Elk Profile

Hi Jack,

Another interesting elk shot! To me this shows the cedar rubbing aftermath well, but is a little awkward (and tight) in the cropping for aesthetic appeal (at least to me). Are you shooting raws or JPEG's? The reason I ask is that this image seems pretty high in global contrast to me and if the original is a raw file you have more room to play with it (than if it's a JPEG). Specifically, the head and neck could be a little brighter (i.e., I think there's more detail there in the shadows that would add to the image) and those antler tips look a little on the bright side (close to blown out).

Thanks for sharing this...cheers...

Brad

I would prefer a little more detail in the face and neck but I like the texture and close-up detail in the antlers. Very few things get me as jazzed as photographing Yellowstone elk in the fall. I have heard its getting harder to photograph them because they are more dispersed because of the wolves. I found this to be true when I visited in 2007 and found the elk photo ops pretty lean but when I went in 2008 it seemed about as good as ever. I am curious how the action was this year (assuming you took this in August 2009)?

Thanks for the comments. I will be working on the suggestions.
Yes I did take this in August 2009. There were at least 3 elk bulls working the Madison area at any given time. Some would go away to be replaced by other bulls. The cows stayed the same and really had a particlar area that would not overlap another set of cows. Mamoth had a set of bulls there until they started going after cars.

The detail on the dark face is good, but I agree with Brad that the highlights are almost hot. I would try to make the background grasses have a little more saturation and I would experiment with a curves adjustment. The cropping of a bull's "artwork" (antlers) is always problematic and I am not sure how I would have tried to do this...I am guessing a sliver more space to keep that tine tip would have been better, but from this end it is hard to tell!