My pretty chooks

vickywall · **Posted:** Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:22 am

Hi Everyone,
Well I went out and took some photos of the chickens yesterday. It's hard when they keep running towards me!

Mwa ha ha the chooks are on the bale of straw... peck peck peck!

James got tired of the papparazzi click click click and wandered off.. but I think she's just showing off her pretty colours and is cranky at me for calling her james. hahahahaha

Then she decided to try and peck the lens. Not happy bout that.

Then poor Rose wanted in on the Papparazzi action.

And here's their freakish jailbird coop I made out of a cot. The rest of the run is made with star pickets and bamboo which is invading our property from next door neighbours. And they're fighting over some sort of bug here.

Yum!

Tahir · **Posted:** Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:56 am

wow, great pics. i like the first pic how you didn't use a fast shutter speed to completely freeze the chicken in action, but you used a slower shutter speed to show the movement of the chicken pecking.
they look very nice especially the australorp cross, she has a very nice beetle green sheen, and the orange/red on the chest looks awsome.
the pen looks pretty neat, i like how you used the bamboo for pegs. good job.

vickywall · **Posted:** Wed Jan 14, 2009 3:49 pm

Yeah the iridescent green in her is really beautiful! There's also some blue in there too....and the red/orange on her front is great in the sunlight.

She's like a little rainbow walking around the back yard. :-)

littletoni · **Posted:** Wed Jan 14, 2009 4:15 pm

They are beautiful :D I love the idea of making the coop out of the cot...now I know what too do with my when my bubs is finally out of hers

vickywall · **Posted:** Wed Jan 14, 2009 4:21 pm

We picked it up for $10 at an auction. We were there to buy organs (the musical kind) and also ended up buying a cot... pretty weird purchasing combination - but it was impulse!

Tahir · **Posted:** Wed Jan 14, 2009 6:00 pm

how do you get the colour like that with the camera?

vickywall · **Posted:** Wed Jan 14, 2009 6:17 pm

How do you mean?

I uploaded those photos from a different computer to the one I'm using now and they look completely different.
Everyone's monitors are calibrated differently, so it's hard to know you're looking at the correct colours.

But maybe you just mean the saturation?

I was using a flash outside, because the sun was overhead and making funky shadows, and also over exposing the background. So I used the flash to brighten up the chooks, the black one especially. It's a good little trick to do when you're trying to photograph in bright sun... use a bit of fill flash and it helps get rid of yukky shadows.

vickywall · **Posted:** Wed Jan 14, 2009 6:19 pm

if you look closely in the photos - or any photo in a magazine etc, - you'll see the flash reflection in the chooks eyes. These little reflections give you heaps of info about how the subject was lit and from what direction.

Next time you're in a newsagency, pic up a fashion magazine and you'll see them everywhere, and you'll see really weird reflections too now that you're looking for them. Keep your eyes out for umbrellas and softboxes and then you can recreate the lighting.

Tahir · **Posted:** Wed Jan 14, 2009 6:26 pm

yeah, you usually see 2 square like lights in their eyes from the soft box and the flash from the camera.

i was talking about the Australorp cross before when i was talking about the colour and how you brought out all the colours in it.

vickywall · **Posted:** Wed Jan 14, 2009 7:37 pm

I'm not sure what you mean still sorry..... that's just the way it looks.

I bought it as a chick and was really surprised when all the other colours came out... i thought it was just going to be black.

AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

My pretty chooks

Who is on the Forum