Female Prairie Chicken on fence post

[kevin Hice]

Older file shot in Nebraska sandhills spring 2021. This is a setup . I took a old fence post laying on the prairie and arranged some grass to try and make it look natural as possible. Most of my leks are very sterile as cattle have grazed the grasses very short and even worse in drought conditions. Nebraska sandhills
are a mixed grass prairie on stabilized sand dunes. Not all leks are good photo opportunities IMO. Some leks get very dirty and beat up looking with very little grass vegetation mostly sand. Leks on side of hills for various reasons can be hard to photograph birds on.
Processed with Dpp 4,Photoshop,Topaz noise. Comments and critiques appreciated.
Canon 1DX111
500f/4 L is
700mm
Av6.3
1/4000
ISO 2000

[Colin Driscoll]

Well set up, great inquiring pose. Lovely even light and detail.
Maybe the broken branch sticking up into its bum isn't ideal.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice, indeed, I would be tempted to add a little tonal contrast for example in the bird and perhaps lower the exposure on the log.

[William Dickson]

Very nice .....Good detail on both bird and perch....I like the pose and HA....Fab light...Well done Kevin.

Will

[Dorian Anderson]

This is great. It's really hard to see the feet when these guys on on the ground, so I think your set-up afforded a really unique view on that front. Lighting, composition, and head angle are all spot on. I would not have thought it was a fencepost!

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Kevin what not to like here , would not change a thing .
Nice warmish yellow light , lovely details and sharpening on the dot .
Very well captured and presented .

TFS Andreas

[Kurt Bowman]

Nice setup and I think it was very successful. Like the head turn you got and light is great!

[Daniel Cadieux]

This looks really good! I love what you did as a setup. The fence post is beautifully weathered and actually looks like a fallen tree log. Great warm tones throughout, and you gotta love that perfect head angle.