Photographing the Male Ring Necked Pheasant

Male Ring Necked Pheasants are ground dwelling game birds – one of the most adorned and colorful birds around. Imported to America from China in the mid 1800s, they have survived and thrived in Michigan year round.

The male Ring Neck Pheasants’ plumage, with its red face wattles, green head and shiny copper breast, is spectacular. The males are so conspicuous in the spring that it is relatively easy to find and photograph them foraging for plant materials in agricultural fields, pastures and woodlands.

Know How Your Camera Locks Down Focus

The male pheasant I encountered was quite close to my car when he finally noticed me. He quickly started his evasive maneuvers, weaving in and out of the tall grasses, moving fast and erratically away from me. My camera was set to focus on one single, center point. As I tracked his erratic movements through the grasses, the lens kept losing its focus lock. I quickly expanded the auto focus area mode so the lens would track 8 focus points clustered around the central point as well as the center point. This way, if the central focus point lost track of focus, the secondary surrounding focus points would quickly pick it up.

Canon DSLR Focus Points

Sophisticated DSLR auto focus technology is designed to keep up with the action. There are 61 focus points on my Canon 5D Mark III DSLR camera. Each one can operate individually or in conjunction with secondary expanded auto focus points to quickly track and lock focus. The secondary focus points are programmed to be on “stand by”.  If focus can not be locked with the primary focus point (because the foreground or background lacks detail, texture, or contrast) the secondary focus points are automatically activated to get a lock on focus.

Let the Camera Do the Focusing

An advanced auto focusing system offers significant advantages for bird photographers. I can set my camera to focus with one or more focus points anywhere within a range of available focus points or let the camera use all 61 focus points to determine the best focus. Out in the field, when the action is fast and furious, autofocus is the fastest and most reliable way to get a clear shot.

See this post about my experience photographing two immature Ring Necked Pheasants last Autumn.

For more information about automatic focus on DSLR cameras, see this post.

To read about the frustrations of manual focus on DSLR cameras, visit this post.

Photographing Wild Turkeys – Watch The Ground Lines

Wild Turkeys are one of the easiest of the large birds to photograph. They are the biggest game birds (by weight) in Michigan. I see them often strutting around our yard and peering through our basement windows. (Looking to see if we have heat? hot water? cable?).

These wild, jumbo birds are also unafraid to fly up and plop themselves atop the platform bird feeders, spewing bird seed everywhere when they land and take off. I have to admit that seeing the large body of a wild turkey precariously balanced on a small feeder space intended for chickadees and titmice is an unexpected sight….ridiculous looking and out of place. “Like a Flamingo in the Cage of a Canary”.  Probably make a good picture.

Be Aware of Ground Lines When Composing a Photograph

I was in my car when these wild turkeys came into view. I had to react quickly to get the shots, and discovered afterwards that I was not holding the camera as straight as I could have.

A very simple but often overlooked image composition problem is crooked ground lines. Straight natural lines like ground lines help organize an image for the viewer and thus add to its appeal.

Whether you are hand holding your camera or using a tripod, it’s an easy task to find the ground lines through your viewfinder and let them be your guide to positioning your camera.

Ways to Keep the Camera Level

There are a few things you can do to help keep the camera level.

• Take notice and straighten the ground lines by lining them up to the sides of the viewfinder.
• Use the composition grid display – horizontal and vertical etched lines (and sometimes diagonal lines) that can be set on most DSLR cameras.
• If you are using a tripod, level the camera by checking the bubble level. This is especially important if your tripod is not on level ground or all the legs are not extended equally.
• If the ground lines are not straight after you take the photo, make adjustments in post processing by lining them up with a ruler tool.

Post Processing Fixes of Horizontal Lines

In each of the two photos below, there were two ground lines. I had to adjust one or the other in post processing. In the first shot, I leveled out the ground line in the background. This caused the foreground to tilt down, making it look like the turkey was heading downhill and creating the illusion of movement in the scene.

In the second shot, I leveled the grass ground line in the foreground and left the lines in the background to slope downward. This adjustment helped viewers to focused on the turkey’s head and neck.

In the photo above, I used the branch as my guide to straighten the camera before I photographed the scene.

Image Composition is a Visual Language

I don’t consider myself knowledgable about art and design. It’s a visual language and I am definitely not proficient. I recently purchased an ebook that helps me better understand design principles, especially when it comes to nature photography. This guide helps me understand why I like what I like and how to better frame my photographs so they have more visual appeal. I highly recommend this ebook: Natural Design: Image Design for Nature Photographers, by Gloria Hopkins.

Waiting Until Spring

As with most birds, Spring is a fun time to photograph wild turkeys because the males are all puffed up and strutting around, doing their little turkey trot to attract the females. This coming Spring, I hope to photograph their mating behavior and elaborate plumage.

Until then, I wish you a very Happy Turkey Day.

Photography Opportunities on the Back Roads

Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time in my car, traveling down the back roads in the Allegan Forest & Allegan State Game Area, near “Todd Farm”, the Fennville Farm Unit. Todd Farm is a wildlife refuge, located at the west end of the forest. It is full of corn and soybean fields planted specifically for migrating and gaming birds. The DNR officers who work there are friendly and helpful to bird lovers.

The Leaves, They Are A Changin’

Michigan is a great place to be in Autumn. The weather has been sunny and cool. Todd Farm will be open for hunting (in designated areas at designated times), so it won’t be long before the hunters dominate the fields and the birds (and this photographer) will not be out and about.

Photographing Male Ring-Neck Pheasants

Recently I came across 3 immature male ring-neck pheasants on the side of the road near a large, waterlogged ditch. They tolerated my car’s approach, but stayed close to the tall corn stalks and brush in case it was necessary for them to make a quick get away.

What a study in fall colors!  The feathers on these birds are bright, varied, spectacular and yet blend with the early autumn landscape. The mature males have elaborate green head feathers and a white ring around their necks. The hens’ feathers are a soft brown, quite plain in comparison to the males.

I have seen groups of these birds running off  in the distant fields, but have yet to digitally capture a mature ring-neck pheasant – male or female. The DNR officers said that they see pheasants drying themselves on the road after a rain. I’m hoping to be lucky enough to spot them before hunting season starts in October. I will add those photos to the end of this post if/when I do.

Stabilizer Tools for Photographers

Since the birds were not in a hurry to leave, I had time to try out my new stabilizer tool, a bean bag specifically designed for photographers to use in the field. I needed something to help stabilize the camera and heavy lens on the window ledge when I am in the car and out on the backroads. A quick response to photographing birds demands that the camera is in place and ready to shoot. A bean bag helps to provide quick and easy support on the window ledge. It would also work on a tree stump or post if I wanted to use a remote shutter release out in the field.

The bean bag offers some tension relief for my neck and back. It also allows me to quietly swivel the camera as needed to follow the action without scratching the window ledge or the camera lens. NOTE:  I usually have the camera strap around my neck just in case of a spill.

Unfortunately, the bean bag supports the camera right on the window ledge and consequently, does not always give me the height I need for some shots. For eye level support, I rest my camera on a contoured, high density foam neck pillow.

One More Support Tool for Photographers

Often times when I’m driving, I see the bird I want to photograph through the passenger side window.  This requires that I quickly move the camera from my window and point and shoot out the passenger window. Since I can’t reach the passenger window from the driver’s side, I can’t rest the lens on it, so I am hand holding that heavy camera/lens – trying to compensate for the inevitable shake with a high shutter speed. (The image stabilizer helps with the shake too.)

I bought a rather large storage bin that rests on the passenger seat; upon which I can stabilize the camera before I aim and shoot through the passenger’s window. This bin also provides enough space inside to store the camera when needed.

Upland Game Birds

My husband said that ring neck pheasants are upland game birds, along with grouse, prairie chickens, partridges, quails, and wild turkeys. They are not native to Michigan, but brought over from China in the mid 1800’s as game birds. They do fly, but their get-aways are more successful if they duck and run. (Survival of the fittest, the flyers were more likely to be shot by hunters.)  These young males have probably not yet experienced a Michigan hunting season.

And finally, just in case you need a refresher of the Autumn colors to come, here’s a close-up photo showing the variety of Autumn colors and intricate designs sported by the immature, male ring-necked pheasant.