Patriarch Bull Elk

Gallery: WildlifePosted February 20, 2011181 views4 comments

My family and I went down to Waterton Lakes National Park for the fall rut last year. While we were driving around we spotted this guy to the side of the road. He was very cooperative as he kept striking poses and stayed close enough for us to get sharp pictures! My dad and I think that he might have come in from Montana for the rut! We got to hang around with him 4 or 5 times in a month, and he ended up being one of the dominant bulls in Waterton's biggest harem. His antlers are different too because one of his tines is palmated instead of being more round, and one of the tines at the back of his antler splits which makes him a 7x8. He was always very alert during the rut as he was looking for challenger bulls and replying to their bugles.

Nikon D70s
Nikon 80-400 f/4.5-5.6 @ 400mm
ISO 200
1/500 sec @ f/5.6

Comments

4 comments

Comment posted by Clayton Musgrove on February 20, 2011 at 4:19 PM

Very nice shot Jenaya. I do like the pose. You might try and see if you could lighten the face and neck shadow area to bring out some more detail. Other than that, I like it.

Registered on February 6, 2010, 55 Posts, 235 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Huff on February 20, 2011 at 11:12 PM

Great image, Jenaya. Nice ligth and backgroud. A really nice elk. I agree with Clayton, if you could lighten the left side for more detail, it would improve a great photo even more.
Keep up the good work.

Ron Huff

Registered on August 31, 2010, 69 Posts, 440 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on February 21, 2011 at 11:08 AM

Hey Jenaya,

Nicely composed - the elk is (in my opinion) almost ideally positioned in the frame and the backdrop is very characteristic of the species. Given the slight turn of the head, it's a little unfortunate that the light is coming in from the right side (thus leaving the part of the head you see in dark shadow). You obviously couldn't control where the light was coming from - so no fault of your's! If you do selectively lighten up the shaded side of the head (as the others have suggested) - I'd recommend going VERY easy on it - this is the type of area that when brightened up shows noise quickly AND if that part of the head is lightened up too much the image will look artificial. Of course, shadows DO happen and they can add nice contrast and depth to an image. In a case like this you just have to make sure that the shadows aren't positioned such that the key portions of the image (like the elk's head!) is lost...

Cheers...

Thanks for sharing this!

PS: Please don't hesitate to jump in and comment on the images of others - I know the recommended ratio of 5 comments for every image post can be tough to maintain, but it would be really appreciated if you were able to make a shot at it! I know many newer members are a little hesitant to leave comments, but ultimately the success of all the galleries are determined largely by the comments members leave on the images that are posted. You'll also find that the thought process behind critiquing images CAN improve your own shooting a lot! If you're unsure or uneasy about commenting/"critiquing" there are several good resources on this website discussing it. Start right here:

http://www.naturephotographers.net/naturephotos/wildlifephotography.html

and you'll find links to the the image posting guidelines and two articles on critiquing ("The Art of Image Critique" and "More Thoughts on Photo Critique.").

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Jenaya Launstein on February 25, 2011 at 4:03 PM

Thank you for your comments! We did lighten his face and neck up a fair bit, mostly with selective dodging. I will have to try again with some other techniques and see if I can do better.

I've been admiring the wonderful images in all the galleries, but must confess I've been hesitant to comment much because I'm still pretty new at all this! I'll try to do better!

Registered on February 8, 2011, 254 Posts, 1302 Comments