The Fight

This battle lasted most of the morning with intermittent breaks for rest and recovery. Only when the hen from the previous post arrived did the attention of these males turn away from fighting. I would have loved to captured this in slow motion but was afraid to switch cameras and miss the action. The light was also a little low for the higher shutter speed needed to record slow motion ( 1/250 vs 1/60).

Courting the Lady

This frenzy of activity took place on the lek last weekend. The first two hours were spent keeping warm, watching males dance, and then stare at each other. The next hour flew by with this nonstop activity.  I hope this will entice you to visit the blind in the future.

Technical: Recorded one morning using a Canon C100 and Sony a7r2 with a 100-400 lens and Rode Videomic.

Diary of an Image

This image has an interesting history.
2002 - first year of sitting in a blind to get sharp-tails on the lek, no usable images
2003-2005 - at least two days per year, 3 hours per day. no usable images.
2006 - best year for activity on lek. this image along with several fight shots recorded
2006 - image scanned and donated for use in wildlife education
2012 - request for use, fee negotiated
2013 - publication

Several lessons were learned from this image.

• I'm glad I kept my day job, the use fee will buy a tank of gas and lunch at McDonald's
• Donation made it possible for a PR agency to view the image
• A simple image may not be simple to obtain
• To clone the blade of grass or not: I left the grass as is opting for a photojournalist approach.
• The best part of this image is the memory of the morning it was taken.

The Second Shot

The first decision is choosing the subject.  This is the most important decision in photography, a carefully considered decision can immensely improve the quality of your work. The second decision is easy.  Do you shoot a vertical or horizontal frame?  Shoot both and decide later which one works best.  When shooting wildlife there is an indeterminate length of time with the subject.  Shoot, shoot, shoot, and review later.

Breaking Rules

In preparation for March classes I'm reviewing the rules of photography.  Frequently rules are called guidelines, occasionally they are called unimportant.  We all know of exceptional images that break the "rules".  Those images are like the news we watch on TV each day, the vast majority of good stories do not make the news.  Take images that follow the longstanding rules, then take the other images.  Shoot, shoot, shoot, and review your shots at your leisure to see which composition best communicates your story.  Technical: Rule of thirds followed.  Image shot at noon, rule against shooting at midday broken.