Red grouse in the rain

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 7D Canon Canon 500mm tripod, ISO 500 1/250 sec f7.1
Small crop and added canvas to the left, the tail tip was right on the edge of the frame. I cloned/patched some ferns around the neck region.
All C & C welcome.

[Humberto Ramos]

The grouse is very beautiful, like the BG, and composition, the rain is a must...

[Richard Unsworth]

Way to go Jon; probably your best yet, well done, lovely composition and detail; some will say a little tight
(now go and find a Grey one)
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[Sachin Saraf]

This is beautiful Image...Loved it a lot...beautiful exposure, pose, sharpness and BG...Rain is bonus...I think this needs slight CCW rotation.

[Frank Schauf]

Excellent light, details and bg.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Jon, I like the stately pose, and you have brought out the detail and colours so well. The falling rain adds interest, as do the droplets on his chest. I do wish you had more room left and bottom. :w3

[Jonathan Ashton]

I have a certain reservation over the plumage detail - do you think this is a little better?

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Jon, I like the stately pose, and you have brought out the detail and colours so well. The falling rain adds interest, as do the droplets on his chest. I do wish you had more room left and bottom. :w3

Me too Stu:w3 I have already recropped a little and added canvas, despite the apparently static pose he was jiggling about and it was difficult to focus lock and compose

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

I like the added room below...the oof stuff there is a bit unfortunate though. good job of sharpening in the repost. face looks nice and crisp. loved the pose, colors and rain. perfect HA. great feel.

[Humberto Ramos]

The repost is much better, I liked the first post, but this one is even better...

[Tom Rambaut]

lots to like - the moss, rain and the colour of the bird. I like the repost as there is more room. I especially like the reds in the birds plumages matching reds in the BG and moss/heather perch. This is the best image so far of this specie.

[dankearl]

You seem to get a lot of photo's of really interesting and unusual birds.
This is really nice, the rain and habitat are great.

[Arthur Morris]

Feathers nicer and sharped in the repost but this is one case where I would rather not have the virtual feet included as the o-o-f stuff that was introduced on the bottom frame edge is mega distracting.... For me :S3:.

[christopher galeski]

very nice image of my favorite game bird,like the rain,repost better,but agree about the out of focus heather at the bottom.well done.

[arash_hazeghi]

sweet image, nice details and the rain and beautiful BG really add. I agree with Artie re OOF stuff in the FG. I prefer the processing in repost with the original crop

Excellent work

[Robert Holguin]

Very nice shot, Great pose, excellent background, like the rain drops, and I like the sharpening on the repost, but prefer the original comp.
Well done.

[Melvin Grey]

Beautiful pose and feather detail - it really captures the character of the bird. I think all you have to do on the repost is to tone down the pale out of focus FG bits and remove the 'orange bent stalk'.
Great image!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Many thanks to everyone for your C&C, I always look forward to your replies.