![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/wild-turkey-7471c-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"wild-turkey-7471c-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nOr at least most of his stuff. A small part of him was hidden.<\/p>\n
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1\/6400, f\/5.6, 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<\/em><\/p>\n When it comes to iridescence the light angle makes all the difference..<\/p>\n Yesterday morning near the base of an isolated Utah mountain range this tom turkey was displaying for the rest of the flock. Much of the time he was either behind a barbed wire fence, mixed in with other turkeys or turned at an angle to the light that didn’t light up his iridescence. But for this shot he had moved further up the mountainside so the fence wasn’t in the way and the only evidence of other turkeys we see are some of the shadows at the right edge of the frame.<\/p>\n But most importantly he had turned at an angle to the early morning sun to really light up his spectacular iridescence. I can think of few if any other birds with more iridescent surface area than a Wild Turkey tom in springtime. His colorful if dubiously attractive naked head, wattles and snood (fleshy flap hanging from his beak) only add to the effect. His beard is less colorful and obvious but it’s there. I wish his legs, feet and wingtips weren’t blocked by the rabbitbrush at the bottom of the frame but for me that’s far from an image-killer.<\/p>\n My camera settings weren’t ideal for the situation but sometimes circumstances are largely forgiving of mistakes and I think this was one of them.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just for the record: I made no color or contrast adjustments with this image. All I did during processing was crop, sharpen, make a moderate exposure tweak and add my copyright watermark. This is very, very close to what he really looked like.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Or at least most of his stuff. A small part of him was hidden.<\/p>\n