Theme .Good Morning all.

[keith mitchell]

Black Grouse(promise the last for a while)

Nikon D4
Nikon 300mm 2.8
1/250@f4
iso 2000

Early morning bird giving me the good morning.Thanks for taking a look and your comments on my last post.

[William Dickson]

Keep them coming Keith, if they are good as this :S3: Love the pose and POV. Lovely detail on the bird and fab colours throughout. The DOF is pretty cool, giving a great blurred BG with colours and the blur in the FG. Nice control of blacks and whites. No nits from me mate, apart from maybe brighten the head slightly. I love it.

TFS

Will

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Keith - Nice low pov. Great pose with beautiful colors and good exp control. It may have been on a slope but it works with some cw rotation too though a little tighter.

TFS,
Rachel

[Bill Nuttall]

You are still on that bird Keith, must have got used to you by now ...... would be dinner if it was in France .. my neighbour would be foaming at the mouth, (we saw 4 French Red-legged Partridge today and he wanted to get his gun out)

Wonderful exposure and detail on the bird

I am not a fan of this exaggerated fg OOF strip that seems to be "the mode" the days .. the transition is just too obvious .. for me it does really spoils this wonderful image and to add to this the bg is just too smooth, you have gone to town with the blur tool in PS at 100% .. give it a bit more texture....... these guys don't hang around in an environment that is that smooth!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Keith, love the morning light, cool body posture and great head angle, the open beak is the icing for me!

As Will mentioned, good control of the Black & Whites and a nice depth to the plumage. The low POV creates interest and shooting at f/4 has created a good defused background to provide separation to the subject. The stones and grass in focus I think helps to break up the bokeh environment creating a layering. My only wish would be to remove the slightly curved vegetation on the RHS which is catching the light and draws the eye I feel.

TFS
Steve

[keith mitchell]

Thanks to you all,Will agree about the head ,Rachel I will look at the rotation you suggest,Steve will look at this veggie bit,Bill the front oof bit is there because of the angle I took the shot with myself being low and the Grouse higher,afraid blur tool is something I never use but did apply some nr on the bg which I should have mentioned when posting,sorry about that.

Keith.

[Bill Dix]

This one's a beauty. Love the range of blacks, bronzes and blues; the head turn and open beak. I'm not crazy about the amount of oof foreground, and Rachel's suggestion of some cw rotation might help to reduce it a bit, if it doesn't make the bird look unbalanced. All in all, a handsome shot.

[keith mitchell]

Thank you Bill I will look at the points you have raised,I lay on my belly in a hide to take this shot trying to keep it at low level which unfortunately gave me the oof foreground.

Keith.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

What a great looking bird, and well captured, Keith. Like the calling pose, feather display, and lovely BG. Can appreciate the work you put into this capture despite the oof foreground.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu (http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu)

[Mike Poole]

I liked the last Black Grouse, but I think this one is even better!

Lovely calling pose, and great details again. An inch or 2 higher in the shooting position may have helped, but not a deal breaker for me.

Mike

[keith mitchell]

Thanks a lot Geoffrey and Mike.