Buffalo

[gds_1971]

Took this shot while driving through the Wichita Wildlife Refuge here in Oklahoma. I'm still learning how to use my camera, so any comments or critique would be greatly appreciated.
This was taken at ISO 50, F 4.5, 1/250
Thanks for looking!!

 

[LaFoto]

Heya gds, welcome to ThePhotoForum.
You did see a buffalo in the wild? That is so cool!
Some critique about the composition of the photo: your subject is very centred. You will find out that pictures as such (photos and paintings etc) have more impact, capture the eye more when the subject is not smack in the middle of the frame but moved somewhere off centre. If you could not achieve to get it done in-camera, maybe because you were driving past your subject, you can always still do it in post processing by cropping your original frame differently. This photo gives you room enough to test out all sorts of crops.

I am not entirely sure about the tint you gave this photo.
Maybe my thoughts are too cliché, but I would always want to see "the prairie" (where I picture buffalos) to look "warmer" in colour. But that may well be a very personal thing...

 

[gds_1971]

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely give a try and see what I can come up with.

Here at the refuge, there are herds of buffalo and free range longhorn. For the most part they are very peaceful, and will let you get fairly close to them. Every now and then someone will get too close, and it can get pretty ugly. I met a guy once who had the bright idea of running at a buffalo in an attempt to get a picture of him, and ended up getting gored in the rear for it. It could've been tragic, but he survived the experience and learned from it. Just goes to show how careful you have to be when photographing wildlife.