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Elk cow in meadow, Madison River, Yellowstone

Discussion

5 replies
Posted by john macpherson on February 5, 2009 at 4:17 PM
A group of cows were lying in a meadow with several ardent bull elk wandering about and generally causing mayhem. I loved the pattern of the grasses and the occasional flicker of ears as a cow popped up to see what was happening with 'the big boys' but there was a jumble of trees behind just above the elk's head which annoyed me at first, but it forced me to look for a different composition.

Canon EOS1DsMk2, 300f2.8IS 125@f7
Posted by jack chapman on February 5, 2009 at 4:30 PM
interesting idea, and certainly different, i'd say that is a little hard to critque at this size, but composition wise i think i'd prefer it without the bottom layer of grasses, just my opinion though
Posted by Des Ong on February 5, 2009 at 5:03 PM
I do like this type of stuff John but I think this frame can do with a little more space at the top and agree with Jack re loosing the nearest front row of grasses (paler ones). It also looks like it's facing the other way. Did you catch one with it facing you? I think a little face above the tall grass might work better. I love the colours though.
Posted by Nigel Blake on February 6, 2009 at 3:57 AM
I really like this, it's always good to stretch out from the recognised compositional rules; although I agree that a bit more space at the top would be nice, colours etc look great, very well seen.
Posted by Ray on February 6, 2009 at 7:22 AM
A very interesting shot, made me think about it and that is a big plus. Upon reflection I would have liked it lower in the frame, if possible, in order for the Elk’s head to be more a part of the final image.

As I’m sure you appreciate, it does need a title.

Keep pushing/exploring those boundaries, they need it.
Posted by john macpherson on February 7, 2009 at 4:13 AM
Thanks for the comments. My intital compositional 'feeling' as eloquently expressed by all of you was to place the elk lower in the frame (more space above) but the jumble of bent and broken very angular tree trunks immediately above the elk intruded into the frame preventing this. Not only was the colour different but the shapes were very discordant, and the image would have lost this simple clean relaxed feel I was drawn to trying to capture - the elk were relaxed so the image content needed to reflect this and a mess of trashed trees wasn't going to help. This forced me to consider alternative placement of the elk, which is why I ended up with this. All good fun!