Rocky Mountain Bull Elk

Gallery: WildlifePosted August 3, 20051,446 views7 comments

Mike and I took a trek about 400 yards across a tundra in the Rockies to get pictures of these bull elk. As you can see from Mike's post a few shots ahead on this forum, I was more fortunate than he was in that my lens is a 120-300 (with 2x TC), so I was able to get the whole elk in the picture - ahem, not that I'm bragging or anything!

I considered cropping out some of the sky, but I liked the look of the clouds in the picture and the contrast between the grass and the sky.

Critiques and comments appreciated. Val

Nikon D70
Sigma 120-300 mm with 2x teleconverter
ISO 320
f9 1/400 sec

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Barb Hansen on August 3, 2005 at 10:58 PM

Elk are such magestic animals and you were indeed fortunate to get this image....... Great Job
Barb

Registered on May 16, 2005, 380 Posts, 5157 Comments

Comment posted by F Timothy Kingst on August 4, 2005 at 12:25 AM

This is really nice, great pose and sharp as a tack. Composition wise, I really like where you placed the horizon line.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 401 Posts, 1393 Comments

Comment posted by Bruce Prater on August 4, 2005 at 4:30 PM

Guess he didn't want to show you his "good" side. Nice capture

Registered on June 21, 2004, 154 Posts, 379 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on August 4, 2005 at 5:14 PM

Very nice apline portrait of this guy Val. I like Mike's shot too, but yours has more impact for me. Good Work!!!

Makes me long to visit Rocky again.

Ken Archer

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments

Comment posted by Ned Fenimore on August 4, 2005 at 5:22 PM

This is very nice! I really like the composition and all other aspects of the exposure. The fact that the horns to do protrude over the horizon really makes this great!

Registered on November 1, 2003, 467 Posts, 2803 Comments

Comment posted by Robert Ludwick on August 4, 2005 at 7:41 PM

Val,

Great shot, I wish I had one as good as this in my files.

Bob

Registered on November 8, 2003, 51 Posts, 407 Comments

Comment posted by Jeremy Bangs on August 5, 2005 at 7:26 PM

Absolutely beautiful. I just got back from the park trying to get one of these and failed. You should be really happy with this. One of the things that struck me while I was up there was that the wild flowers are just outragous right now. You did a nice job incorporating them in the photo. As mentioned earlier, the sharpness is very impressive, as is the catchlight. Kudos to the elk, assuming he's bookmarked this site and checks in occasionally, for growing a nice set of antlers this season. Personally, I'd crop out the sky. I understand what you're going for, but I don't think the shade of blue you have here is nearly as rich as the greens, yellows and browns you have in the rest of the image and it just doesn't seem to fit in somehow. As I crop the sky out with my scroll bars, I think you have a fantastic image without it. Just my opinion, though. I'm incredibly jealous. Very nice work.

Registered on June 11, 2005, 13 Posts, 51 Comments