Rock Ptarmigan

Another shot from Matthew's Nome workshop.
The ptarmigans look quite regal at rest but when they flap their little wings they look like a pimped up chicken!
Canon 1DX
F 600mm II and 1.4x III
ISO 800
F 8.0
SS 1/800
90% FF
Cloudy and cold day with spits of rain.
PP Crop, cloned out one long grass by the tail, levels, DE at 3% and sharpened JPEG at 40% at 0.3 pixels- nothing else!
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail
PS Now that I see this posted I think I could take a bit more off the rhs.

Love your description "pimped up chicken" because as soon as I saw it, it fit perfectly! The whites are just wonderful. I also llike it's pose, the rock perch, and the background. Lovely shot of a bird I've never seen or heard of. Thanks for sharing this!

Gail:

Perfect description of the bird! Sharp, well exposed, like the rock and blues in bg. Because of the upright pose, I do agree about a crop from rhs.

This must have been on a slight incline, as it does appear to be running uphill a bit. My first inclination would be to level it out, but again, because of the poses angle, it works rather well with the incline in the bg.

Cheers

Randy

I am amazed by the variety of birds in Nome!
It is a chicken!
I like the rock perch a lot.
I might be tempted to crop above your signature and eliminate all the OOF foreground.

magic,love this,detail and sharpness spot on,nice light,good pose,if mine would crop a bit off the bottom.well done.

Thanks for the input. Here is a repost with crop suggestions and I decided to clone out most of that piece of long horizontal grass on the right.
Gail

Yep, one weird looking Chicken LOL

I rather like this as is particularly with it being " King of the Mountain " on his prominent rock, but could also see this working cropped tighter all round...lovely smooth backdrop Gail. Is the re post brighter as well ?...it does seem to have more punch as well as the different crop and clone work

No, I didn't touch the brightness or exposure on the repost but I see what you mean. Interesting..
Gail

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PhilCook

Yep, one weird looking Chicken LOL

I rather like this as is particularly with it being " King of the Mountain " on his prominent rock, but could also see this working cropped tighter all round...lovely smooth backdrop Gail. Is the re post brighter as well ?...it does seem to have more punch as well as the different crop and clone work

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Beautiful comp and exposure Gail. Fine behavior captured. I think Nome is a magical place , based on what you and Grace have been posting.
I'll have a thigh.:wave:

Excellent image. Seeing this bird for the first time. TFS.
Love the composition,bird,colors and details.

Regards,
Satish.

Hi Gail, I would hate to try and pronouce the name. :w3 Love the extended pose, and oodles of detail in the whires from the overcast conditions. I do like the red eyebrow, and the repost does work better.

Wonderful pose captured here Gail...and could the bird have picked a better perch? I think not.
I enjoy the OP, it's spacious composition works well imo. However, not suprisingly, the repost is excellent as well, in it's own tighter/cleaner way. Great image.

The repost noses out the original for me. but not by much. Wonderful perch and control of the whites.

Great subject. Sharp with lovely pose & perch. The repost looks much better than OP. TFS

this is lovely! the perch stays true to the bird's name. pose, exp, details & the environment are excellent.
i personally prefer the OP.

excellent pose,perch & well exposed.

Lovely image, sweet bird i like the pose and the BG
the small red on the bird makes it catch my eye, very sweet

wow - beautiful rock, beautiful pose. I love it!