Picture of the week

Deference to the elk

An unusual sight for me to see, out close to Drakes Beach at Point Reyes National Seashore. A male elk appears to be grooming another larger, more mature male.  I am not sure what to make of it?  Perhaps the it is a father-son thing?  Or perhaps the one doing the grooming is showing deference to the more dominant male?  But there were no females or signs of a harem about.  At times, this grooming would be interrupted for a bit of sparing, so perhaps they are just siblings or good friends?  Given the rut should be starting, I was expecting to see a bit more aggressiveness on the part of the males.

I visited Point Reyes this last week when having a half day to kill while in the Bay Area.  Point Reyes is one of my favorite locations for photography in the area, and always seems to find some things of interest for the camera.  I also stopped at the iconic beached boat in the town of Inverness to check out the fire damage (due to some idiots light painting with burning steel wool) and the impact for photography.  The good news is that it is still basically intact, with the same classic compositions still possible, albiet a bit more worse for wear.  Most of the fire damage is toward the stern and seaward side, and thus not so visible from land.

Related to this, I have released a book available on Amazon here on photographing California, including a chapter dedicated to Point Reyes.  You can find about the best places to go for your photography across the entire state, including recommendations on equipment choice, time of day and season, with detailed directions on how to get to each spot.  It covers over 250 unique locations with 450 color reference images in 365 pages. Check it out!

All content and images are property of Stephen Fischer Photography, copyright 2010-2016.  Last updated: 9/3/2016   ()