Shot of the Month – January 2023

Wow, check out this beast.  He is an absolute UNIT.

This is one of the few images I have that starts to give a sense of how massive a Moose can be and demonstrate how majestic they can look.

The Moose is the monster of the deer family – it is the largest member of the deer family and is the tallest mammal in North America.  A male moose can easily top 6 feet at the shoulders, and add in those antlers and this goliath towers more than 10 feet in height.  Those antlers (males only) are often more than 6 feet wide and can weigh over 50 pounds.  Moose are typically found in the northern regions of the United States (from Maine to Washington) and throughout Canada.  Much of their height is due to their long legs that are essential to navigate the deep snow of winter found in their northern habitats.  But these guys have length as well as height.  Moose can easily be more than 7 feet in length and males can weigh from 1200 to 1600 pounds.  It is difficult to appreciate how massive these creatures until you have one walk by you.

Source

Photographically it is a real challenge to do these guys justice as they often just look like big brown blobs.  In the winter they usually keep their head down as they graze – no point wasting energy raising those heavy antlers higher than necessary.  In the winter it is all about conserving energy so moose will spend many hours sitting down, resting.  Perhaps a nap here or there.  Then, all of a sudden, they pop up and start to graze for an hour or so.  During that brief period of activity a moose may only lift his head once or twice for a few, fleeting seconds.  If you glance somewhere else, or turn to chat with a colleague and he looks up?  Poof, you missed your shot.  Come back in a few hours and try again!  I have spent far more minutes than I care to add up staring through a viewfinder, with tears running down from my fatigued eye, as I waited for that “heads up” moment.

In this image it all came together.  I managed to find a small ravine that put me lower than the moose.   I burrowed down on my knees into the snow to get as low as I could go.   This low angle allowed the male to tower over me, and seemingly, even tower over the mountains in the background.  This angle also highlights those stunning antlers.  Frequent visitors to Grand Teton National Park know this moose well and he is recognized as one of the biggest moose in the park in recent years.

In this shot he stopped grazing and stood fully up to take in his surroundings.  Eureka, let the photo frenzy begin!

With the sun behind the clouds the lighting was soft and even.  The light was strong enough to see the details of his dark brown fur while being weak enough to not overexpose those light-colored antlers.  The snow on the ground acted as a reflector and bounced the light up into the moose’s face allowing us to see his eyes.  Normally those big brown eyes are TOUGH to see and getting a bit of catchlight is even rarer.

The turn of the head gives a nice profile of his face and breaks up the outline of his body.  The head turn allows us to see just how massive his antler are.  That bit of snow on his nose also offers a nice bit of contrast and depth to the image.

Speaking of depth, the snow in the foreground leads the eye to the dark moose and overall we get a great 3D effect between the light foreground, the dark moose and then again with the light shades of the sky in the background.

I love this image so much it is currently the largest metal print we have in the house.  As you head down the steps to our basement you find yourself confronted by a 30″x 40″ copy of this monster.

Even though the massive print is not  “lifesize” it is big enough to give a sense of the scale of a Moose.  That realization stops many a guest in their tracks as they stare in awe.

Mission accomplished….

Until next month….michael

Nikon D5, Sigma 150-600 (@150mm), 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800, EV +0.667