Canon 5D Mark2, 70-200 mm f/4 @ 154 mm, ISO 400, f/11, 1/1000 s. 

I love making animal portraits. I decided to make a shot of an unusual  bird. At first I wanted to go with my friends to photo some rare species of chickens (on a far away farm near Kaluga) but then we decided to find something more interesting. I had to wait till the middle of May to make this shot, because in may these birds have a mating season and during this time it is possible to see how the male bird spreads its tail.  

THE PICTURE:

Is this one shot made in RAW. I had to make many shots that day (more than 150) to catch the moment and to get a good light on the birds tail. The light is natural  here, I used no flashes etc., but my husband helped me, holding a big sheet of white paper as a reflector. The bird was charmed by the female peacock and didn't notice neither me nor my husband.   

This photo is a crop, but I had to cut not more than 5% of it.    

The photo was made in RAW. In Digital Photo Professional (DPP) I added some contrast. After that I converted the photo from RAW into Tiff. The tiff file was opened in Photoshop CS3. I made the right bottom corner a little bit darker with the "burn" tool. 

That is all. I resized the photo for web and saved it.   

 

This photo very often make people say: "Oh, what a beautiful bride in white!?" But... this model is not a bride, this is a MALE bird. The female is not so big and beautiful. And this bird is not an albino (you can see it by his dark (not red) eyes). 

This photo was published in Digital Photo magazine.   

  

1.  Try not to scare the bird. And by no means hurt your model. The safety of an animal is much more important than any pictures. 

2. Try to be patient. Sometimes you have to wait for hours to get a good moment.

3. Try to photo birds in their mating season. It will give you a chance to see some rare moments. 

4. Learn more about the bird you are going to photo. It is important to know. At what time of the day the bird is more active, where it is more possible to find the nest etc.     

You can see some more shots of this bird below. I always make many photos of one animal and then choose 2 or 3 which are better than the others.  

Photo is the best way to let your friends look at this world with your eyes. I am a senior lecturer in university (Candidate of Economics) and a PR manager, but photography is the best part of my life. I?m sorry again for some mistakes in the translation.

I'm astonished, I thought  this photo was far more processed, congratulations, everything was already done when you shot !

Very interesting hints and I thoroughly agree when you write "Try not to scare the bird. And by no means hurt your model. The safety of an animal is much more important than any pictures. "

Best regards,

Marie-Claude