I've been busy trying to get good images of Japanese pheasants. It's breeding season now, and since few people hunt them here they can be very visible although they're not easy to approach as they are usually either on very open country where they can be spot you easily (they don't flush but keep their distance on foot) or in tall grasses where all you can see is some heads poking here and there. Here's what I think has been my best shot so far (it's a crop):
Nikon D300S, 1/1600s f/4.0 at 300.0mm + 1.4x TC, iso400. Taken while crawling in the mud of an abandoned paddy field. (lots of black kites and crows circling above me thinking perhaps that I was a corpse lying there :o) )
I've trying to bait them (with rice and popcorn corn) as Allan Murphy does to get them to step into a clearing but since I have only time on Saturdays to go to the sweet pheasant spot, it's been a challenge. Mostly I just crawl towards where the singing noise comes from and then it's wait and see if the pheasant is kind enough to come to an open spot.
Last edited by Daniel Cadieux; 05-17-2010 at 04:33 AM.
Reason: fixed link for thumbnail to show.
Your patience has paid off with a nice habitat image of this beautiful species. Lots of stuff going on here, but it's mostly all good (I would get rid of the tall OOF "tree" in the ULC). The heavy crop is starting to show its effects, but still not too bad. I'd apply some NR to the BG (and FG) as noise is apparent in areas. Nice comp!
I'm glad your patience was rewarded. It is a good-looking specimen and I also like eye contact. I would remove the tower (?) in the upper left, run NR on the BG and might crop it a bit tighter.
Green (Japanese) pheasant
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