Solo Turkey Strut

Gallery: AvianPosted June 25, 201078 views3 comments

I took this picture of this turkey in the Smoky Mtn NP in Tennessee in late May. What I found very odd about the bird was that he was in full strut, but there was not another turkey anywhere around him. I kept looking all over the place for the hen to no avail. He was in a horse pasture alone.

I did not adjust the color on this. His head had that blue tint to it.

Nikon D90
70 - 300mm
f5.6
1/80
handheld

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by Ronnie Gaubert on June 25, 2010 at 10:41 AM

Hello Eric,
Wild Turkeys are a very difficult bird to get an image of. I like the placement of the turkey within the frame. I feel the bird has a bit too much blue tint to it. I know you stated you did not adjust the color but colors are affected my camera settings and most importantly by the accuracy of white balance. That is one of the major pittfalls of digital. It would have been better to have frontal lighting as you have no details on the body of the bird with blocked up blacks. You might be able to recover some detail in those blacks but unfortunately that will also introduce noise.
Thanks for posting,
Ronnie G.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 810 Posts, 3495 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on June 25, 2010 at 5:54 PM

I think you composed this well Eric, I would agree with Ronnie's critique on the color and the lighting.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Derrick Lipinski on June 26, 2010 at 1:28 AM

A proud-looking Turkey, Eric. Color can always be adjusted, but I always carry a small gray card and use it regularly prior to shooting in any lighting situation. It's very simple to set the white balance in camera, or to use the gray card image during post-processing. It is one of the simplest and most effective ways of adjusting to true color.

Registered on October 5, 2007, 58 Posts, 2039 Comments