Bedded Bull

Hi Everyone! I've been too busy processing my kids' images from the elk rut this fall and haven't had the chance to get to many of my own! While I have several I'd love to share with you, they are quite similar to those Jenaya and Josiah have been posting, so I thought I'd get your feedback on this one instead.

This is one of my favourite animals I've ever encountered. He stepped out of the forest and into our lives on September 27, 2010. It had been an incredibly frustrating non-event in Waterton for the elk rut up to that point, and we booked a spontaneous trip to Banff (about 3.5hrs NW of us) in hopes of photographing at least some decent bulls. The night before we left, Jenaya, Marlise and I made one last trip to Waterton. Nothing. We decided to drive up toward the continental divide in search of some bears, and right at the end of the evening this beautiful animal stepped out into a meadow and put on an incredible show for us as he bugled his challenges across the valley. He's the bull silhouetted in my avatar.

That fall we found him about a dozen more times, and he always seemed to come over to pose for pictures before returning to the hectic activity of the rut. We only saw him from a distance a couple times since then, and not at all last year, which saddened me. For whatever reason, I simply have become enamored with this particular bull, probably thanks in large part to his wonderful expressions and incredible cooperation for my kids and I as we try and immortalize him in pixels. When he stepped out of the forest this year, I nearly freaked.

He's not the most impressive bull in our area (by far, actually), but full-frontal and quarter views of his antlers are extremely impressive...he goes wide instead of long and back, so side views are less than complementary.

It turns out he had an interesting strategy in 2010 that really worked out for him, and it appears he may be duplicating it this year. He's certainly vocal, and occasionally postures up with other bulls, but he never engages and tries to take a herd. Until it's his for the taking. He waits for the dominant bulls to exhaust themselves in the first couple weeks of the rut and suddenly he steps in and protects his prize with dominance. In 2010, he was master of more than 70 cows and kept a dozen or more bulls away for weeks (and looked better at the end than all of them!). We're waiting to see if he pulls it off again this year.

Jenaya will be posting what may be the most classic portrait of him yet sometime in the days ahead, but here's a view of him bedded down on a cold evening making sure the resident bulls and ladies know he's around, biding his time until the moment's right. While I have frames that show him looking in my direction while bugling, I liked his slight angle toward the forest declaring his presence here.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions. Please take a moment to view the larger version for better detail.

Nikon D600
Nikkor AF-S 200-400mm f/4G VR IF-ED
ISO 1600
1/60sec @ f/5.6
Mounted on Feisol Elite CT-3372 Tripod with Acratech GV2 head and Wimberley Sidekick

Processing Notes:
Converted from RAW using Phase One Capture One Pro 7
Minor adjustments to tone and contrast using Nik Color Efex Pro 4 and Viveza 2 in PS5 with additional selective curves adjustments
Light NR using Nik Dfine 4.0
Cropped to app. 85% of original width
Partially cloned out two darker OOF bushes from background to reduce distraction