I took this image in mid November, well after the Elk's breeding season had concluded. At this time of year, Elk are living a peaceful life, recuperating from the rigors of September's rut. This young stag is hanging out with a small harem of females, which he would not be able to do during the rut, because the much larger, older, dominant stags hoard the females for themselves and drive youngsters like him away.
This was taken in the Mission Valley of western Montana. Behind the Elk are some peaks of the Mission Mountains, which always have at least some snow on them at this time of year. On this morning, there were some low-hanging clouds and mist, which enshrouded the tippy tops of some of the peaks and makes them look like they just fade into the heavens above.
I zoomed my 100-400mm to 227mm and adjusted my aperture to f11, in order to capture these mountains in this way. Camera body was my beloved Canon 1D Mark 4. ISO was 1600 and shutter speed was 1/160th of a second. The image is not cropped at all. Light processing was done in Apple's raw converter / editor, iPhoto.