Thanksgiving dinner

[The Professor]

My first day with a real camera (Canon EOS Rebel XSi 450D) and although I took 125 pictures of 12 different subjects, I got just one usable shot. Here's a tom turkey in our back yard:

42mm : f/8 : 1/100s : EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8-f/5.6 IS (kit)

What do you guys think?

 

[sambrody44]

How'd you get so close?

 

[sabbath999]

Here are a couple suggestions.

A bit more reflected light from the front and a bit less backlighting might make it pop a bit more.

Also, backgrounds for this kind of shot are best when they are not busy.

I did about 5 minutes worth of post processing of this image to give you an idea of how you can make your photos have a bit more "oomph".

Done entirely in Capture NX, but you can do the same in any post processing program:

 

[The Professor]

How'd you get so close?

This tom is one of our free range Bourbon Reds which we raise in our yard. A flock of wild ones (two dozen at a time) come by every day and steal our turkeys' food. The wild ones are very skittish and at the slightest movement, they fly up into the trees. You should see a 20 pound bird roosting on a 1/4 inch branch! Ours don't mix with the wild ones very much. I was hoping a few wild ones would stay on and beef up our numbers, but it doesn't look promising.

I'd like to get a picture of the tom standing on our yellow lab. He likes to show her who's boss.