Spruce Grouse - January 12, 2010

[Eddy Matuod]

[Paul Lagasi]

Eddy ..the bird is nice, love the head angle...I'd probably crop it a little bit on top and right to remove some of the background and the out of focus needles on right..bird is very sharp...nicely exposed to bring out the colors of this bird..I don't see many of these in the east....Thanks For Sharing

[Joe Brown]

Eddy, I agree with Paul's comments. As well, the image you have posted is too large (2400x1600) for easy viewing on this site and exceeds the posting size rules. Should be kept to a max of 800 px high. Also, please provide shooting info and pp details. A well exposed, very sharp capture. Not sure about the low HA but may be typical of this bird.

Joe

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great find, soft light, sharpness and interesting setting and only find the bright blue spot in the upper left a bit distracting.

Eddy, I went to your flickr site and replaced your image here. It's still a bit too large. Please also post the techs.

[Steve Maxson]

This is a bird seldom seen in MN, though they do reside here. Good pose and sharpness and I like that you have included some habitat in the image. I would suggest some NR on the background. :)

[Ted Willcox]

Nice sharp image, beautiful colours. I agree with the cropping above. Also the bg could use some nr. well done.
Ted

[Simon Mairs]

Love this, great colours and sharpness. Agree it could be improved with a bit more background NR, and maybe a bit more canvas to the right. Could you post exif data (was this taken with the 600?).

Where on earth did you find this grouse? I live in Calgary, but in all my photographic outings I've never run into one! Could you share how you found it?

[Eddy Matuod]

Thanks for the nice comments and constructive critics, guys! By the way, this was taken at Grand Valley Road (near Bates Bar J Ranch going to Water Valley) NW of Cochrane Alberta using a Canon 1D Mk II N and a bare Canon 600 F4 lens at f4.0, ISO800, 0.002 sec, +2/3 EV, AV mode, handheld (so heavy). Processed using PS CS2 Windows (color settings: Adobe RGB-1998).