Sunday, October 4, 2015

Me And The Moose

Just came out of Horseshoe lake. I had a rather miraculous experience. I was taking photos of the wall formations and underwater rock around the lake using my Rollie F. It was very peaceful, still mountain air, overcast after earlier sunshine. So there I am shooting away, I look up and what do I see 25 feet or so away? A huge freaking male moose with huge freaking antlers, the thing was super LARGE.

I cried out something like “Holy Shit!!” the moose looked up, and turned his head a bit in my direction, he was as shocked and surprised as I was. He had noticed me for the first time and after a moments stunned hesitation he bolted into the bush behind. He was gone in a flash!! This event was shocking. Sometimes you forget that in the National Parks your sharing the space with Canadian wildlife.

I guess Mr. Moose was coming down to the waters edge to take a drink and did not notice me on the nearby slightly higher rocky ledge. What a beautiful animal, never been that big a fan of moose, always felt they were rather ugly. This is the closest by far I have ever gotten to a living LARGE animal in the wild, a stunning and memorable encounter. I will remember that moment we stared at each other in surprise for a long long time. It was rather surreal, we looked at each other both stunned mouths hanging open for maybe 5 seconds (he was also probably thinking "Holy Shit!"). Two animals from totally different worlds, accidentally bumping into each other, a great experience.
Wikipedia - Moose
Rocky and Bullwinkle Cartoon
An adult male (bull) moose run from 843 -1548 lbs
The photos made today were pretty standard and boring landscape stuff. I shot the Rolleiflex 80mm f2.8 both at Athabasca Falls, and then at Horseshoe Lake. The most interesting photo compositions of the day were some swissy leafs and tree pieces in part of Horseshoe and an ad hock memorial for a young man (Justin Shlamp 24) who died at the Athabasca Water Fall.