A king on his summit

A king on his summit Since my first expeditions, the moose has always been for me the greatest encounter. This animal is mythical, it inhabits our culture and travels our territory from South to North. We all have a history attached to it. This fascination towards this large cervid allowed me to meet all the other animals with whom it shares its home. It is the moose that taught me that nothing is predictable in the wild. That he alone decides when we meet and when we meet. He taught me that we must pay attention to the discreet and silent conversation that our eyes can exchange. The more my knowledge of the species increased with each encounter, the more a precise moment of the year captivated me. This moment is at the very beginning of winter. The big males have finished playing war and are gathering like brothers in arms. Their plumes with the traces of several violent battles become the pages of the book of their combat. Each break, notch, scratch tells the story of a day, a defeat or a victory. They feed in peace and harmony like a herd of lonely souls seeking the security of a familiar gaze. It is very difficult to capture these scenes. The plumes fall rapidly with the coming of the cold weather. Depending on the abundance of snow, it is sometimes difficult to access the moose that move around a lot during this short period. I have been trying to capture this scene for many years. It is at the top of a snowy mountain, in the high wind, that this bull was found. The wind has never been for me a harbinger of animal encounters and yet, that day, he was at the top of everything. It contrasted with the snow, the cold and the rising sun. It was a moment that was intense in emotion for me. As I wrote above, we don't choose to see a moose, it is the moose that comes to us. In front of the immensity that surrounded me, this animal seemed small. And I was on another planet. An inhospitable place for man dominated by great crowned kings. I was moved. At that very moment, he was the most beautiful thing I could see in my life. Was it the unexpected encounter, the symmetry of its immense woods or the landscape that surrounded us that gave me this impression? Certainly the accumulation of all these things. I am very thankful to life that I was able to meet this king on the top of the mountain.