Ruff

[Rich Steel]

Hi

On my recent trip to Arctic Norway we came across some ruff on a beach on the first day. This is a bird I have always wanted to see in breeding plumage and they didn't disappoint. I have fallen in love with this species and the mutliude of male colour combinations and could happily go back and spend a week just photographing them. Unfortunately we never got them in some good light to allow some of their odd lekking action to be captured.

The birds where twitchy and I used a burnt out cable drum that had washed up on the hightide line as some cover. The beach was a very unpleasant place to be sat as it was piled high in several feet of rotting red sea weed which had created its own very 'special' aroma. This odour was also added to by the sewer outfall from the local settlement flowing out somewhere underneath the mass of seaweed. In fact if I close my eyes I can still smell the place.

This is one of the male birds making its way through the seed weed 'hills'



Taken with a 7D with 500mm and 1.4TC at ISO 400 1/320s at F5.6 and +0.3EV

Cheers

Rich

[Tony Whitehead]

Lovely colours and sharpness. This one occasion when a marginally higher viewpoint could have been better by eliminating the bright area of BG and isolating the bird against the OOF kelp debris. Burning in the bright stick would reduce it's impact. Shows the Ruff's ruff beautifully:D

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

What an interesting species !! Excellent detail and low angle. Very sharp and a lovely composition. I might be tempted to remove the branch as it is slightly distracting. Really like how the BG and ground all have beautiful contrasting and complimentary colors along with the feathers. A very unique and beautiful image !!! Thanks for sharing Rich !!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great find, good-looking specimen and plumage. Eye contact and soft light look good, too. Would a slightly higher angle helped with a more uniform BG?

[Ofer Levy]

Nice image of this stunning bird! The bright area at the BG is a bit distracting IMO.

[Rich Steel]

Thanks for the comments. Decided to leave the stick as a reminder of the jungle of debris piled up on the beach. A higher angle would have been better but if I had moved it would have seen the bird depart very rapidly. However, I did get other photos with a full 'seaweed' background. The colour variety of these male birds, has to be seen to be believed! What makes them even more strange is there is all this fighting going and they don't make a sound.

Cheers

Rich

[Danny J Brown]

Wow, this is one beautiful little bird on a great substrate w/nice bokeh as well. The edges of the wings almost look rim lit. Little problem areas already mentioned but a great shot, nevertheless.

DB

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent image , love those feathers and colors in image
TFS

[Juan Aragonés]

The spanish name of this species is "Combatiente" (meaning fighter). I didn´t know that they make no noise during the fights :eek:
I love the image as you posted but the bright area in the BG but I understand your reasons to do not move while shooting. The image looks a bit on the cold side of the spectrum in my monitor. Hope to see more from this species Rich :)

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rich, great detail & nice 'rich' colour especially within the feathers. I am 50/50 re the 'stick' as it's natural and part of the location, but it's the white area in the BG I might like to see corrected if possible? Still a good image.

TFS
Steve

[christopher galeski]

nice one Rich,nice colors,sharp,as been said about the bright BG,but very nice image.thanks.

[Stu Bowie]

Rich, I like the overall colours, and you have captured the ruffled feather detail very well.

[Austin Thomas]

That has brought back the memories of "Ruff Bay"

Nicely done Rich and a great reminder of the hours spent behind the drum and lying in it...

Cheers

Austin

[Chris van Rooyen]

Love the way in which the colours in the background is repeated in the plumage. Lovely low angle and sharpness! I would be tempted to tone down the light spot behind the bird a tad?

[Rich Steel]

Thanks for the replies and critiques which are appreciated. I was tempted to take out the white area but left it as reminder of the 'hills' of seaweed.

Cheers

Rich

[Arthur Morris]

Killer bird. Higher with a better head angle would have made you famous :) I hope to photograph these guys on a lek before I die.