Greater Sage-Grouse Hen

Gallery: AvianPosted March 30, 2016111 views4 comments

Canon 1D-X, 500mm x 1.4 TC, handheld from truck
f4, 1/400, ISO5000

I made a second trip to the leks located earlier this month. The show was still performing. This was taken pre-sunrise; the hen was massively disinterested in the males parading around her, so I thought I'd try to compose in a way to capture that. I also wanted to capture some of the sagebrush habitat in the area of the lek.

85% of full frame. Very slight brightening of hen; selective sharpening of the hen.

C & C, please. Thanks for looking.

Comments

4 comments

Comment posted by Jim Zablotny on March 31, 2016 at 8:08 AM

Hi Jim,

Your edits look good--hen pops and the lighting looks pretty good. The OOF male shows the lekking behavior and the sage sets the scene. A good natural history shot for sure devil

.............................Jim

Registered on January 17, 2004, 705 Posts, 3594 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on March 31, 2016 at 2:47 PM

Looks like you got what you wanted, Jim. The hen definitely looks bored, the sagebrush shows well, and the cock displaying sets the context. Looks frosty, also.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on March 31, 2016 at 7:50 PM

Great shot showing the two birds I just wish the picture was a bit more balanced as the left hand side has a lot of empty space

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on April 2, 2016 at 2:32 PM

They do seem amazingly disinterested given all the effort the males go to, Jim. I like the way you composed this. Nice job.

devil

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