Lesser Prairie Chicken

[david cramer]

Male Lesser Prairie Chicken in breeding display. Nikon D300 with 400mm 2.8+1.4tc.
f/4 1/400 iso200
Taken at the Lesser Prairie Chicken Festival in Milnesand, New Mexico.

[Gus Cobos]

Love that chicken David,
Like the composition, colors and exposure...the eye is razor sharp...Congrats...:D Keep them coming...:)

[Geurt Bloem]

Oh a very neat specimen! Love the pose and general comp works for me. Small nit would be the small tuffs of grass in the foreground.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great pose and details, just too tight in the frame.

[Jim Poor]

Cool bird, nice colors. Maybe a less tight comp?

[Robert Amoruso]

Good getting low but I would have preferred to se you a bit higher for this image. That way you would see the feet, get the blue sky horizon off the back of the bird and improved the FG by eliminating the OOF grass sticking up.

Great sharpness on the eye. Light angle is a bit off for my taste and would have preferred to see you more left as well as the bird turning with you.

[david cramer]

Thank you all for the good feedback. Here is another that gives a different angle, with a slightly less tight crop.

[Arthur Morris]

As for the ORIG, I love the head angle and agree with the suggestions. Also problematic is the white rock... IAC, it is way better than what I have on this species: nada! Plus, I do like the image.

[Judd Patterson]

What a great (and troubled) bird species...always a real treat to hear and see these guys display! I agree with the concerns with the head angle and white rock on your first image.

How many males were displaying on this New Mexico lek?

[david cramer]

Thanks for the feedback, Art and Judd. The white rock is actually a cow patty, which dotted the lek area. Fifty five birds were counted on this lek this particular morning - very busy! About a dozen of them were female, and of course many of them were juveniles.