Cock of the Rock

Gallery: AvianPosted June 28, 2010222 views12 comments

Another photo from our recent trip to Ecuador. This bird was by far the most challenging to photograph of the trip for me. I made this photo at a lek the birds visit early in the mornings. The lek is deep in the forest and the light is almost non-existent. The birds are very active and noisey during this time, an awesome experience for sure, but photographically nerve racking. I was lucky this one lit on this branch with a slight opening in the forest for a quick glance about before leaving the lek.

Canon 40D, 300mm @f4, ISO 800, cropped to a full frame vertical from a horizontal, no noise reduction

I appreciate all your comments and suggestions.

Ken Archer

Comments

12 comments

Comment posted by Peter Conway on June 29, 2010 at 12:10 AM

That is a very different and interesting bird. Beautiful colors! I can see why it was nerve racking trying to photograph him while on a limited time schedule. Congrats on your success.

Peter

Registered on June 25, 2007, 347 Posts, 3913 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on June 29, 2010 at 12:28 AM

"Challenging" doesn't begin to describe how hard these guys are to get. Brilliantly done, Ken.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Mauro Pasquero on June 29, 2010 at 3:23 AM

Cool shot, Ken! Wonderful bird.
Mauro

Registered on January 21, 2010, 650 Posts, 2500 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on June 29, 2010 at 7:56 AM

An excellent result under hellacious conditions Ken. I like the dorsal view and the excellent head turn.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Ross on June 29, 2010 at 8:15 AM

Great looking bird and you'd have to be happy with this under the circumstances. I'd suggest a bit more noise reduction on the BG.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 403 Posts, 2729 Comments

Comment posted by Josh Anderson on June 29, 2010 at 9:08 AM

What a strange looking creature. I think you did pretty well considering.

~ja

Registered on June 2, 2005, 493 Posts, 2996 Comments

Comment posted by S Govindarajan on June 29, 2010 at 3:14 PM

Stunning bird, Ken. I have only seen sketches in books of this before. Great head turn, eye contact and perch. The details in the eye and plumage are exceptional given the conditions. The oof fg and bg give an nice idea of the habitat. I like the vertical composition, but would place the subject on the right side of the frame if that's an option (or maybe add some canvas).

A great image under difficult conditions. Thanks for sharing this image.

Registered on April 19, 2008, 115 Posts, 1921 Comments

Comment posted by Graham Brown on June 29, 2010 at 5:51 PM

A strange but beautiful looking bird. Well exposed with good detail it's nice to see these habitat shots. I think the image would be stronger if the bird was more to the right.Graham

Registered on November 20, 2007, 275 Posts, 1365 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on June 29, 2010 at 8:32 PM

Sweet to get this guy up and in the open like this Ken, I like how the vegetation frames him. What was your shutter speed on this?

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

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on June 30, 2010 at 12:14 AM

Awesome bird, Ken, and it looks like you handled it very well. I do find some of the bg noise a bit distracting in the larger image.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by David Haynes on June 30, 2010 at 2:44 PM

Dang Ken. Nice story to go along with a great capture. I'm glad you got the shot. How does this bird eat? I don't see a beak. Must be under that pillow of feathers around the head. What a cool looking bird. You must have been over the moon to get this Ken. I like the limited post processing on this. Your exposure was very good as this could have turned out a mess if not. Really looking forward to more images from the trip Ken. Keep them coming, particularly if they are anything like this. Congrats Ken.

Registered on February 20, 2010, 110 Posts, 1511 Comments

Comment posted by Howard Cheek on June 30, 2010 at 10:10 PM

This view of the backside with the head turn works very well Ken.
Great results, especially when one considers what your were up against

Registered on July 24, 2008, 1201 Posts, 10758 Comments