Wapiti Bull in Jasper NP

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi folks ,
photographed the big guy on the side of the road in Jasper NP .
I was on foot , was kind of risky because it was rutting season , but he was quite calm , no sign of aggression.
Problem here was in the Raw there is , in the LLC , a large area of tarred road visible . So i used content aware fill to get rid off the area , followed by lens blur and used a gradient to make it less visible with smooth transition.
Image processed in Photo Ninja and PS CC ; slight crop from bottom; i like the kind of yellow cast because it was that way , if i remember correctly . But tell me your thoughts if it looks realistic .

Canon EOS 1D MK IV
EF 100-400 IS L at 130 mmm ; HH
F 8 / Iso 400 / 1/320 sec

Thanks for looking and hopefully leaving your thoughts.

Cheers Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andreas - I really like this one. The warm light and yellow tone seem just right to me too. Nice pose with that huge rack and nice bit of environment showing. Good job on the llc. Only thing for me is that some of the grasses and the elk's chest look a little crunchy/oversharpened, but just slightly. Nice one!

TFS,
Rachel

[Don Railton]

Hi Andreas

This is very majestic..! I love the inclusion of the mountain BG and the warms colours. I think your patching over the road looks real enough to me such that I would not have noticed unless you told me. I agree the grass is marginally oversharp, I also think I might like to see a looser crop to include a little more of the mountain/ surroundings, but obviously that makes the road problem worse. great image..!

DON

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Rachel and Don for looking and leaving your thoughts.
Agree about sharpness in the grass , but leave it in the elk as is !!!! Ok??!!
Don sadly no room above .

Cheers Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andreas, I like the posture/stance and the fact you get the impression he is slightly above you. Nice light, and I do like the environment, I wonder if you could pull out a bit more so it's not such a frame filler, but no deal breaker. Good detail and I like the way you see how muscular this guy is, impressive rack too.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Steve, back in good old England ??!!

Thanks for watching, sadly i cannot go wider it is FF on the sides and top.
As is said in OP , i already had to work a lot in LLC and then cropped off a fraction from bottom. I was sitting /kneeing in the middle of the HWY , cars were passing incl. big trucks, and were using their horns , think they wanted to tell me……………….
So i was lucky enough to get some shots of this big guy , there were also some other photogs who wanted to get some wide angle shots , it was kind of crowded……….. so options were limited. Think about the wide American continent , and i sit on a well frequented HWY to photograph a DEER, kind of stupid.

Cheers Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Yep!

No worries, nice work under tough circumstances.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I really like this one Andreas - impressive rack and muscular build, with good sense of environment without having to "frame wide".
Nothing more to add from my side - good job on the LLC, solid image!