This was from a place I had photographed elk many times before. And yet, none of those images ever really worked.
Most of the time, it was the grass. Tall, messy, always in the way. You could see the elk, but you couldn’t really see them. Nothing ever felt clean enough to keep.
So on this day, wildlife wasn’t even on my mind.
It was early summer. The days were warm, and the wildflowers were starting to bloom. I had brought my mid-range zooms, planning to focus on landscapes and flowers, not animals.
We were hiking through the area, just taking it slow, when we dropped into a valley.
That’s when my buddy Kevin spotted something in the distance.
A moose.
He called it out immediately and told us to be careful. Moose are not something you mess with, and Kevin would know. He grew up around them.
Most people would have kept their distance.
I didn’t.
I started walking toward it.
The animal moved as I got closer. Not aggressively. Just slowly, calmly, drifting further away. And then it stopped.
Right next to a lone tree. Out on a gentle hill. It looked… perfect.
At that point, the composition was obvious. The kind of scene you usually try to plan, not stumble into.
The problem was getting there.
Between me and the hill was a stretch of ground that looked solid from a distance, but wasn’t. The entire valley had been soaked from recent rain. What should have been an easy walk turned into a slow, muddy slog. Every step sank a little. My shoes were not built for this. Within minutes, my feet were wet.
But the animal was still there.
So I kept going.
Kevin and the others stayed back. If it really had been a moose, that would have been the right call. Safe distance. No risks.
But from where I was now, things looked different.
I finally got to a spot where I could frame the shot cleanly. Raised the camera. Took a closer look.
Not a moose.
An elk.
Kevin was wrong.
I took the shot.
Clean. Simple. Exactly what I had been trying to get in this area for a long time.
And completely unplanned.
I spend a lot of time chasing very specific images. Thinking about light, composition, timing. Trying to control as much as possible.
But every once in a while, you don’t have to.
You just walk into it.
Some days, you just get lucky.
