Upland-game

Plains Sharp-tailed grouse in Eastern Montana is seen strutting and beating his feet for the attention of females. Sharptails will often beat their feet in excess of 20 times per second requiring a higher shutter speed. Purple air sacs inflate illustrating a rule of dominance, difference in color.

Like the Sharp-tailed grouse, the pheasant also displays defined colors and patterns in their feathers. In the low brush and light snow, this rooster clearly stands out with the multitude of colors and focus just right against the faded background. Although the like to stay on the ground, it would be a good idea to have your aperture and shutter speed set accordingly in case they do take flight. 

Lightroom

Since my group will be simulating a trip to South America, I decided to edit a few photos from the famous park in Chile, Torres del Paine. In order to make the features appear more dense I toned down the brightness for a more solid color. This helped in dissipating some of the haziness. Structuring the photo also helped increase the amount of detail in the bedding of the stream. 

For this photo editing remained the same with the exception of working with the clouds. Preventing the clouds from becoming overly bright I dimmed the brightness and added some contrast. The added contrast along with structure helped with the land features.

Trip Home

During a trip back home to Eastern Montana I was able to get out and do a bit of upland bird hunting as well as fishing. On a relatively sunny day on the water, a raft of Blue-winged teal were just off of my shoulder about to take flight, As the they lifted off I was barely able to capture this photo of the flock. For this photo I had a lower shutter speed as you can see with the movement of the wings.

While driving past a CRP field I was able to grab a shot of this beautiful rooster. Focused right on the head, each pattern of the ring neck are present. With aperture priority I was pleased with the blur of the grass in the foreground since it is so easy to see the focal point of the image. While not red on yellow, the red, in focus face is the dominant focus. 

Rules of Dominance

While working on rules of dominance the most difficult thing for me was finding an object with just the right amount of light that would expose a center of interest. I was able to capture several roses with the fore appearing more attractive with the added light.

Exercising another rule of dominance our attention is brought to the top of this pine tree with a blurred sky at sunset cast in the background. The tree acts as our "striking element" while obviously in view. The individual needles draw attention offering more sharpness and non conformity to the smooth, solid sky.

Depth of Field

During this photo shoot Brian and I went to Riverfront Park to work on adjusting the aperture of our shots for the first time. I used the lowest aperture setting the camera allowed at F5. This setting helped in adjusting the contrast of the green background appear more faded like the dead stick we see in focus.

Capturing this shot of the bush about three feet away along with the lake, extending to the trees in the background required a much higher aperture. I used one of the higher settings, F32 allowing a broader depth of field. You will find this setting useful when shooting landscapes, especially if shooting on the ground with some plant life in close view.