I suppose it’s not surprising that I can contribute a bison photo to this weekly challenge. They’re the ideal subject for this medium, IMO, and I was fortunate to create a few more monochrome keepers during my winter Yellowstone trips earlier this year. Here, a herd starts out across Fountain Flats, and area that sort of marks the beginning of more active thermal activity in the park’s SW corner.
Canon R5
Canon 600mm
ISO 400
1/2000th
f/6.3
Max
Nice, simple and really well done.
A strong and simple image! I like it very much. Eventually, a crop at the left side could emphasize the movement to the right. There is a small cloud behind the rightmost bison. Have you tested to make that cloud slightly lighter to let that bison to stand out even more?
Beautiful image, Max! As always!
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Ola, interesting note about the small bit of steam. I’ve always liked that part of the image, and have wished it were more prominent (I have other wider shots from this encounter that have some nice, billowy clouds with more contrast), but doing some extra dodging to make it stand out more wasn’t something I had considered.
As for the crop suggestion, I view this as an image that isn’t really about movement and directionality. Instead, it’s about the simple graphic element of four dark bison standing in stark contrast—evenly spaced, no less—to their winter surroundings. For me it’s all about the spacing and shapes (one reason it works well in monochrome, IMO). The fact that the “lead” bison is starting to move helps breaks up the uniformity just a bit, but I don’t think that or the simple directionality suggested by the profiles is dynamic enough to justify composing the line of four off-center in this case.
Max, this is a great Yellowstone winter view. I like all of the negative space in the sky and the fact that the mist is quite subtle. The shading and details in the bison looks very good.
