Like two wrestlers, these two female quails were locked in combat in the middle of a dirt road when I chanced upon them at the grasslands of San Manuel, Pangasinan.
Light was coming from up front (note the shadow of the bird at left), rendering the subjects severely backlit. Nevertheless, I immediately squatted to lower the shooting angle, and took some insurance shots. I was planning to backtrack and circle around the combatants from a good distance until the sun is behind me. Unfortunately, a motorcycle rider came along the dirt road and the fighters got spooked. I had to make do with the insurance shots I managed to capture earlier.
I did some major exposure surgery during RAW conversion and post processing to mitigate the backlighting. Too bad that such action weren't captured under better light!
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Barred Buttonquail (Turnix suscitator, both female)
Habitat - Drier grassland and scrub, often seen along highways or on dirt roads.
Habitat - Drier grassland and scrub, often seen along highways or on dirt roads.
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| Shooting info - San Roque, San Manuel, Pangasinan, Philippines, July 6, 2017, EOS 7D MII + EF 400 f/4 DO II + EF 1.4x TC III,
560 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 320, manual exposure in available light, hand held, uncropped full frame resized to 800 x 533. |
And here's the original exposure as captured, before exposure recovery in post process - uncropped full frame resized to 800 x 533.
One of the combatants is body slammed onto the jagged rocks of the dirt road.
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| Shooting info - San Roque, San Manuel, Pangasinan, Philippines, July 6, 2017, EOS 7D MII + EF 400 f/4 DO II + EF 1.4x TC III,
560 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 320, manual exposure in available light, hand held, near full frame resized to 800 x 533. |
High-res 1500 x 1000 version
When the fighters got tired, they took a breather, staying relatively inactive while locking beaks. Both appeared to be unhurt in the melee - each one flew in a different direction when the motorcycle rider came barrelling by their combat arena.
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| Shooting info - San Roque, San Manuel, Pangasinan, Philippines, July 6, 2017, EOS 7D MII + EF 400 f/4 DO II + EF 1.4x TC III,
560 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 320, manual exposure in available light, hand held, near full frame resized to 800 x 533. |
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