Bugling Bull and Cows

Like the inclusion of the females, but would like to see a little clearer view of the bull elk.

Nice photo with a good catchlight in his eye.
I like how you included the cows and calves in the frame.
I do think it would be more apealing to have used a smaller aperature and had the females in focus also.

Hi Mike, the lighting and colors look great here as well as the pose of the male. You were seriously challenging yourself here with those multiple subjects at different distances to the camera. Meaning to say that it is near impossible to get them all in focus, especiallly at the aperture you used. Not that it is necessary to always have all subjects in focus in a case like this, not at all of course, but what I find disracting here is that the OOF females overlap with the in focus male. If that overlap would not have been, then it would look a lot more appealing.

Hey Mike,

Perhaps shooting from a step to the left would've given you more of the bull (b/t the 2 cows) and I don't think the OOF cows would be as distracting. Also, the bull looks a tad hot on my monitor.

Cheers

Carl

Hi Mike,

Making an image work with multiple subjects at different distances from the camera is always a big challenge. I think the biggest obstacle here was the overlap between the bull and the cow and the proximity to that calf. In one sense there's a "lording over my harem" feel to this image (which means it works on one level), but the overlap definitely adds to the "cluttered" look of the image. At this distance I don't think shooting at any aperture (and I'm guessing you were at a focal length where your max aperture was f5.6) would have separated the bull from the overlapping animals (even f2 if your lens could have gone there). I do like how much habitat you included - gives the image nice context...

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...

Brad

I wish the big cow was not leaning over and partially obscuring the bull. The bull's pose is classic!