Shot outside of Zion NP Utah (tripod set up in the back of a donkey cart driven by a guy in a cowboy hat named "Curley"). Nikon N50/Quantary 75-300mm/Fuji 100 speed print film/Spot metered on black fur and opened UP 1 f-stop.

-- Stu Weiss (stuart.weiss@coat.com), May 25, 1999

Answers

I like the composition. The harsh light, however, really kills the shot for me. It could be a monitor thing, but the dark fur on the left is a black hole that sucks my eye right off of the bison head.

-- Mark Erickson (maericks@netcom.com), May 25, 1999.

Stu, contrary to popular usage, this is not a buffalo. It is a bison. (Scientific classification is genus Bison, species B. bison.)

The bison is extremely difficult to photograph because of the very dark head which results in most images being little or nothing more than a black cutout, particularly of the head. You have done an excellent job of exposure. There is fur detail in the head and beard, without blowing out the color in his body. There is a nice catchlight in the left eye. I would have wished for better light and realize that you did too.

-- Chris Varner (Johnny_Pinto @msn.com), May 26, 1999.

Is the term Buffalo a slang term, like "buzzard"?

-- Stu Weiss (stuart.weiss@coat.com), May 26, 1999.

Stu, not exactly sure of what you mean by a slang term like "buzzard". If you mean in the sense that people call a vulture a buzzard when the term buzzard, properly speaking, applies to hawks and eagles belonging to the genus Buteo; or in the sense that people refer to a pronghorn as an antelope, when it is not even closely related to the antelope; or a chimpanzee as a monkey, etc., then in that sense, yes. The cape buffalo and the water buffalo, having 13 pairs of ribs, are examples of true buffalo; bison have 14 pairs.

-- Chris Varner (Johnny_Pinto @msn.com), May 26, 1999.