Most people would look at landscape and wildlife photographer Anita Wooldridge’s perfect portrait of a large bull moose peering over its shoulder in front of the snow-covered Grandt Tetons and call it “a lucky shot.” And Wooldridge would agree, to an extent.

“People say, ‘Well, you were lucky.’ And it’s like part of it is luck,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “That day, it came together. It was a really great experience. But you’ve got to go get it. If you don’t go, you don’t get the shot.”

Wooldridge captured the photo on her first winter visit to Jackson, but it took years of expertise and plenty of day-of effort to capture such a majestic moment.

The Extra Effort

Wooldridge is a Colorado resident who’s been a photographer her whole life. Since her retirement, she’s been able to dive deeper into her hobby.

“It’s just always been a passion to capture landscape and wildlife photography,” she said. “And if you can get both settings like that one photo, a picture’s worth 1,000 words. I used to do a lot of underwater photography. I have degrees in oceanography. So, that was always a passion for me. But I moved to Colorado in 2012 because the mountains called.”

Despite living in Colorado and its famous section of the Rocky Mountains, Wooldridge said the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park are “two of my favorite places in the world.” She’s made plenty of trips to Wyoming for nature photography, but her last visit provided the first opportunity for winter wildlife photography.

A lack of winter weather and a COVID-afflicted companion altered the first leg of Wooldridge’s winter excursion in Jackson. Then, as her friend recovered, the snow finally arrived and she could immerse herself in the atmosphere she had come for.

“That’s when I found him posing,” she said.

Tactical Moose

Wooldridge likes moose, and there are plenty of them in the Jackson area. Capturing her majestic moose shot took considerable effort and planning, but the results are evident.

For starters, she knew she was in the right place at the right time to find mellower moose. The critters are notorious for having hair-trigger tempers — docile and cool one moment, agitated and aggressive the next.

“The moose this time of year are out of the rut. So, they are in a different mindset. Their brain has gone back into their head,” she said.

She also knew where to find the most moose. The best opportunities for good photos would be near the bitterroot bushes, where the bulls and cows hang out at this time of the winter season.

“They really like bitterroot bush, apparently,” she said. “They need that for digestion (but it has) very little nutritional value. In the Antelope Flats area, there’s a lot of this plant. So, they congregate in that area to eat the plants. Everybody knows they hang out in that area.”

Getting there is half the fun. Once Wooldridge found the bitterroot bushes, she identified the two-track roads that could get her closer. The first outing was more than she anticipated.

“I wasn’t prepared for my first trip to walk out where I needed to get the shot,” she said. “It’s a little dicey to walk in that kind of stuff. I didn’t get the shot I wanted.”

The strategy was sound, but the tactics needed some alterations. She’d be back the next day.

Patience Makes Perfect

On her second outing, Wooldridge got where she needed to go.

“On the next trip, I decided to take my time and meander to where the moose are. That’s where you must go to get a shot with the moose in front of the Tetons and with the right lens,” she said.

The moose were closer than the day before, but her slower approach and respectful distance kept them all calm. Wooldridge said other people were standing in the same area, but everyone were careful and avoided startling the bitterroot-munching moose.

Wooldridge knew the photo she wanted, but didn’t know when her moose moment would manifest in front of her camera. So she watched and waited, letting her moose models determine the shooting schedule.

That’s when “he” wandered into the frame.

“There were several bulls in the area,” she said. “Some were interacting; they will do some antler rattling this time of year because they’re trying to get rid of their antlers. Then, they walk off and eat for a while. He just happened to be isolated where I could get him alone and not have others in the same frame.

The perfect image of a bull moose wintering in the Grand Tetons was a short moment that resulted from a healthy amount of planning and preparation. Wooldridge’s effort paid off, but it was no accident.

“I tried several times on several different occasions to get that shot,” she said. “It was going out there many times to try to get the right conditions and have a cooperative subject in front of the Tetons. That made the shot.”

Get The Shot

The moral of Wooldridge’s story is how much foresight, planning and effort it takes to capture the perfect moment on a camera, one everyone looks at and says, “Boy, you got lucky.”

She’ll be the first to admit there was an element of luck to her majestic moose mountain photo, but she made most of her luck.

A quote falsely attributed to Thomas Jefferson says, “I’m a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more luck I have.” Regardless of who said it (most likely writer Coleman Cox in the 1920s), it’s Wooldridge’s tried-and-true key to successful wildlife photography.

“As a photographer, if you don’t go out, you don’t get the shot,” she said. “The more you go out and are in the area, the more likely you are to see what you want to take a picture of. You can get lucky on a given day and just happen to be there and say, ‘Oh, wow, that’s great.’

“But some people work for a shot and go out day after day and hope they’re there when it comes together. And that day, it came together.”

Finding luck is more challenging than finding the perfect moose photo, but even Wooldridge would admit she got lucky during that trip. After her moose moment, she was fortunate enough to be in the area where an orphaned black bear cub was found stuck in a tree.

Wooldridge got incredible images of the unfortunate black bear, but the story had a happy ending. The cub was rescued by Idaho Black Bear Rehab, where she will reside until she can return to the wild in spring.

“That was an experience for me because it was maybe once in a lifetime,” she said.

Any photographer or tourist would call that a lucky break. Regardless, Wooldridge’s message for any aspiring wildlife photographer remains the same.

“You’ve got to go get it,” she said. “If you don’t go, you don’t get the shot.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.

The decision to upgrade camera gear, especially within high-end brands like Leica, is significant. The shift from the Leica M10 to the M11, for instance, represents not just a financial investment but also a commitment to a specific photographic approach and style. Here’s why one photographer thought the upgrade was worth it. 

Coming to you from Benj Haisch, this video essay discusses five reasons he loves his Leica M11. The M11’s improved dynamic range stands out as a primary factor for the upgrade. This enhancement is crucial for photographers who often work in challenging lighting It’s comparable to other high-performing cameras, like the Sony a7R V, making it particularly beneficial for outdoor and street photography, where control over lighting is limited. Another noteworthy feature is the M11’s internal storage, providing a much-appreciated redundancy for wedding photographers. It’s a feature I’m surprised every modern camera doesn’t have.

The M11’s ISO 64 setting and 61-megapixel sensor are also significant upgrades. In partricular, the higher megapixel count brings a new level of detail and flexibility in post-processing, while Leica’s clever resolution options allow one to save storage space and improve noise performance should they not need all that extra resolution. Altogether, the M11 is an impressively clever camera that can satisfy the needs of many demanding creatives. Check out the video above for Haisch’s full thoughts. 

Russian photographer and filmmaker Vadim Sherbakov has published a new personal project highlighting the beautiful architecture of Moscow’s metro stations.

Moscow’s Illustrious Metro System

The history of Moscow’s metro system is a lengthy one, dating back more than a century to the years of the Russian Empire. After wars and revolutions delayed the start of the Moscow Metro system, progress was finally made in 1923 when the Moscow City Council formed the Underground Railway Design Office as part of the Moscow Board of Urban Railways, and preliminary studies and planning began in earnest. By 1928, the first route had been decided, going from Sokolniki to Moscow’s city center.

In June 1931, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union decided to begin constructing the metro system. By January of the following year, the first lines were approved, and the next year, a revised plan with 10 routes was approved, with the tracks totaling about 80 kilometers (50 miles). The metro system officially opened in May of 1935.

Sherbakov Showcases His Home’s Beauty

These days, after decades of improvements and new construction, the Moscow Metro system has more than 330 stations and nearly 800 km of track. In his latest project, Sherbakov turned his lens toward the newest stations with the most interesting architecture, and the results are glorious.

The project is far from the first time Sherbakov captured Moscow’s beauty. In 2018, he delivered an amazing time-blended composite photo series of the city. For those photos, the long exposures helped deal with a major issue of photographing cities and busy metro stations — the people.

AI Helps in Surprising Ways

In the new series, the photographer instead relied on improved software technology, especially the AI-powered Generative Fill feature in Adobe Photoshop. “The Photoshop AI (generative fill) is amazing for removing stuff. The metro stations, even new ones, still have a few people who pop into the frame, here and there,” Sherbakov explains.

“In previous years, I would hesitate to shoot architecture with people standing close to the camera that had to be removed, but because of [the new] AI tool, I am more relaxed and focused on the architecture than some random people getting in the frame, because I knew that [they] wouldn’t be a problem to delete.”

Getting the shot right in camera is still important, of course, but now Sherbakov can worry more about his exposure, composition, and focus than the occasional stranger walking through the frame.

Late Nights and Challenging Handheld Photography

Speaking of exposure, the photographer occasionally brackets for highlights and creates composites to capture the scene’s dynamic range. “They are basically bracketing shots with occasional bracketing for highlight. Mostly single exposure from five bracketed shots. The process of shooting involved traveling to all those stations late at night on weekends. Although they are relatively new stations, weekdays are busy… I had to avoid crowds. Because of that, it had to be late at night on weekends, around 11 PM to 12 AM,” Sherbakov explains. The Moscow Metro has an average daily ridership of about 7.5 million passengers.

Alongside helping remove people from the photos, Photoshop also helps Sherbakov make the metro stations look super clean and pristine, although not even AI can fix all the mess.

“It’s winter in Moscow, so dirty snow can crawl in… I had to reduce the luminosity manually to darken the floor to avoid cleaning [it all] up, which would take hours, even with AI tools.”

The photographer must also work to straighten lines and perform perspective correction during post-processing. The photographer explains that tripods are prohibited in the Moscow Metro system, so tilt-shift lenses are “out of the question.”

“I had a specific lens in mind that would help me with that situation, the Irix 21mm f/1.4 EF lens for my Canon EOS R5,” Sherbakov tells PetaPixel. “It’s not as wide as the 17mm f/4 TS-E lens, but not as [long as a] 24mm either. It’s something in between.”

“It’s super fast. One of the fastest lenses I own (the fast [aperture] is not a necessity in architectural and interior photography as you shoot on a tripod most of the time). So, I use this Irix lens [and] shoot everything handheld and do post-production work later,” he explains.

Compared to some of Sherbakov’s other work, which includes gorgeous building exteriors, brilliant aerial work, and spectacular landscape photos, the new Moscow Metro series has a much different aesthetic and overall feel.

“I think it’s all due to the fact that there are no natural elements such as clouds in [the new series]. Therefore, the images are quite different,” the photographer explains. “I really like the symmetrical architecture of the stations and want to emphasize [that]. I went with quite a wide lens to capture the station’s surroundings. I think the architecture dictated a lot [of the look of the series].”

Symmetry and Modern Architecture

The symmetry and futuristic vibe of the newly constructed stations initially drew Sherbakov into the new project. “I do use the metro, so it is not a foreign concept to me. However, the underground or trains are not my primary interest. Architecture first. I think the architects did a great job on those stations, and I want to bring it to the light.”

As for the cooler tones in the newer stations, Sherbakov says that is just what they look like, which lends itself to the futuristic vibes. “I didn’t manipulate the white balance a lot. In fact, I think it was almost no shifting. The new stations are such a contrast to the old ones that indeed had more yellowish and warmer tones, and the new stations are brighter and more blue in real life.”

More from Photographer Vadim Sherbakov

To see more of Vadim Sherbakov’s photography, including his New Moscow Metro series, visit his website and follow him on Instagram.

Sherbakov’s commercial work is available on a separate website. The photographer’s long list of clients includes huge names like HBO, Showtime, Netflix, DJI, Canon, Xiaomi, Hisense, Toyota, and many more.

Image credits: All images © Vadim Sherbakov