Morning Strut

Actually, . . I should have captioned it as "Valentines Day Strut!"

because actually thats when it was that I caught these Eastern Turkeys

doing so.

They have quickly become used to my hide and seem to not pay much

attention to me as long as I limit my movement. On the morning of the

14th it was like a "vision come true" as I had imagined a photograph of

them strutting but previous to this had only observed them in the

afternoon.

They were very enjoyable to watch, and the reactions of the Hens,

Well . . .not much!

Thanks for taking the time to view/comment, rate and, allowing me the

opportunity to share.

Jim j.

Jim,

this is well composed and your had good lighting.  I like it.

Boy, is this guy proud of himself or what!  Excellent shot that you can be proud of... Mike

This is a nice shot of a gobbler Jim. You definitely got close enough for "shotgun range" to this unique bird. If I might make a few suggestions. The background is rather busy and a little too sharp, it is distracting. A wider aperture would have been better to separate the turkey from its background. I blurred and darkened it in PS and cropped out some of the background. The bird is now more distinct from the background. What do you think?

Thanks for your visits!

Bill,     Yes, the lighting, . . . that has been my challenge with photographing and observing these Turkey. And, as you can tell from some of the other photo's, they are normally quite dull looking, but when the lighting is just right they're really spectactular in color!

Mike,    He (They) indeed were putting on quite the show! And I was very facinated at just "how little attention" was drawn from the females. Go figure!

Scott,   I really like what you've done with this shot! And, I am certain that if I had better post processing skills, I could attain some higher ratings but, unfortunately I pretty much have to stick with what "comes out of the camera" for most of my shots untill I can learn much more!

I would have liked to separate the background more but this was shot at 200mm with the EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 and the f/5 was the largest aperture I can obtain at that focal length.

I did use my EF 100mm f/2.8 one evening with some better results on the background but on this morning outing had the 100-400 mounted, not knowing if they would even get within range of my lens capabilities.

How did you blur the background? I can see where I might be able to use the "smudge" tool to help. And, I do like your crop. I had chosen not to crop that close thinking leaving more of the natural background would be beneficial to the overall composition.

I did have to clone out some foreground Fescue stems, added very little saturation and sharpening along with a bit of contrast.

I'm always open to any help and, "all ears!"

Thanks again to you all,

Jim j.

I used the lasso tool to select the background area. Depending on the size of the image, you need to "stand off" from the actual outline a little bit or when you blur it, the outline will get blurred too. You just have to do it enough times to get a feel for how much you need to use. Also, select several pixels worth of "feather" so you do not have a hard line. I like to use the blur tool and then choose "box blur". Make sure that preview is checked so you can see the effects. Now if there is a lot of background, you can better simulate depth of field by breaking the background into sections and apply the box blur tool. On each successive section, closer to the subject, go to edit and fade the strength of the blur.

Hi Jim,

  Wonderful capture with beautiful colors, details & background.  Take care, Patsy