approaching Moose too closely. Stay on the trail and in the viewing areas. They are getting stricter about enforcing this and if you are found in areas you shouldn't be in you may be ejected from the park, as well as giving photographers an even worse reputation with the park staff than they already have. Last year there was a particularly strict ranger working there who seemed very keen on making photographers aware of the rules and would appear at random and admonish photographers who were not on the trail or boardwalk. There was even rumored to be some talk of closing some of the area or banning photographers, but that doesn't seem very practical so it was probably just a rumor. However I think there are rangers there who would like the see the whole place closed to public access and simply manutained as unspoiled wilderness.

 

The situation is starting to get so bad that one very well known photographer who normally visits the park every year has decided to give it a miss this year. With the tour groups and Workshops hitting Sandy Stream at times it's getting more like a zoo than a wilderness area - except for the lack of Moose. If there's a tour group or Workshop there you may have to stand in line to get a good spot on the boardwalk area!

[ligia_dovale]

Sundaram, check this out to learn more about the creatures that you will be photographing:

http://www.moose395.net/howto/mainemoose.html. There is one shot where you can see a photographer holding a lens while a young Moose is touching it and other pictures that would give you an idea of how close the Moose can get.

[sundaram_venkatachalam1]

Ligia, Bob, et al - thanks. Hope to get some good moose shots.

[bobatkins]

It's incidents and images like the Moose calf touching the lens that are getting photographers a bad reputation in Baxter and may eventually lead to even stricter controls or outright bans.

 

While you can't prevent Moose from approaching you, you can usually back away - and you should.

 

It's not a petting zoo and MUCH better for the Moose if they have no direct contact with humans. Contact is also dangerous for humans. While a calf probably won't injure anyone, a concerned cow certainly can and they are often very protective.

 

Moose can come close in Baxter, but if they approach and you can back off, you should back off. Tempting as it may be to stand your ground and let them come in really close, it's the WRONG thing to do.

 

I would not be at all suprised if Baxter started restricting access to Sandy Stream Pond. They could easily close the trails that go down to the pond if they so wished - without disrupting any other trails - and I'm pretty sure some of the Rangers there would like to do just that.

 

Enjoy the experience, but be responsible and encourage others to do the same.

[zolt]

This is only one anecdote, but I was fortunate enough to get some decent <a href="http://home.comcast.net/~bwca/2000/photos.html#Moose">photos</a> of a moose in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (northern Minnesota) a few years ago using a 70-300mm. One of our group spotted the moose in an inlet on a medium-sized lake (looked like a brown rock from where we were) but we were able to quietly paddle close enough to nearly fill the frame at 300mm. Fortunately, there was enough light to hand-hold -- in the canoe -- with a high enough shutter speed and good enough depth of field.

[john_slonina]

Subject: Response to Lens choice for Moose Photography

 

Hi Bob,

Your right. It's a shame what is happening at baxter.

 

I have talked to some of the staff people they are fed up with photographers.

 

The park staff is actually looking at restricting certain areas and requiring a comercial use permits for photographers etc.

 

Please read the meeting minutes from the baxter authority meeting

 

http://www.friendsofbaxter.org/minutes050903.htm

 

They are also considering looking at several different ways of limiting the number of people visiting the park.

 

Please read the "wilder within proposal" one of the many they are considering

 

http://www.friendsofbaxter.org/main.htm

 

John Slonina

Slonina Photography

 

www.sphotography.com

[bobatkins]

John - any idea of how they propose to be able to tell if a photographer is "commercial" or not. I know a lot of photographers who shoot only for their own pleasure, yet are still using $20,000 of equipment and appear at the pond with a Canon 1Ds or two and a 600/4L IS lens on a Gitzo 1548 tripod.

 

I could see banning or restricting workshop and tour groups, but restricting individual "commercial" photography is going to be tricky. Unfortunately what might happen is all "serious" photography could be banned, though I don't know of any park anywhere that's managed to do that and enforcement would be something of a nightmare. There's no way to ban ALL photography unless you simply restrict ALL access, then it becomes a matter of how you define "commercial". If it's a Ranger's decision if your equipment is "serious" or not, that going to cause a lot of ill will. Maybe they don't care about that though.

 

National parks require permits for commercial use, but that specifically excludes permit requirements for individual photographers operating on their own, even if they intend to sell their work, since individual photographers place no more requirements on the park and cause no more problems than other individual visitors.

 

Making the hike to Sandy Stream 4 miles instead of 1 mile as proposed would certainly seperate out the "curious tourist", but my guess is that it would have little impact on the majority of "serious" photographers and zero impact on true commercial photographers. In fact it might increase the number at the pond, since once you've hiked in 4 miles carrying your gear, you're more likely just to sit there all day than if it's a 1 mile hike back to the car.

[john_slonina]

hi

 

yes it would be hard to figure that one out if someone was commercial.

 

either way the park has the ability to make their own rules and it is another hassle photographers don't need

 

they odviously have a people management issue and photographers are any easy target.

[bobatkins]

Not much we can do, except perhaps make local businesses aware that if restrictions are placed on photographers, photographers will find somewhere else to go.

 

Money talks and I suspect that the Millinocket chamber of commerce probably has more influence on park policy than any photographers association!

 

I'll be heading up to Baxter myself in a few weeks time, but if they closed Sandy Stream Pond access to photographers with "professional" equipment (telephoto lens and tripod), I'd probably find alternate destinations and I wouldn't be staying in Millinocket. There are other spots in Baxter, but none are as good as Sandy Stream. Stump on on the loop road can be good, but if there are Moose there it's a FAR worse zoo than Sandy stream since every passing car stops and there aren't many good shooting spots, so crowds gather and cause problems if the Moose decide they want to cross the road. Though they have banned parking on the road by the pond, and even put in a 5 slot parking lot, it was still a zoo at times last year.

 

I heard a story of one photographer who went into the pond wearing a wet suit to get closer to the Moose. Didn't see it myself, but I can believe it.

 

If anyone knows of good Moose spots other than Sandy Stream/Baxter, but in the same general area, I'd be interested to hear of them, either in the forum or via email if you don't want to make them public. I just sit in the bushes and wait. I promise to leave my wetsuit at home!<div></div>