How close does one have to get for a close-up

Came across a link to this one for close-up wildlife photographs ....

<http://m.koreus.com/video/wapiti-vs-photographe.html>

Ken

The guy is lucky he did not get charged. Could have gotten quite a gore. Link not clickable for some reason so I'm posting here again:

http://m.koreus.com/video/wapiti-vs-photographe.html

Never go in the wilderness without a gun.

Even in the midst of all that, dude couldn't resist the urge to chimp.

Guns? Your kidding of course.

Actually I'm not kidding. Photography is the object, and a damn gun is a boat anchor. Except when a bear decides he wants you. Wild animals don't play. And what if you break your ankle? Who is going to help you if you can't make a big noise? Around central NC, you don't need any gun in the woods. But in the wilderness of Wyoming or such place, it's still 1850, not 2014, and wild animals mean business.
But then, as a rule I don't go anywhere, civilized or uncivilized where I need a gun. My mind is not centered around guns.

Edit: You want to end up like Steve Irwin except with an elk's horn in you? That guy is darn lucky the elk didn't spook. And that's the last thing I'll say on this thread on guns. I turn it back over to more genteel conversation. Ansel Adams was a lucky man. He could have been killed by a bear or a snake at any time. I wouldn't have done what he did without one.

A gun wouldn't have helped him at that range anyway. Even if he had it in his hand, by the time he realized he needed to raise it, he'd have an elk in his lap. I'm gonna go with "don't be a damn fool" as the better piece of advice.

-NT

ntenny said:

A gun wouldn't have helped him at that range anyway. Even if he had it in his hand, by the time he realized he needed to raise it, he'd have an elk in his lap. I'm gonna go with "don't be a damn fool" as the better piece of advice.

-NT

Click to expand...

Yeah. Really. I'm with you on that. The guy wasn't exactly photographing with his Werner von Braun hat on, in the first place. Wonder if he'd photograph a copperhead that way.

A couple of observations about wilderness for all you city slickers planning on coming out to the woods. (1) Even though the US population is increasing every year, the rural areas are actually de-populating with the happy side effect of restoring habitat for wildlife and populations are rebounding in most areas. The down side is that your chances of encountering a bear, mountain lion, or wolf on the trail in our national forests and/or wilderness areas are exponentially greater now than they were 20 years ago. (2) Millions of acres of our public lands are also infested with free range cattle driven in to high country pastures and left to fend for themselves all summer. These things are wild animals as well and perfectly capable of killing you should you be unfortunate or unobservant enough to get between a momma and her calf. I know it adds weight and every pound counts but its really foolish to be out in the back country without a large caliber hand gun, substantial knife and a heavy duty first aid kit.