![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/sage-grouse-3109b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"sage-grouse-3109b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nIt’s that time of year folks, Sage Grouse are displaying on the lek. But photographers had best be prepared for extreme changes in lighting conditions and action from the displaying and fighting males.<\/p>\n
Typically you’ll arrive at the lek in the very early morning before the grouse show up so your arrival doesn’t disturb them and make them fly off. That means being there long before dawn and suffering in the cold. The males often begin performing when it’s still dark so the photographer has some difficult choices to make regarding extremely challenging shooting conditions.<\/p>\n
The following photos were taken on a lek on March 29, several years ago.<\/p>\n
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1\/500, f\/6.3, ISO 8000, Canon 7D Mark II,\u00a0Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n 7:13 AM: On this morning it was still nearly pitch black when the grouse started arriving. I could barely see them so trying to photograph them in those conditions would have been fruitless so I just waited in the cold and froze my butt off (engine off of course so no heat). It goes against the grain of the bird photographer to be in the presence of such spectacular birds performing fascinating behaviors and not photographing them but that’s mostly what I did. My shutter finger was twitching so it wasn’t easy.<\/p>\n By 7:13 it was still quite dark (much darker than it looks like it is in this photo) but by cranking my ISO up to 8000 I was able to get a shutter speed of 1\/500 sec so I started firing away. The result was images with noticeable digital noise (due to high ISO’s) but how could I not try anyway? I still enjoy some of these photos and I like this one because we see several of the females that the male is performing for.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/5.6, ISO 4000, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/p>\n 7:32 AM: Nineteen minutes later light was just beginning to reach some of the grouse but it was still very low so I chose ISO 4000 to give me enough shutter speed (barely) to photograph the action of fighting males.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/800, f\/6.3, ISO 2000, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/p>\n 7:32 AM: At roughly the same time I was able to reduce my ISO by half to photograph this displaying male because the action was much slower.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 4000, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/p>\n 7:33 AM: But it’s hard to ignore fighting males so I focused on them whenever I could. At ISO 4000 there’s noise in this photo but even with the noise I’d rather have a unique shot like this than “just” another photo of a displaying male (despite the cut off wing and tail that aggravated me to no end).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 4000, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/p>\n 7:33 AM: The males really went at it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 1600, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/p>\n 8:25 AM: Fifty two minutes later there was enough light to cut my ISO to 1600 and shoot at f\/7.1 (to give me a little more depth of field for multiple birds) and still have enough shutter speed to freeze their incredibly fast-moving wings. They were slapping each other with their wings, which is why both birds have their eyes partially closed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/7.1, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/p>\n 8:16 AM: By this time when the males weren’t fighting I could use more reasonable ISO’s. The tradeoff is that the light isn’t as warm and pretty.<\/p>\n By the time I left the lek I felt like I’d been through the wringer. I’d spent almost two hours furiously spinning wheels and pushing buttons as I changed my camera settings in response to rapidly changing light and extremes of action from the grouse as they posed, strutted and fought. During my days in the classroom I always thought that teachers make more decisions in a given amount of time than just about anybody but photographing grouse on a lek has teaching beat.<\/p>\n It was tense and exciting and you really have to concentrate on what you’re doing but I wouldn’t have missed if for the world. So if you’re a photographer and you have the opportunity, take it. But you’d better know your camera and how to use it quickly and instinctively or you’re going to botch some exciting opportunities.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s that time of year folks, Sage Grouse are displaying on the lek. But photographers had best be prepared for extreme changes in lighting conditions and action from the displaying and fighting males.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/sage-grouse-3590-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"sage-grouse-3590-ron-dudley.\\"")
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