Black-bellied Plover, Fall At The Beach.

[Daniel Cadieux]

It's always good to add elements of the habitat if it is good enough to do so, and when a couple of plovers made their way to an area of the shoreline littered with fallen autumn leaves I was pretty happy to include them. This guy stood still for a while so I was able to manoeuvre my way to a more advantageous angle.

Canonn 7D + 100-400L @250mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1250s., f/7.1, ISO 800 (histogram checked), natural light, handheld, FF, toned down a couple of brighter leaves (burn tool), accentuated the blues in an otherwise grey water BG (sponge tool). Dark area in upper right corner smoothed out with 2-3 clicks of a 30% clone stamp. Pishing used to get this guy to turn its head towards me.


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[Vivaldo Damilano]

Lovely close-up, agree with adding part of their habitat, adds nicely to the image. Good feather detail and eye contact. Blue BG work very nicely well done.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice pose, IQ and showing elements od the habitat, Daniel.
The bottom OOF part is somewhat distracting.
I would crop it right above your signiture to leave less OOF leaves at the bottom if it were mine.
But some people would say thet you don't have enough space at the bottom.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

A well crafted picture, both on taking and processing sides. Nice seasonal feel, good pose, blue helps the BG.

I might consider cloning over the dark patch above the head, and you could take a light pass of the burn tool to the lowest foreground edge.

Cheers

Randy

[Ryan Schain]

Great head angle and sharpness. I also like the habitat. I might tone down the bright orange leaf to the right of the bird, and would either lighten or eliminate the darker patch of water above the bird's head.

[Bill Dix]

Pishing worked nicely to give you a great look-back. Nicely composed. Too bad his feet are lost among the leaves, but that's the price you had to pay to get the lovely seasonal color. A good trade-off IMHO.

[Marina Scarr]

The habitat and its colors is what makes this plover pop.

[gail bisson]

I really like the fall colors. Creates a lovely " different" shot.
Great lookback pose.
I have never had success with "phishing" with shorebirds. Must be my voice pitch !!
I like how the vegetation flows into the frame from the LHC.
Gail

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I love the autumn colored leaves on the beach and a nice head turn. I wish for less reflection on the eye as it makes it look funny to me at first. Great detail

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Excellent stuff, Daniel. loved the habitat and improving the blues was a good call here. Nice pose nad HA. I like the DOF coverage a lot. looks like the critical focus was around the shoulder area...which has helpded cover the tail. Always a tough thing with this orientation.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, setting, sharpness, low angle and composition. Well done Daniel.

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot.
I really like the pose, excellent details, exposed very well, and I love the habitat.
I really like the the shot, but the reflection of the eye is just a little odd to me.
Well done.

[Shawn Zierman]

The bird's plumage and leaves on the shoreline give a nice seasonal context to the image.
The head angle is perfect. Nice low shooting angle allowed for the upper body of the bird
to show well against the water background. The body angle of the bird feels awkward, almost
like the bird is slightly off balance or tipping to the left....good thing the head angle is so spot on.
I agree that the dark area in the bg above the bird's head could be handled better in pp.

[Frank Schauf]

Nice composition and excellent expsoure control and sharpness.

[Jon Rista]

I really love how you've included the leaves and seaweed. Really does add a nice unique element to the image. His head angle is superb, as well. I'd love to learn your Phishing techniques.