Editor’s Note: J.R. Keller has lived in Colorado most of his life and has had a love for the outdoors, which he’s acquired from his father, while accompanying him on hunting and camping trips. With Keller’s vast knowledge of hunting elk, turkey, mule deer and waterfowl, he’s appeared on The Outdoor Channel, TNN Outdoors and numerous outdoor TV shows and teaches seminars across the country. Keller’s philosophy is that knowledge is the most-important piece of equipment a hunter takes into the woods.  

I always carry a hand-held GPS receiver with me when I’m hunting elk. As soon as we reach the spot where the elk’s down, I mark that spot as a waypoint to insure that I know exactly where the elk’s located, if I have to go for help or return to the truck for equipment. Marking the site also enables me to know where the elk has been quartered, so if I forget and leave equipment behind after packing the head and the meat out, I can return to that spot. I’m sure most hunters never have left a saw, a knife, a pair of binoculars or anything else behind after packing their elk out, but it happens. Noting the waypoint helps me to always find my elk and the site where I’ve butchered my elk.

How to Position and Prepare the Elk for Photography:

After I locate my elk, I position the elk, so he can be photographed, before carrying him out. Although many elk hunters will have their prize bulls mounted or at least the antlers mounted, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want to be photographed with his or her elk at the place where the elk has fallen. I position the elk and the hunter, so they’ll look good in the photos.

I also use some kind of field wipes to clean the blood off the elk, if there’s any. In my camera case, I carry a set of glass eyes like taxidermists use to mount elk. These eyes make the elk look much better in photos than the elk’s normal eyes do. By putting the glass eyes on top of the elk’s eyes, then when I shoot flash photography, the eyes on the animal don’t appear white like they do when you photograph a dead animal. Too, I’ll use field wipes to wipe any dust or dirt off the glass eyes, as well as clean my hands and/or clothes after field dressing the elk.

I’ll either cut the elk’s tongue off or put it back in his mouth to make the bull look presentable for pictures. If I’m working with an outdoor writer, I may have to drag that elk around two or three times for an hour or more, so the writer can get the photos he wants of the elk.

Most people will bring cameras with them, but oftentimes in the mornings, when we’re in a hurry to leave the camp or the lodge, they’ll forget their cameras. I always carry a small digital camera in my pack. This way, even if the hunter doesn’t have his camera, I can take pictures of the hunter and his elk with my camera and my cell phone. These pictures are very important to people and possibly one of the main reasons they’ve come elk hunting. While I’m preparing for an elk hunt, I’ll make sure my camera is in my pack with fresh batteries, and that I have extra batteries and my elk glass eyes. I never know the day of the hunt or the time of day or night I’ll recover an elk. Too, I don’t know whether I’ll have full sun, or more than likely, no sun. So, I always assume I’ll have to shoot flash photography.

To learn more about hunting elk successfully, check out John E. Phillips’ book, “Secrets for Hunting Elk,” available in Kindle and Audible at https://www.amazon.com.

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