I especially love the arrival of winter. I love snow, it purifies the decor. Everything is immaculate, everything is united, everything is beautiful. And like at the start of every winter, I try to photograph animals in the snow. The cover is not yet thick enough to complicate movements, but is present enough to guide me in the search for animals by traces of their passage.

That morning, it had fallen nearly 25cm the day before in the mountains. After seeing 2 large male moose in the distance through binoculars, I approached quietly. Tracks in the snow guided the end of my approach. It's the end of the rut, it's the beginning of November.

After an approach of almost an hour, I am in the company of the 2 males who have laid down to rest. Several hours pass and trust builds. So much so that I took the vast majority of my images at 105mm f1.4, including this one. The dominant male constantly seeking to provoke the other male. I witnessed at least 8 such fights during the day.

The dynamic range of the D810 allowed me to retain information in both dark and light areas of the image. The burst is rather slow on this camera, but more than enough to capture this type of action. A fast speed allowed me to freeze the movement well, and a wide aperture allowed me to blur the foreground and background well.

• Equipment: Nikon D810   Sigma 105mm f1.4 Art
• Exif: ISO 64 – f2.2 – 1/1000s