Bugle Bull

I went to a local drive through park near Montebello, Quebec called Parc Omega. I believe this was a hunting preserve, for the rich clientel of the Chateau Montebello, back in the day. Now it is converted into a 12 km drive through park.
They have wolves, coyotes, bears, bison, whitetailed deer, roe deer, elk, wild boar, turkeys, red deer, alpine ibex and fallow deer. The animals are in natural surroundings and are easily photographed, without anything hand of man, getting in the way.

This bull, that had just left his wallow, was walking along through the woods and I decided to try my hand at elk bugling, I seen it often enough on Wild TV. So using a rolled up magazine I bugled away. The people I had in the car and I were all surprised when the elk started to respond, all of this happening from 15 feet away. I have never been happier with my D3s and 70-200, I got a tack sharp image to add to my files.

I used Topaz simplify on this image and some minor cropping.


If your ever near the area this is an awesome place to photograph and generally the colder it is, the more active the animals become.

Web Site: http://www.parc-omega.com/en/photos.html

Paul, I love the open mouth and the mud on it's lower body. I might tone down his top side and the one or two sticks behind him. Sounds like a great place!

Nice capture, Paul..too bad you can't post a recording of yourself bugling him in! Denise makes good suggestions, RE the background and some of the clutter...did you try any landscape images?

Unfortunately, this bull came straight for the car, allowing me only 5 images, while bugling and charging the car. I had to get out of his path and didn't think to turn the camera, all of the images are in portrait mode.

I made a few changes...Thank's for the suggestions

Hi, Paul, the parc sounds like an amazing place to do photography. The base image looks great and I like your effect. Your repost cleaned up the straight stick right in the middle that I thought needed to be removed. I would crop from the bottom to eliminate the patch of leaves or whatever in the bottom center so the bottom edge is grass. I think that would eliminate the rest of the clutter.:S3:

Looks good Paul.

What a great image Paul! The re-work is definitely an improvement. Removing some of the foreground as suggested should improve it more IMO.

Good repost. A wonderful capture of a bugling elk. I just returned from a day in Rocky Mountain National Park where hundreds of people line the roads watching the bull elks and their herds of females. Nobody stays in their car and rangers roam the area to keep unthinking folks from getting too close.

What a treat for you and for us. Would have enjoyed hearing you bugle. Good job capturing this image.