{"id":130121,"date":"2023-02-15T06:00:26","date_gmt":"2023-02-15T13:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=130121"},"modified":"2023-02-15T07:48:48","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T14:48:48","slug":"wild-turkey-a-running-takeoff-then-flight-and-landing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2023\/02\/15\/wild-turkey-a-running-takeoff-then-flight-and-landing\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Turkey – A Running Takeoff, Then Flight And Landing"},"content":{"rendered":"

First time I’ve photographed the entire process from takeoff to landing with a Wild Turkey. I just wish I’d been able to do a better job of it.<\/p>\n

Two mornings ago I was determined to get flight shots of a Wild Turkey so I formed a shooting strategy as I approached an area where I knew there was a large flock of turkeys near the road. From past experience I knew that if there were a few turkeys on the east side of the road, with most of them being on the west side, those on the east side were likely to cross the road on foot, or fly over it, in order to join the rest of the flock. Having my pickup around makes them wary and nervous so they prefer to be on the west side with their buddies where there’s more cover and room to escape if they need to.<\/p>\n

In order to photograph a turkey in flight I’d have to turn my pickup partially crossways on the road, at just the right time, so I could shoot out my window. At that very early time of morning, on such a remote road, I knew I could do it safely so that’s what I did. And it worked.<\/p>\n

Caveat: I’m not proud of these photos technically. I had to process them quickly and it shows. The turkey is also sidelit so there are deep shadows with no detail in her darks. But worst of all, I was once again having problems with sharpness because of my relatively warm lens interacting with the cold (18 \u00b0F.<\/em>) air, so these photos aren’t very sharp. But they’re sharp enough for documentation purposes and I think it’s an interesting series, despite its obvious flaws.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

The first turkey ran across the entire road and ducked under the fence on the other side. But this one, a hen I believe, decided to take the aerial route over part of the road and the fence. Here she’s gaining speed for takeoff from the middle of the road. When you weigh anywhere from 9 – 16 lbs. and you’re trying to take off from the ground, speed helps. So she really turned on the afterburners.<\/p>\n

The photos in the rest of the series are in order but for a variety of reasons I’ve left out quite a few.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

A tippy-toe liftoff.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaining elevation, but not much – just barely enough to clear the fence.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Approaching the fence. No, I don’t know what that annoying orange blob is on the left side of the frame. This is ranch country so it could be just about anything.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Clearing the fence and getting the attention of at least two cows. The third cow is blas\u00e9 about it all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Looking for a landing spot after clearing the fence.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Sticking the landing. She did a better job of landing than I did of keeping her in frame. I cut off her left foot.<\/p>\n

So, I finally documented an entire flight of a Wild Turkey from takeoff to landing. Next time I hope to do a better job of it but it’s a start.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First time I’ve photographed the entire process from takeoff to landing with a Wild Turkey. (7 photos)<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,334,3664],"tags":[146,6733,579,2744,509,2738,311,2743],"class_list":["post-130121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-photography-methods","category-birds","category-wild-turkeys","tag-flight","tag-how-much-do-wild-turkeys-weigh","tag-landing","tag-meleagris-gallopavo","tag-running","tag-takeoff","tag-utah-2","tag-wild-turkey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/wild-turkey-0983-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-xQJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130121"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130179,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130121\/revisions\/130179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}