Aspen Bull

Gallery: WildlifePosted May 2, 201593 views4 comments

Not sure if this will work for everyone, but I've been wanting to take a stab at processing this one since I found this guy last August.

My wife and I were returning from an evening photographing in the mountains when she spotted this bull striding toward the aspen forest a few hundred yards away. She got me into a bit better position but it was clear this was going to be a limited-time-opportunity. We didn't bother turning the truck around so I could shoot out my window...she just rolled down her window and leaned back and I raised the 500mm and spun the dials to adjust for the shot and squeezed the shutter right as the bull paused for a moment and struck this pose.

Honestly, the light was "gone" and this was not meant to be much more than a grab shot to torment my kids with (they hate missing out on moose photo opps) but after viewing the resulting frame on the back of the camera I decided it might actually be worth working up, and immediately wanted to try it in B&W (both because I love the look of aspens in monochrome and because of the lack of excitement to the colours to my eye, while being very intrigued by character of the light foreground field).

Curious to know what you think of this one! Larger version available by clicking the above image...comments, suggestions and feedback appreciated.

Nikon D600

Nikkor AF-S 500mm f/4D IF-ED

ISO 2200

1/250sec @ f/4

-0.7 EV

Handheld shooting through opposite truck window

Cropped to about 65%, converted to B&W using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 with light finishing tweaks in PS CC2014 including light custom vignette

Comments

4 comments

Comment posted by Max Waugh on May 2, 2015 at 2:07 AM

Based on the thumb I wasn't sure there was enough contrast in the tones with this conversion, but seeing it larger changes things a bit. The white trunks of the aspens make it work, IMO. I think it's such a nice pattern I might even crop a few more pixels from the bottom, since the grass seems so dull compared to the top two thirds. enlightened

Max

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

Comment posted by Neil Rossmiller on May 2, 2015 at 9:58 AM

Hi John,

I like this image a lot. The contrast seem a little weak, at least on my monitor. I like the way the slight vignette helps spotlight the moose without being very apparent. I use this technique frequently on my images. I think the pano works well and could be even exaggerated more. The treetops distract my eye a bit from the dynamics of the composition. I think this would make a very strong print.

Registered on October 30, 2009, 156 Posts, 749 Comments

Comment posted by Jagdeep Rajput on May 2, 2015 at 11:55 AM

Looks quite impressive! I think it will look great as a large print.

If this was mine, I would have placed bull slightly on the right side of the frame.