Moose Cow & Calf

[Grady Weed]

This Mane Moose Cow & Calf was imaged from my Honda CRV alongside the road up in Rangeley Maine. Route 16 from the center of Rangeley to Stratton Maine is known as "Moose Alley". You can drive from day break till about 1 hour after sunrise in the spring till late fall and see moose alongside the road licking the salt run off in the bogs. Most moose are used to people while some are skittish, usually new moms with calves. So discretion is advised. When she puts her ears straight up and forward, she is on full alert, anxious to protect her calf. If the calf mills around instead of licking or drinking water, the mom constantly looks at you then the calf, then she is nervous and it is wise to move on. Nothing like mom coming to check YOU out!

Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, Shooting Date/Time 8/5/2012 5:56:22 AM, Aperture-Priority AE, Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/125, Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6, Evaluative Metering, Exposure Compensation -2/3, ISO Speed 400, Lens EF300mm f/2.8L IS USM, RAW.

Full frame here for a 12x18 print. I went for a B&W for a different look. How do you like it? The RAW looked a tad bright, so I used levels to bring back the tones. I personally like darker blacks. The light was from the left just about even with my shoulder.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Grady, nice to see you back posting and a great subject to post too, love these guys, they may look comical, but as you say, nothing like mom to come over and check you out, to get the blood pumping. :bg3:

Morkel does a lot of B/W so hopefully he will swing by and chime in on this, but I feel it looks a little flat, no real contrasts between the Blacks & Whites. If you adjust the Levels from the RHS, perhaps pump say 4 points in on the Brightness, open up the face of Mom in Curves and then apply some more selective USM I think it helps, WDYT? I would quite like to see a hint of colour in the B/W, just another thought.

TFS
Steve

[Ken Watkins]

Grady,

These sure are comical creatures, as you probably know I am not a great fan of B & W (too many hours in the darkroom as a youngster), and wonder does the conversion do the original image justice?

You have an interesting image here, I feel that your post is a little too dark, and Steve's is a little too light.

I would like to see it in colour

[Grady Weed]

I applied the suggestions by Steve and came up with this one. How about it?

[Grady Weed]

For those who wanted a color version.

[Ken Watkins]

Grady,

Unfortunately I have never seen an Elk, so do not really know what the colours, is it this black?

I did a quick rework, what do you think, hard to get it better from JPEG.

[Steve Kaluski]

I applied the suggestions by Steve and came up with this one. How about it?

Do you think it's better, that's the test for me, has it moved it in the right direction?

[Grady Weed]

Ken: Yes some Moose up here tend to be more blackish than others. Some will have greyish to tan with less blacks. I do prefer the B&W to the color version. Simply because of the sticky background.

Steve: I think the image is heading in the right direction.

I overexposed the image, some by mistake and some on purpose. I had only a few minutes to image the pair. Log trucks, large dump trucks and cars going to work were wizing by. She was very protective and I felt bad about staying to long for more frames with different exposures. She did jump back into the woods and hid once these last 4 or 5 frames were taken. Still it is my best mom and calf so far. Very hard to get. I do have some very nice mom frames of another cow moose from the Sunday morning shoot. Will post those tomorrow.

[Steve Kaluski]

Cool, thanks for the additional info and your ethics were correct and everyone left happy, albeit with only a few frames, just watch that shutter speed though. Look forward to seeing Mom. BTW great to have both looking to camera. :S3:

[Hilary Hann]

I can see why you went to b&w and agree with Steve that the original post did look flat. I like your rework but it will be a struggle to get the animals to separate from that dark background given their dark coats. Despite those restrictions, I think you've done an excellent job and I also think moose look very interesting. I love the face on the calf. I have similar problems as this with some giraffe photos and you have encouraged me to go look at them again.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Sorry I am late to this one Grady. A nice tranquil scene.
For the colour versions I prefer Ken's repost, but having not seen them with my own eyes it's hard to know which is more true-to-life.
For the B&W versions I prefer your repost, but would still try to extract more detail from the black patches on their bodies.
:5

[Grady Weed]

I am waiting for a more traditional large bull moose for a color post here in the forums. We are going to Rangeley 2 more times, once in September and once in October. I want to capture a fully grown bull moose in velvet, or not, then process it for a color rendition. I would like a bull in the water eating or a bull in the field with fall colors. I will post it when I get it.

I do like Ken's re-do of the color version. But I will go with the B&W for this mom and calf scene. I plan on digging up more details so it will be more separated and give a better rendition of the scene as I saw it.

[Steve Kaluski]

Good luck Grady, BTW what camera body(s) will you be taking?

[Grady Weed]

Canon 5D, MKlln, with 300mm 2.8 as the main lens, 28-135 for more open landscape types. I sold my 100-400, so...Anyhow will post what I get. Perhaps I will have the new Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens by then. Heres to wishing...

[Steve Kaluski]

Looks like you are 'all set to go', fingers crossed for the 70-200, it's a lovely lens. Have sent you some links that might be of interest.