Elk Couple

Perfect balance in your composition, really like the pano effect and the horizontal feel provided by the layers of trees and the sliver of shiny water. The light seems maybe a bit flat but it provided an opportunity for good detail which you and your equipment made good use of.

ps. This might be a good candidate for monochrome as well I suspect.

Hi Jenaya - I really like this one. Just has a nice quality to the light and tones, and love the scenic background. Very painterly or at least very artistic look. Obviously f/5 wasn't QUITE enough to hold both the cow and bull in sharp focus, but recall you expressing your frustration in the field of already pushing the limits of keeping them sharp at 1/100sec...so keeping them small in the frame and going with more of an animalscape approach here really worked on every level IMO. It's too bad the sun is long behind the mountains before the elk ever come into the open here, eh? But you made the most of what you had to work with, and as you already know, clearly bettered me on this night!

I never thought of Gary's suggestion re B&W...I was so taken by the soft dusky tones that it simply didn't cross my mind! You might want to try that as well. Keep rockin' the 2013 rut!

Sweet composition, Jenaya. I like both poses...and did I mention he is one dandy of a bull I am mildly curious about the crop and if possible I suspect it could be even stronger with a touch more space on top, so as to not be cutting the treetops.