Ruffed Grouse

[wildlightphoto]

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This weekend I made a quick trip (for family) to Brookings Oregon, on the Pacific coast just north of the California/Oregon border. While there I found a female Ruffed Grouse who was far more tolerant of a camo-clad photographer than I expected:

 

 

The background was a bit difficult to work with because of the clutter of the leaf litter on the forest floor; also the grouse' preferred habitat is the dense understory of the Pacific Northwest's temperate rain forest, so getting a clear view of the bird meant getting really really close with a shorter-than-usual lens (100mm APO in this case). Now, about the background... I wanted a darker background behind the bird's head, which in this particular case was more distant. The best way to get the dark background was a very low camera angle, which meant on my belly in the rain forest with huge banana slugs nearby.

 

technical stuff: R8/DMR, 100mm APO, slight crop, shoulder stock, heavy fog/light drizzle lighting. All comments welcome.

[darkness30]

Awesome picture as usual Doug.

 

Thanks,

Mehmet

[stuny]

Doug -

 

I'm glad you risked terminal banana slug sliming -- Fabulous shot.

[albert]

Doug,

 

Excellent, as usual.

The few times my wife and I camped in The Boundary Waters Canoe Area during ice-out.......i.e. very early Spring, the grouse would walk through our campsite drumming away........ male-behavior.