Nature Picture of month

It is a known fact that everyone will have a different opinion on which image is the best.
I am not trying to pick the best image, but picking an image that I personally liked.
I am sure that we will all agree on the fact that this is an excellent image!

I had wanted this shot for a long time. But I was never able to get all the elements that I had envisioned to come together in one frame prior to late September, 1996. Early snows in the Rocky Mountain National Park had closed Trail Ridge road and deterred many visitors from coming into the park.

I used auto-focus because I had only one hand available to focus and the elk kept moving. Auto-focus kept locking me out, however, because of the snowflakes. Then there was the wind and the umbrella, to prevent camera movement that kept threatening to send me, camera, and tripod air-borne.

I hooked the umbrella under my upper left arm; wrapped my forearm around the handle; and leaned it into the wind to shield the camera. At the same time, I was trying to look through the viewfinder and press the shutter release as the elk was bulging and when no snowflake was passing in front of his eye, which kept throwing autofocus off and locking down the shutter. The cold placed a bigger drain on my finger movement than on the camera battery. My nail beds had turned blue, and I was concentrating all my energy into getting my finger to bend firmly enough to trip the shutter before I finally got it.

This was shot on Kodak Ektachrome E100SW with an 81A warming filter.

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In case you missed it, click here for July Image of the Month ___________________________________________________________________________

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