Tom Turkey Struttin’ His Stuff

Posted by Michele Franz on Apr 29, 2012 in Recent Blog Posts | 3 comments

I have the benefit of working four 1o hour days and take advantage of my long weekends by spending at least one morning at the park.  On Friday I was up and out before the usual time I get up to go to work.  Isn’t it funny how much easier it is to get up in the morning to go birding or take a hike:) than it is to go to work.  I love my job, don’t get me wrong, but, well…you know what I mean.  I was hoping to be able to get some sunrise shots for the blog but it was quite overcast,  so, no sunrise shots.  The good thing is, and anyone who’s ever tried to photograph a turkey can confirm this, overcast is preferable when shooting turkeys. Even with the overcast skies the whitish shiny skin  on the head of the male turkey, also known as a jake (Or Tom as I say) is quite reflective and often gets “blown out” in photos, appearing as a white splotch with no detail.  You can try and adjusting for this by reducing  the exposure but then you may lose detail in the darker feathers.  Ok, that’s probably more photography jargon than you want.  Anyway, here are some shots of Tom, strutting his stuff for his harem.  It was comical and a little pathetic how disinterested they were in his advances.  Poor Tom.

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