Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Fight Club

It all began as I drove along and spotted a pheasant. I stopped, noticed 2 of them and started shooting. They did some ritual greeting, throwing their fully fanned tails in the air, bowed their heads to each other like some Asian respect greeting, flew into the air, chestbumped, rumbled a bit, and started all over. It was awesome to see!

The only negative, was that the birds were between me and the sun, so alot of the frames are quite harsh. Another problem was I was quite close and the 300mm missed the jumps into the air, cutting off a few heads and feathers. But who complains that they are too close? And another note, luck was on my side for sure, as even seeing this pulled alot luck out of my luck bank, but getting pretty clean shots in the tall grasses was quite tricky and lucky!

Click on any photo for larger view!



This one is out of sequence but I liked it the best...

It all started here:



The bow...











Then it started up again...




Then they flew away...
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10 comments:

  1. WillardMay 6, 2010 at 10:12 AM

    An amazing series. These moments are what the wildlife photography addict lives for.

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  2. AnonymousMay 6, 2010 at 11:38 AM

    That must have been truly something to watch, awesome pictures.

    Whitetail Woods

    CVA Wolf Black Powder Rifle Give-Away!

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  3. ShelleyMay 6, 2010 at 1:32 PM

    Such a great bird moment you captured! And wonderful that it was those beautiful pheasants! (Their "fight" moves remind me of the moves in the movie The Matrix! Ha!)

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  4. Ruth's Photo BlogMay 6, 2010 at 2:39 PM

    Excellent series.I love this kind of action shots.
    Blessings,Ruth

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  5. RichardMay 6, 2010 at 3:53 PM

    Great series Hanna. I never, ever complain about being to close...lol.

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  6. WolfyMay 6, 2010 at 4:02 PM

    Just found your blog thru Rick's Whitetail Woods. I LOVE it - beautiful photography! And - you're sort of local!!(I'm in Oswego) I've been following Stacey Hustons blog for a while and will do the same with yours - I thinkI'm goig to add a "Photography" section to the current bloglist. I love to take photos but have only a compact digital. Still, I try! Stop over to "Flowing Waters" sometime - www.wolfwaters.blogspot.com

    Wolfy

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  7. abbMay 6, 2010 at 10:31 PM

    You capture the best nature shots!

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  8. MontanagirlMay 6, 2010 at 11:08 PM

    Wow! I've always wanted to catch such Pheasant action, but have never witnessed it yet. Fantastic series of shots.

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  9. Brad MyersMay 7, 2010 at 6:08 AM

    WOW! what an awesome set of photographs. In our area seeing Pheasants is very rare, so to see two and have them fighting is just never going to happen. When I was young (I won't say how many years ago) they were plentiful, but not now.

    Great job, it is hard to keep them sharp and in focus with with all the grass blades to mess up the auto focus. I am guessing you switched to manual focus for these.

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  10. Coy HillMay 9, 2010 at 4:34 PM

    Great series Hannibal! Wildlife interaction shots are the best and here you captured a unique moment in nature.

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