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.