“What use is having a great depth of field, if there is not an adequate depth of feeling?” legendary photographer W. Eugene Smith once said. He was describing the quality that distinguishes point-and-shoot from see-and-capture – a distinction shared by the winning images in this year’s C& I Photo Content.

Depth of feeling helped Larry Calof nab the First Place prize. Whether or not he knows the Smith quote, he knows the principle: “I try to find elements in my wildlife photos that will trigger an emotional reaction for me, and hopefully for people viewing my pictures.”  Like many great images, Calof’s shot The Referee comes with a story that expresses both what the eye sees and what the soul experiences.

He was in Jackson, Wyoming, with friends and family, and they decided to take a ride in a horse-drawn sleigh in the elk refuge just out of town in Grand Teton National Park. “During the harsh winter, thousands of elk come down from the neighboring mountains, “ Calof says. “We stopped several times to view the elk. Some of the bull elk were fighting in snowy fields.  I took a number of shots of the elk fighting, but they lacked a special something. Then I saw the three elk in this photo. When I snapped the shutter, the elk the background seemed to be acting as a referee, making sure all was above-board in the fight. All he needed was a whistle.”

A special something indeed.