Stag in the open

[Mike Poole]

No chance I can rival the beautiful backgrounds of the African annimalscapes this month, so I went for a minimalistic view!

I was at the bottom of a hill when this stag walked along the top edge and paused for a few seconds to plot his next move.

Canon 1dx
500mm f4is
ISO 640
!/4000th f 4.5

Mike

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Mike - This works quite well with the stag along the ridge. Lovely fall colors too. He pops nicely against that blue bg. I like negative space so am ok with the large expanse of sky.

TFS,
Rachel

[Stuart Philpott]

Minimalist is a great word Mike lovely light .

Mike the African landscapes so stunningly portrayed in this forum inspire me too,hugely. Naturally one ponders animalscapes here (UK) and how to tackle. I like your version Mike it is so minimalist though,with ol stag being small in frame there isn't much for the viewer's eye to hold on. Mike this is a really tricky one when one shoots upwards. I guess a more "interesting" sky might be a step upwards?

Very interesting Mike for me I've mused my fallow and that English country scape much so it's very cool to see Your approach

thanks for everything buddy

Stu

[haseeb badar]

Hi Mike -- I liked those lovely warm hues against the blue sky,the framing works for me. Nice , simple animalscape.

TFS !

[Jonathan Ashton]

Yes it works for me Mike, not sure how much it is cropped already (quite possibly a fair crop already) but I would suggest losing a little sky - maybe 16:9 crop??

[keith mitchell]

I like the simplicity of the shot with nothing to distract the viewer from the Stag,the light bits on the antlers really help the animal stand out,nice shot Mike.

Keith.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Mike,

Great light and that blue sky makes the subject stand out so well.

Amazing colours, what gorgeous light - well seen and captured indeed.

The only thing I might suggest is that you try take off a bit from the bottom, see if it works? I think the BG (sky) is gorgeous but the FG does not add that much to the image, so why not let that awesome blue sky predominate?

Enjoyed viewing, very much. This is as lovely as any African animalscape, Mike

Kind regards,

[Jonathan Ashton]

Mike Gabriela's idea works much better than my suggestion!!

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Mike great looking frame , so simple and so effective .
Lovely overall color and tone with a pleasing placement of the subject .I am ok with the crop , but do also like Gabriela´s idea .
Nice work , TFS Andreas

[Mike Poole]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, I'll use it to revisit.

Jon, it's about 80% of the full frame so not a huge crop.

Mike


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Steve Kaluski]

Bradgate Mike, looks like the light before a down pour???

Why f/4.5 Mike, I think 1/4000 is a tad high, dropping to ISO400 and a bit more DoF I think.

Look forward to seeing a RP with the comments implemented.

TFS
Steve

[Mike Poole]

Bradgate Mike, looks like the light before a down pour???

Why f/4.5 Mike, I think 1/4000 is a tad high, dropping to ISO400 and a bit more DoF I think.

Look forward to seeing a RP with the comments implemented.

TFS
Steve

Cheers Steve, yep, Bradgate from last autumn. Probably didn't need the 1/4000th, but I don't think stopping down would make much difference at this shooting range, and I quite liked the flow from the OOf foreground.

I never seem to like panoramic crops, but I've sone a 16:9 here and agree it does work.

Mike

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lovely colour/light contrasts and lovely simplistic image design.
The repost nails the composition for me.