-4F Snow Storm Bison
by Lon Sharp
Big snow flakes sent me buffalo hunting today at Wind Cave National Park. Winds pushed the snow sideways and the all white conditions made seeing the trail a challenge. Temperatures dropped to -4, but I was lucky enough to find some good bison bulls, hunkered down in the near blizzard. I was dressed to be out, but did most shooting from the truck, mostly to keep everything reasonably dry. I came home with several images that interest me.
This one is from the window, of a bull just off the lip of a small ridge with his back to the blowing snow. If you look carefully at the larger image I think you will be able to see that the air is full of snow, but conditions were mostly white on white.
D200, 70-200 @ 135, iso 200, 1/250 @f4.5, full frame +1.3 ev matrix meter.
Your observations and suggestions are welcomed!
Comments
20 commentsI love it! It shows the harsh conditions that these animals often endure. Love the white on white look, but have never been able to pull it off myself!
Wayne
Nice job!
Luke: I'm going out on a limb here and answer on Lon's behalf
Camera's always try to render a scene mid-grey. If you do not adjust the camera to the snow you'd get grey snow. Basicaly because of all the white snow the camera thinks it needs to underexpose to counter all that white and will render it mid-grey. Of course snow is not grey so you have to compensate for the metering. (hope that makes sense, it's kind of hard to explain in a few sentences, if you want to know more feel free to email me).
Great job!
I really like this. I always find images that show animals enduring the best (or worst?) nature can throw at them fascinating, and this one is no exception. Compositionally the positioning of the bison is spot-on, tho' I suppose it could be argued that the sky could be cropped a little to position the bison slightly higher in the frame and move the horizon off the dead-centre (vertically). My eye was really caught by the curving line of the backbone of the bison, which is shown in very nice detail (owing to good white-on-white detail provided by your exposure/processing). I'm a bit torn by the blowing snow in front of the face of the bison - I like how it adds to the "extremity" of the conditions this animal has to endure, but at that same time I almost want to see more frosty detail in the face (which the snowflakes partly mask). But overall I REALLY like this shot - very well done.
Cheers...thanks for sharing...
Brad
despite the cold look and the shivers I get from looking at it I really appreciate this image for its merits. The simplicity and the almost High key effect are interesting indeed. Well done again Lon.
Jack
Congratulations.
D&L
Ken Archer
Pat
I think you captured the essence of -4 very well. Really comes through with the snow flakes on the face.
But of course you know all that.