Peek a Boo Ptarmigan.

Pic. taken recently on the Cairngorms. canon D40 400mm lens with a Bushhawk 1/500 sec F8 +1 stop Iso 200. All comments welcomed.

Superb shot, to be picky I would have liked a tad more space on the left, but no big deal.

David

Love it 'as shot' great pose from the male

I agree with Brett about som more space on the left, but otherwise a lovely shot.

Interesting that my post seems to have disappeared..? Anyway, it went something along the lines of a well executed image but only nit would be a little more space on the LHS.. For w a while I couldn't get back into UKNP forums so I think there must have been an error along the lines somewhere..?

Brett

Like this. The left bird blends in and you see the peekaboo one and then realize there's two of them. Great stuff, a second later and its gone.

Isn't it amazing what difference a splash of red makes? That little detail makes the shot. Brilliant!

Terry

Have to agree with Terry here, that splash of red lifts the image nicely.

Fran

Looks almost surreal, to me. Two giant ptarmigan near a mountain with forest at its base. I like it a lot.

Hi John,

Lovely shot but it looks quite tilted. Of course I know it's a mountain environment and I'm sure you got your camera horizontal but it doesn't look quite right to me.

But it's a great shot anyway. I just bend my head 45 degrees to the right

Ed

Great stuff!
Paul.

great shot love the splash of red

Excellent shot John. The male peering over the rock sets it up nicely especially with the red splash as has been mentioned. if this is a crop, I would try levelling it up to see how it looks. It may be how it was, but rightly or wrongly, it does look little unhappy at that angle. I think it is the heather apparently growing at 45 degrees that does it.

eric

Not in any way a critique or helpful comment, but well done! I'm a big fan of black and white with a splash of red - rare to see it in NH photography.

Hi John great shot.

You get my admiration for being there , up a hill in the cold !. Nice shot, did you crop it at an angle for effect ?.

Bob.

Very interesting shot John, I've been looking at it for a while and the crop also seems not quite right to me either. I think that my eye is drawn to the way the ice melt on the rock is not vertical and so appears to suggest an unlevel viewpoint (or deliberate crop). However, as I look at the background, that looks to be a typical oof valley so I just cannot make up my mind. Level / not level .. whatever.... the subject is great.

I really like this shot a lot. I don't think there is anything wrong with the angle at all. I am used to being in a mountain environment and see nothing out of the ordinary with this. I love the colours and the position of the birds. This sort of shot makes me want to get back in to the mountains. Great stuff.

I can imagine the excitement having been confronted by these two.
You have done a great job considering the conditions and the picture tels the story.

Major.

Splendid shot John. As said the splash of red really makes it.

Would have loved to have seen these John, a well executed image.

Andy...

A cracker John

Hi Folks, thanks for your comments. I cropped off a little at the bottom and also from the RHS. I was a bit tight on the LHS. The picture is level but I can understand people's views on this one. To me the male bird being perpendicular helps. This was taken on the side of a mountain approx 3000ft high and the Backdrop is a valley then the side of another hill.

I don't think it would work so well if levelled, but a bit more space as mentioned would help if available. Great stuff

This has comical value...really nice to see....all in an instance too.

Ian

A very nice scene John and I like the way the birds are sheltering by that attractive, lichen covered rock.