Pesasant- Part Four...

[Steve Kaluski]

OK, so back this week to photographing the Little owls and oh boy has the location changed, a lot more overgrown within a week, which is challenging and good to see 'Scruffy' is looking a lot better, however... Always on route it's good to checkout the game birds, the Pheasants and although I thought 'Broken tail' had got caught by a fox seeing a truck load of feathers, I think it was from another sparring match, as I saw him on route to the owls this morning. So, here's a close up from the other weeks encounter shot around 6.40am, plumage wet due to the heavy dew in the grass.

The MKIII is just awesome and nailing the shots, just loving the 'mirrorless' asset.

Thanks to those who viewed or commented on the previous posting.

Steve

Subject: Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)
Location: UK
Camera: Canon EOS-1DX MKIII
Lens: EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4x III HH
Exposure: 1/1000s at f/5.6 ISO800
Original format: Portrait, very slight crop from top, FF width
Processed via: LRCC Classic & PSCC2020


Note: The subject is fully wild and completely unconstrained. Besides the potential impact of my presence, nothing has been done to intentionally alter or affect the ongoing behavior of the subject and, of course, there has been no use of any form of bait or other form of wildlife attractants (including vocalisations) in the capture of this image.

[dankearl]

Beautiful portrait, cool sidelight. Could be a bit more tack sharp I think for a sitting subject.
If I am in iso800 light I would go for more shutter speed even in still subjects.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Superb portrait Steve. Colors are vibrant and the framing is nice. Good details and BG. Whats the difference in AF & IQ between the II and III ?

[Jonathan Ashton]

Love the colour palette and the pose and light direction really illustrate the beautiful plumage, a real beauty Steve.

[John Mack]

Love the wet feathers on this one. Nice framing and pose. Background is quite nice with that light green spot right behind the head.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Beautiful capture of this great looking bird, Steve. Love the pose, light, and perfect background.


Geoffrey




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

[Steve Kaluski]

Could be a bit more tack sharp I think for a sitting subject. If I am in iso800 light I would go for more shutter speed even in still subjects.

It's razor sharp Dan and with good technique, SS 1/1000 (mirrorless) the MK3 just delivers.



Whats the difference in AF & IQ between the II and III ?

I don't think the jump is worth it Sanjeev for you, you might look at whats coming up, but then with EF glass I'm not sure???? I did it because it cost me next to nothing with the MK2's and the mirrorless aspect is an addition I felt warranted the move along with the fps which blows most brands out the water and having the CF express, buffering is a thing of the past.

Thank you Jon, John & Geoffrey.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Steve ... this guy does look not so nice from having some battles :bg3:.

Comp is working well and you had some nice warm side light that creates really nice 3D effect , I do like this kind of light more than the rather flat frontal lit subjects . Needs more work to do ... but as we can see you are having no issues to get details in every tonal range !!
Brilliant color and tone work and the tonal depth is simply .... stunning !!!!
Details are fine ...... and YES the file is ( as presented ) RAZOR SHARP !!!!!!!!!

Superb work in the digital dark room

TFS Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Thanks Andreas, getting a bit too bright now in the mornings, I need to be up even earlier!!! No need for billions of pixels, unless you are cropping hard and in some ways it’s better. As you say razor sharp, minimal sharpening too. Sent from the ‘owl’ bunker. :wave: