Bull elk portrait

I've been following this one bull elk and his harem for the past 3 days. This bull is 6 points on each side, but the rack has tremendous spread, which makes it more difficult to get it all in the image! (And yes, I cut off the very bottom of the back leg again!, probably from trying to zoom a bit too tight on the elk.) There is nothing quite like standing in front of a large bull elk when he raises his head for a full bugle, which is more like a loud whistle. Each bulll's bugle is different and while many believe the bull rounds up the cows, its the cows that choose the bull based largely on the strength and tones in that bugle call.

I felt this one had merit for the pose and environment. This image shows the elk as we generally see them late in the evening with lots of shadows or low light as the sun is near setting and the air is cooling quickly. This is when the elk come out of the trees and begin feeding throughout the evening and into the early morning. I hope you have enjoyed this series of elk images over the past week....

Nikon D1x, 70-200 VR + 1.4 TC, ISO 250, 1/60 sec, f5.6