After this video of an elk head-butting a photographer went viral last week, there are a few lessons all photographers can learn from James York. If you are not very familiar with the story, here is the gist – James York was photographing an elk from a safe distance and the animal decided to do something really strange and was apparently getting too close to people for quite a while and is now euthanized according to Asheville’s Citizen Times.
The video was shot by Vince M. Camiolo in the Tennessee Park’s Cataloochee Valley and has racked up 2.4 million views since it was published on November 12th. But getting back to the one lesson we should learn if interested in wildlife photography is that one should be as unobtrusive as you possibly can.
Elf's shot by James York This is the original description of the video –
While photographing elk at sunrise in the Cataloochee Valley of Great Smoky Mountains National Park I turned around to see what appeared to be just a curious young bull sniffing a photographer’s camera. I snapped a few frames of the apparent harmless encounter.
But the elk became more interested in making trouble than simply the scent of a camera. He started physically harassing the photographer, escalating to full on head-butts.
I quickly switched the camera to video and let it roll (much of the time wondering when I should seriously consider intervening).
Most people who see this ask why the photographer seems to just take the abuse. I asked him in an email what was going through his head. This is his response:
“My first thoughts were “wow, he’s getting pretty damn close here.” But I’ve been up close before without incident. I hoped being still and passive would see him pass on. When he lowered his antlers to me, I wanted to keep my vitals protected and my head down. I felt that standing up would provoke him more and leave me more vulnerable to goring. I think that while protecting myself with my head down, having my head down was a signal that I was rutting with him. I was concerned at first, but when he started rearing back and lunging at me later on, I got scared and pissed off. That’s when I wagged my finger at him to cut that shit out. I was relieved to see the Ranger coming.
So I guess at some point if the Ranger hadn’t of pulled up, I would have had to disengage the best I could. I’ve joked with my friends that at least he took me for a buck and not a cow!”
The elk might have hurt the photographer pretty badly if he aimed his horns a little differently. Still, the story has quite a sad ending. What do you think about the authorities’ decision on taking the elk down? Do let us know in the comments.
Photo Credits – James York