Strolling Elk Bull

[Rachel Hollander]

Taken on my October trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Cataloochee Valley at dawn.

Canon 5D3
100-400 @ 400mm
1/400
f5.6
ISO 1600
EC +1.0
HH, cropped, luminosity mask, levels, curves, selective color adjustments and sharpened in CS5/6.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Rachel,
I like the misty/foggy feel to the image, and the image nicely shows the environs/habitat. Well composed & executed.
TFS.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, would echo Sanjeev's comments, nice one.

I might suggest just compressing the Levels either side a fraction, then applying a hint of Curves, but do not apply this to the FG, as I feel it just helps the blacks & detail a bit more.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Sanjeev and Steve, as always your comments and suggestions are much appreciated.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lovely morning misty mood here Rachel.
Just enough space all around for me.
:5

[Tom Graham]

Great light and atmosphere. Like the highlight in eye, makes him alive.
Tom

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Morkel and Tom.

[John Ippolito]

Beautiful capture, Rachel. The mood is wonderful with the misty blue BG - giving the image a sense of depth as well. FG grasses and OOF autumn leaves in the BG comliment the elk nicely. Very well done.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks John :wave:

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Rachel, love the contrast of the early warm sun in the FG and the misty BG. The rack of this guy is quite impressive. Well done.

[Tom Graham]

No one else mentions it, but after looking at it several times to be sure, I'd like the elk to be more towards center, not "dead center "it's just a little tight on the right. Its eye just touching that imaginary 1/3 vertical line.
And, will say the elk is indeed facing the best direction, to the left :S3:. I'd bet if you flipped it, you would not like it :S3: .
And talking about left-right thing, I saw on TV this week (on Science channel?) a program about how our eyes and brain, and other senses interact. They mentioned this left to right viewing of a scene and said it does -not- seem to be culturally based, or on reading direction. Both Hebrew (read right-left) and Chinese (read up-down) use left to right eye movements when viewing a scene. Seems to be hardwired into to everyone that way.
Tom
ps - I think another reason I like it is the way branches in the BG twist/curl in similar ways, mimic, to the elk's antlers.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Rachel I really like the mood of this one created by the fog. The light on the grasses and soft bg make this really nice for me. Tom does have a point on the crop but I also like it as posted

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Cheryl