Moose Sunset

Gallery: WildlifePosted June 21, 2012750 views12 comments

We had some lousy weather much of this spring during my Yellowstone visits. Usually it was gray, snowy, hailing, rainy, etc., but occasionally we'd get a break. This was one such moment. I was nearly back home at our cabin when I spied this scene through the trees. I pulled off the highway and quickly attempted several quick compositions before realizing I needed to break out my dusty neutral density filters. Luckily the moose (a cow and yearling calf) didn't go anywhere, and I managed to obtain a few photos that adequately captured the memorable scene.

Canon 7D
Canon 17-40mm
ISO 400
1/80th
f/4
-1/3 exp. comp.
3 stop hard ND filter

Max

Comments

12 comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on June 21, 2012 at 12:54 AM

Cool photo Max. I like the way the extreme wide angle seems to advance the foreground towards the viewer, yet the mountains still look impressive (sometimes the mountains look pretty miniscule after the wide angle finishes with them,

) Nice kiss of alpenglow on the mountaintops accents the turquoise and green landscape. Nice job, will make a nice "memorable" wall hanger.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on June 21, 2012 at 8:16 AM

Nice image, I like this to me, peaceful scene with moose. Would like to have seen a larger version. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Carol Nichols on June 21, 2012 at 10:05 AM

Beautiful photo Max. I think this image is my favorite of all your recent trip photos that I viewed on the Yellowstone Forum. The combination of the colorful light on the mountain tops, the snow dusting the trees and the moose peacefully eating away make for a very pleasant scene, something I wish I could have witnessed.

Registered on November 7, 2007, 161 Posts, 1420 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Turner on June 21, 2012 at 11:44 AM

Wonderful capture with lots going on and it works. Small nit is trees jutting into bottom right but very small nit indeed.

Registered on February 18, 2012, 534 Posts, 2755 Comments

Comment posted by Morkel Erasmus on June 21, 2012 at 2:21 PM

Love the scene. What was your focal length on the zoom? Looks to me as if it needs a bit of barrel distortion correction? Also the details are very 'scrunchy' - perhaps a tad oversharpened?

Registered on March 22, 2011, 385 Posts, 2068 Comments

Comment posted by Jenaya Launstein on June 22, 2012 at 1:00 AM

Beauty image, Max! The setting makes for a good "animalscape"! Can't wait to see more of your Yellowstone images!

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

Comment posted by Ken Archer on June 22, 2012 at 4:22 AM

An awesome scene Max

You took nice advantage what little opportunities you had. Nice work with the ND filter, I don't see much dust though

Beautiful moose-scape!!!

Ken Archer

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

Comment posted by Eirini Pajak on June 22, 2012 at 5:12 PM

Nice Moosescape! I love all the detail & the lighting on the mountains!

Registered on December 13, 2011, 216 Posts, 1671 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on June 22, 2012 at 11:52 PM

Cool as posted. I would have liked to see it larger! Did you get other versions, perhaps with the moose with raised heads?

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments

Comment posted by Max Waugh on June 25, 2012 at 6:44 PM

Thank you all for the feedback.

Morkel, the sharpness looked okay when I processed it, but I have noticed that my images suddenly have a tendency to be oversharpened slightly in CS6, so I may need to reexamine the process and make some adjustments moving forward. As far as the distortion goes, this was pretty close to 17mm mounted on the crop sensor body, but I don't think it was too distorted. There is a bend in the creek here and the mountains are on a curve, so that may well be contributing to the distorted feel.

Lon, the moose lifted their heads briefly (and were further left) when I first arrived. By the time I ran back with my ND filters, they had decided to ignore me and concentrated on grazing. So alas, no ideal poses to go with the best glow on the mountains.

Max

Registered on September 26, 2008, 428 Posts, 2329 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on June 27, 2012 at 7:50 PM

Congrats on the WP - worth the work you put in to capture this.
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Joe James on July 3, 2012 at 9:49 PM

Another awesome shot Max! I love the way this could easily be a winner in either landscape or wildlife, great comp, well done with the lighting.

Registered on November 20, 2009, 89 Posts, 808 Comments