Lesser Prairie Chicken on Lek

[Craig Roberts]

This was a challenge. Drove into heavy fog on way to the lek two mornings in a row last week. Foggy on the lek and the birds arrived late and left early. Assume the foggy conditions caused the change in behavior. Will try one more time next week before heading back to Montana.

canon 5D Mark ll
500mm f4l + 1.4 TC
f5.6
1/1600
ISO 800
Spot metering
AV mode

Cloned out a few sprigs of grass on the grouse. Cropped about 50%. C & C welcomed.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Criag,

Very different species I always like that about this site and looks like he might be in breeding colors - not that I am that familiar just guessing. The IQ could use improvement the combination of a large crop (50%) and ground fog affects the image. I use to think fog would enhance pictures, maybe giving a surreal or dreamy look. In my case, it never helped me or my pictures. The mid tones need a bump too, might try curves and levels or even selective color to add some punch here. Are you shooting AWB the image looks a bit warm but that could be your intention. Finally, I might talk a small layer of the bottom, the OOF part does nothing to help your subject. On balance, you did well here - this is an interesting subject but the IQ suffers IMO.

You are new to this site and on the right track. You show a good eye and that fact that you seek out unique and different subjects indicates you will do well here. Keep posting, this is an education site and check out the Education and Tutorial Forum. Some real gems there, including one by Artie named "why Don't My Pictures Look Like That".

[Craig Roberts]

Jeff
Thank you for the feed back. My image processing skills have a long ways to go, but will keep reading and practicing. The fog was challenging for me. I did shoot AWB. As shot was 4600 and I increased it to 6300. Probably way too much. I agree with the OOF part at the bottom of the image. Will play with it some more.
Lesser Prairie Chickens are a species of grouse. The males congragate on leks where they display in preparation for breeding in April. They fly to the leks about a half hour prior to sunrise and generally display until an hour after sunrise. Right now, only males are coming into the leks. They leave as suddenly as they arrive. Last week the males tended to arrive on the leks late and depart early. The males strut about, inflating their neck sacks (red) and making lots of noise. They do tend to occupy the same territory when they arrive. I will try again later this week when the forecast calls for clear skies. If all goes well, I should be able to get some decent images as the sun rises above the eastern horizon. They put on a great show for all too brief a time.
When I get back to Montana, I plan to spend time photographing sharp-tailed grouse on leks. We had very good numbers of this species of grouse going into winter. The winter was unusually mild, so the leks should have plenty of displaying males. I will also check out sage grouse leks in mid-April.
Craig

[John Chardine]

Hi Craig- I love the moody, muted feel to the image and the warm tones. Fog scatters light and reduces contrast. Personally I like the effect but a Levels adjustment can normally get rid of the it if that's what you want. I also like the placement of the bird in relation to the vegetation. An angle more towards you would have added interest to the image.

One day I would love to photograph these amazing birds.

[Arthur Morris]

Two biggest problems: bird and head angled away from you. Huge yellow cast. Ran average blur color balance, increased contrast, Tonal Contrast in NIK Color Efex Pro. Selective sharpening of the face. Sharpened the whole thing after cropping. All but the NIK stuff is described in detail in Digital Basics. Nice bird!

[John Chardine]

Can't see the repost Artie. Is there one?

The light colour is totally compatible with the time of day reported. Yes there is a warm cast but I assume that was the colour of the light when the image was made. Even if the cast is exaggerated, it's in the expected direction so I have no problem with it. I see no point is colour correcting morning and evening light towards noon-day light.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks John. That a big DUH--forgot to attach :). Here it is.

[Arthur Morris]

ps: Check out this blog post: I Haven't the Foggiest.