One smart Pheasant

[Mike Tracy]

Visiting my mom who lives on Lake Ontario in western N.Y. amongst farm country. I have not seen the sun or a sign of any wildlife since I got here with the exception of this pheasant this morning. It's hunting season around here so I figured he is the smart one of the bunch hanging out by a road as opposed to in a field where he is fair game.

As overcast as it gets. Edited on my "Old don't care what happens to it laptop" so not sure how it actually looks.

MKIII, EF 500 @ 1.4x. 1/400, f/5.6, ISO 1250, EC +.3, Hand held while shivering.

[Dan Brown]

Nice shot Mike! I really like the BG. I am seeing a bit of noise though,probably due to the high ISO, so I ran Noise Ninja on the BG and S/H filter on the whole image to saturate it a bit. I also see a halo around the bird in the breast and head area?

[Daniel Cadieux]

Overall I like it...but it is too saturated, particularly the yellow and red channels (but I guess it is subjective as Dan has added saturation!!). On my computer I was able to reduce the sat on the yellows by 15 points and the reds by 8 and it gave a nice result. The pose and composition are perfect :-)

[Ramon M. Casares]

Great pose and comp, BG and light are very nice! Saturation doesn't look bad to me but a but less might actually help the image! Still, very nice! Let's hope no hunter gets him.
Congratulations!

[Vincent Grafhorst]

How can people shoot such a beautiful bird??? Anyway I'm clad you shot it with a camera, not a riffle Mike. Great looking image. Personally I would darken the green grass a bit.

[Dennis "Curly" Buchner]

Nice pheasant photo Mike, Great detail and BG on a tasty bird. Little cold for a Florida Boy up there. We are getting a little snow today that will help the whitetail movement.

[James Salywoda]

Such a beautiful bird Mike nice angle and wonderful detail you captured here an excellent shot.