Lonely

The other day I drove up to Pembroke about 1.5 hours north of Ottawa, there is a landfill there that allows photographers access to the food waste landfill area, which attracts thousand of gulls. This allow's for some up close and personal images of a variety of northern gulls, that show up here in early winter. On the way home I passed a bison farm and this lone animal was in the field, all by himself. I got out of my car to take the image and he never moved a muscle.

He looked so lonely....I felt so sorry for this majestic animal, penned up.

Applied fotosketcher oil effect, seems to be my go to these days, I left him centered vertically because I like the grasses in front of the bison.

Winter is coming but on the bright side I may get out for one more game of golf tomorrow. :tinysmile_shy_t:

The vertical centering works very nicely. That foreground grass adds to the sense of depth. Bison are herd animals, so its forlorn pose coupled with no other members of the herd in all that depth gives a strong sense of loneliness. I really like how you handled this.

Hi Paul, I like the dark tones of the bison and hints of detail on its back. I like the limited color palette of greens and browns. He does look lonely, hope there were others there.

I really like the light and the grass turned out terrifically. The depth gives the bison a good feel of being alone, and just enough detail in the eye to connect with the viewer.:S3:

Paul, the vertical weeds and detailed hair on the bison's back are complimentary. I also like the subdued tone and colors. As a domestic bison, this fellows isolation was not voluntary. In the wild the dominant bulls tend to be loners and only join the herd during the rut.

Hi, Paul, when I first saw the thumbnail I thought this was Paynes Prairie! Although they've now moved most of the bison that were on the prairie because they were prolific breeders and the public thought of them as pets. It was amazing to see people wandering up to them like they were domesticated. Luckily no one was ever hurt but they started wandering off the prairie into neighborhoods so they were rounded up and sent to "sanctuaries". There are several left but you don't see them much anymore. This one looks very lonely :(. Beautiful colors and composition.

The image does have a sad feeling--the darkness of the bison, the position of the head.