Wildlife - 1st Place

Tundra Monarch

"Tundra Monarch" - I don't take many wildlife shots these days, but when I do...I make it count. Actually, this scene has quite a back story. Taken a year ago in Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park, I had captured these Old Man of the Mountain flowers previously and wanted to possibly capture them with better skies. I'll post that shot later. But for this image I had arrived at the location in plenty of time to scout out the best location. I was somewhat dismayed the flowers were not as prolific as the previous year. Nevertheless, this isolated spot didn't suck, so I hung out waiting for sunset in my vehicle. Had an enjoyable 2 hours watching the tourists play in a large patch of snow that was still lingering around in July. Yea, this is near 11,000 in elevation. One group of teenage girls were particularly entertaining as one of them dropped their cell phone in the snow. It was like a pack of hungry ravenous badgers digging after a ground squirrel. Eventually, their efforts were successful and the cell phone was found. All this time while hanging out waiting for sunset, a rather tame small herd of elk were also hanging out nearby. I'm sure they were enjoying the antics of the tourists as well. I kept thinking to myself that wouldn't it be interesting if the elk decided to join me for my photo shoot. Well, yea, it actually happened. Near sunset I hunkered down on the tundra for the scene I had planned to shoot. That group of elk decided hang out and mingle around me, only concerned about grazing. One nice bull finally decided to get his photo taken. However, to get the right pose was more of a challenge than normal. I made every subtle noise I could think of to get his head to rise up. Finally, for a brief moment, he raised up and gave me the studly pose you see. 
Clearly, one of the best moments I've had behind a camera. 
Enjoy!