The Victor Dances

Early morning, the squabbles are over...the dominant male dances for the female. This male was in an area of the lek all to himself and the other males stayed away but not the females.


I had a lovely time photographing these birds but most of the photos were taken at 10,000 to 25,000 ISO. They had controll burned the area of the lek and the ground was black, add to that overcast skies and early mornings. Most of the images were very grainy.

I used Topaz simplify to reduced the image and copied, pasted certain colors back in using Color Range to select them. I masked the burnt grasses and painted in green.

I enjoyed my time but I know I'll have to get back there and allow a few more days time (I really need to get there when there's clear skies.
I'll be posting on my blog tomorrow, photos, contact numbers and directions to Lek area.

For the female all I did was copy the black striping on her body and head, pasted it into image.

Thanks for looking, more to come.

p.s. 5 weeks to Alaska, can't wait. You know what they say you can't hit a moving target.

It sounds like you did a lot of work on this, but you got a good result. The image is well-composed, and the green and orange color combination works well, especially with the male's inflated neck patch. It must've been great to witness the spectacle.

I guess this guy has mad dancing skills if the females can't stay away! I really like the balance of the scene, and your time was well spent in making it work visually. Very nice!