One for Hamish - Portrait of a Battery Hen

[Lesley Jones]

I don't know if any of your chickens look like this. We take on ex-battery hens as well as other unwanted birds. Poor Coral didn't have a good start and was badly pecked when she went out in the main run. They had seemed fine for days and then it happened out of the blue. We got her sewn up and she went back in the old goat pen to recover. She finally made it out with the others, but she only lasted another year. We had to have her PTS just before Easter. The ex-batts make the most perfect pets as they love to follow you round and are happy to be picked up and cuddled.

This was taken with quite possibly the cheapest home lighting kit. Two sticks concreted into plastic paint pots and cheap DIY centre lights clamped on top. The diffusers were made from bamboo sticks wired into a square with garden fleece stapled round the edges. The background is some cheap black fleece from an off cut bin

 

[Pete Askew]

I'd noticed this one on your website Lesley and had already admired it and the lighting. A wonderful portrait indeed. Fabulous textures and quite a serene look too.

 

[Hamish Gill]

aaaah ... what a beautiful mess of a chicken!
Yep, all of ours looked just like that ... one even had a broken leg
we got ours from bhwt I think...(?)

Its a great shot ... and i love to see some photos of your lighting set up!
we do like a bit of diy around these parts http://www.realphotographersforum.com/content/category/75-diy-projects.html

 

[Paul Lange]

That is a great image in my book. Somehow you have managed to make a distressed chicken look very dignified.

 

[Lesley Jones]

aaaah ... what a beautiful mess of a chicken!
Yep, all of ours looked just like that ... one even had a broken leg
we got ours from bhwt I think...(?)

Its a great shot ... and i love to see some photos of your lighting set up!
we do like a bit of diy around these parts http://www.realphotographersforum.com/content/category/75-diy-projects.html

I wondered if you had gone down that route. We were going to rescue for Jane Howarth, but we simply don't have anywhere for the new owners to park while collecting. The lighting set up is gone I'm afraid. I was going to do a series of shots for a ferret rescue organisation as pro-neutering posters, so buying the stuff was worthwhile - it probably came to around £30. I had always wanted one of the chooks just after rescue, so poor Coral got brought indoors one evening to play model. I'm a natural light kind of person though and the stuff was just gathering dust in the study. It went to the tip over Easter. I have no idea what constitutes good lighting, but it seemed to work.

I actually found the advice on the internet. The basic one that I used has gone, but this is a link to the deluxe version video: episode 4 , the mother of all stick in a can lighting vids | pro photo life - linking is OK, isn't it? My diffusers were really tatty - made from the cheapest bamboo canes and the garden fleece was stapled very roughly. It was all done in our tiny dining room - it's actually too tiny to have a dining table, so I had to work around three litter trays instead...

 

[Hamish Gill]

I wondered if that was where you had got the idea from!
That guy is GOOD!
Have you seen the product shot of the camera?? very impressive!

 

[Lesley Jones]

No. With work and the zoo and trying to fit in a bit of photography, I simply don't have time to read magazines or surf the web. This was a one off trying to find the cheapest way to produce the posters for the ferret charity. I'm rather ignorant of most things photographic - which is why I ask a lot of silly questions

 

[Hamish Gill]

RPF resurve the right to judge what is and what isn't a silly question

 

[Lesley Jones]

Give me time. I'll go and find one now...