Snipes

[Jon Rista]

I captured this photo of a couple snipes (I believe common, although they might be Wilson's...haven't seen enough snipes myself to differentiate them yet) today at Cherry Creek State Park in Colorado. These two were a dynamic duo, always together, always very close, up and down the shore. I had a tough time getting isolated shots of just one of the two birds. I've rejected most of the photos where they were otherwise inseparable, except for this one. I don't know what it is about this shot that so intrigues me, but I really like how it turned out with them lined up as they are, the larger slightly OOF in the background.

Canon 7D w/ EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS
1/640s @ f/7.1 ISO 400 (Evaluative metering)

Exposure tuning, clarity, saturation to bring out color of reflected fall, and a bit of sharpening. (NOTE: I have not yet taken this into Photoshop for full cleanup. This is currently strait out of Lightroom. Was hoping to get some feedback from the BPN membership before I put effort into Photoshop and content-aware fancywork.)

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-U716cMzSpHY/UIIr9F6dx5I/AAAAAAAAABQ/Bz02sRdhTAg/s1024/Snipes.jpg


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[Dan Brown]

Nice shot. To improve this, consider cropping the mud off at the bottom, a little off the top (although the top is beautiful), a little more NR on the BG and removing the sticks from the right side edge. BTW, these are Long-billed Dowitchers and not Snipe:S3:

[Jon Rista]

Dowitchers, eh? I didn't realize they came through Colorado, especially this late in the year. I believe we have Snipes all year round, which is why I thought they were snipes. Thanks for the ID!

[Dan Brown]

Dowitchers, eh? I didn't realize they came through Colorado, especially this late in the year. I believe we have Snipes all year round, which is why I thought they were snipes. Thanks for the ID!Hi Jon. The LB Dowithers are quite plentiful in the west and this is the end of their migration time. Here's a link to a range map showing their migration route. - http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Long-billed_Dowitcher/id dan

[Neil Nourse]

Jon, I really like this one.
Beautiful water color in the background. I agree with Dan. Loose the sticks and crop the bottom right about at the bill tip in the reflection. Maybe just a touch off the top?

Neil

[gail bisson]

Dan has made some good points.
I think this would work better as a horizontal. That way you can get rid of all the muck at the bottom and extra stuff at the top and give them more space to walk into on the LHS.
Major NR needed on BG and I would clone out the OOF branch on RHS,
Gail

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Jon - wether it's a dowitcher or a snipe, it's a nice capture :)

* I quite like the vertical comp, but agree that it would benefit from taking quite a bit off from the bottom.
* You did a very nice initial RAW conversion, and in PS I would absolutely do some cleanup. A little bit in the fg and definitely the stick on the RHS like Gail mentioned.

Hope to see some more from this series.

Miguel

[PhilCook]

Lovely shot, liking the golden water especially, agree about a wide crop rather than vertical allowing more space on the left. An unusual and interesting comp with both birds, well timed and interesting the bird behind seems to have a longer beak and flat on the tip.

[Jon Rista]

Thank you, everyone, for the kind feedback. It is very much appreciated. :-) I'm reworking the vertical version now, and I'll post a new thread (as a full member of BPN now, so a new thread with the image locally hosted) with the improved version.

@Gail: I'll give a horizontal version a try...I think it will need a lot more cleanup than this one, but hopefully you guys will have some useful insight as to what might look best. :)
@Miguel: Glad to hear it, as I have lots! (Almost every shot was a keeper, which is rather rare for me.)
@Phil: I've been wondering if one was a male (the larger in the BG), and one was a female? Not sure if there is much sexual dimorphism among these birds..