Ruffled feathers

[Steve Kaluski]

OK, this breaks all the rules I guess, HA, body going away, no real behavior, but I kind of like it. For me it illustrates the well camouflaged plumage and how well it blends into he environment and the lovely ruffled, layered feathers having had a good old shake down.

Steve
Subject: Red Grouse in heather, ruffled plumage, early morning (Lagopus lagopus)
Location: UK
Camera: Canon MKIV
Lens: 500f/4 plus 2x TC - resting on bean bag
Exposure: 1/400s at f/8 ISO200 0 stop compensation
Crop: Slight crop for presentation (original capture horizontal)

[Steve Canuel]

Beautiful rich colors on this one Steve and I like the look of the stacked, fluffed up feathers. Seems to be a bit of a lightening halo on the backside of the neck but it could also just be the BG. Given that there may still be hunters out to get him, a head angle looking out into the surroundings works for me .

[Steve Kaluski]

Steve, you are right, cannot see it on the Hi res version and just thought it was me and visual effects, as any mask work is right on and the was not work done on the BKG.

Will take another look later.

cheers
Steve

[Joe Senzatimore]

Works for me. The colors are stunning.

[Karl Egressy]

I like the ruffled feathers and the rich colours. HA doesn't bother me.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Steve, I like this one. light on the face is very nice here.

[Grace Scalzo]

Perfect rule breaking. LOVE!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Excellent colours and details. I'm OK with the body angling away, but had the head been angled parallel to us that would have been super!! I'd crop a bit tighter at left to get more of a "cut" rather than "clipped" tail and also like a tad more room at right and above - that amazing BG would be even more evident. I absolutely love those ruffled neck feathers!!

[Mital Patel]

this is really huge In. and i loved it as is ..

the perspective here makes this for me.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

The perspective and the light along with the lovely colours make this image ,....for me !

[christopher galeski]

very nice Steve,better HA would have made this magic,but still like this as is,bye the way ,when did you take this,the last 4days here in the east lancs,as been,to put it mildly,crap,anyway,well done and thanks.

[Steve Kaluski]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to look and pass comments, good or bad, but much appreciated.

Hi Daniel more room to the RHS no problem, likewise a good suggestion on the crop to the LHS. I wanted to test the kit as I got Canon to do some tweaks recently which I can not do and have been very impressed all round.

Hi Christopher, about five days ago, Thursday I think, avoiding Saturdays for obvious reasons, but these guys are show well it seems and the early light works well as the location allows for shooting (photo) both AM & PM. This location sometimes has it's own micro climate and can avoid some of the nasty weather, but prone to snow & deep!!!

You should check out Phil Tomkinson, he's on your patch.

Not the normal location everyone uses.

Cheers
Steve

[Chris Kotze]

Excellent angle and super feather detail, well captured and exposed.

[Ishmeet Sahni]

Even going against all the rules, it forces you to look ( really look ) at the image.......I really like it.