The Gleaner

These fellows do a lot for a bleak winter field, don't they? Sure reminds me of southern Idaho where I was able to hunt pheasant and huns behind our old farm house with a German Shorthair and a goshawk. I went back there a few years ago. The house and the trees were gone. The ditches were filled in to make a clear path for the giant wheeled irrigation lines. Of course, there were no pheasants to brighten the morning, either.

You hunted pheasant with a Hawk? That's pretty incredible.

I think this would have worked better if it was just the empty field and the bird! It is a very good catch though.

Yeah, I know what you mean David, I have the othe version also, without the farm. Couldn't decide which was better. Thanks very much for your opinion.

Kinda small pheasants u have in US.. maybe a 180mm up to a 500mm would have fattened it up more for our dinner tonight..I also dont see its shadow. If the sun were to come at a low angle, his colors would light up, and with a strong, long shadow it would be more interesting..Otherwise it is only a record of a pheasant, in a field, in ....

Mike, u said u hunted pheasants and huns (sic) in Idaho. Them huns is Germans, I didnt know they made it beyond Penn...I think you meant hens??

Mike, Surprised you got so close. At that range you could probably hunt them with a broom. Following up on David's suggestion, I leveled, cropped, adjusted colour balance, & this is the result. Up to you to decide if it's now stronger or weaker. Best, LM.

Thanks Len. I fooled around with it that way too[without the cool frame], & still I'm not quite sure. I'm leaning toward your version. Thanks much for the suggestion.

There are two things that I like to do as much as take photographs, hunt wild pheasants in southern Iowa and ruffed neck grouse in northern Wisconsin.

Living in a big city, I have missed seeing pheasants, although there is a pheasant in the freezer at the moment but it was a bought farm pheasant I never saw it alive. Anyway I really enjoyed discovering this photograph while I was examining your portfolio. Now I am really missing hearing pheasants. Years ago I horrified my siblings by announcing that, despite my not having any of the requisite skills whatsoever, I thought it might be quite rewarding to hunt pheasants if doing so meant you got to eat pheasant as a result. They don't feel the same way about fly-fishing as about hunting, so what's the big deal? But I sure never imagined the idea of hunting pheasants with a hawk. Gee, I guess that in some ways that might just be the equivalent to "fly-fishing" in the realm of gamebird hunting.

I understand it has been a while since this was posted but wanted to add another perspective.

 

I agree with the cropping idea but the suggested crop contains the strong line formed by what appears to be an undulation in the field. This is definitely a distraction from the 'bird against the mottled background of the snow-veiled field.'

 

If you crop below that line, just where the perspective begins to compress a lot, you get a nice gradation from top to bottom. With the horizontal line included, the motion stops right there at the line, with it cropped away, the movement flows.

 

The relative sizes of bird and background seems just right (w/crop). I enjoy the rich colors of the bird against the broken grid of the plant rows. The snow reflects a lot of fill light onto the bird, I like this effect on the bird's color as it seems to diminish some of the contrast between it and the background.

 

It looks like maybe the bird's shadow is being cast into a depression on the field, or onto a foreshortened slope -- that's kind of cool that it appears not to have a shadow.

I think you & the rest must be right. I thought it was a good idea to include the farm in the distance to give this a sense of place, but after reading the comments, I'll have to agree. After all, a pheasant in corn stubble. Where else could it be but the Midwest. Thanks again.