Sanderling

[nick clayton]

124061

Toft Newton Reservoir, Lincolnshire, UK. 26/01/13

Canon 7D
Canon 300mm f2.8 II & Canon 1.4 II Extender
1/1250 @ f5.6
+1 2/3 EV
Aperture priority
ISO 800
Pattern

levels
saturation
Nik Software color Efex Pro 4 - Detail extractor & Tonal contrast - subject only
Photoshop USM - subject only

BTW it's not snow in the photo but foam around the edge of the reservoir.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Nick, very nice. Good composition and shooting angle. I am really liking the softness in the plumage. It has come out quite well. Liked the BG as well. If mine, I'd do slight sharpening on the head.

[Randy Stout]

Nick:

I was just about to ask about the 'snow' when I saw your comment.
Good shooting angle, nicely exposed. The sharpness on the head looks OK to me, but I tend to err on the side of less vs. more sharpening, matter of taste.

I might consider just a touch of clone stamp work over the brown area in LLC, not to eliminate it, but to soften it just a bit more.

Cheers

Randy

[Karl Egressy]

Nick, excellent feather detais and nice snowy sorrounding. It is snow isn't it?

[Tim Kuhn]

I find high key shots like this on to have a certain dream like quality and I like that. A bit more DOF or angle on the bird the beak to tail focus would be a plus.

Tim

[Robert Holguin]

Terrific shot!
Love the pose, exposed very well, nice details, and great comp.
Well done.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

The foam give the image an ethereal feel. Evict the brown bit in the LLC and you could name this Sanderling in heaven to go along with your gannet :)
Very well done.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the overall feel to the image. Good job on the exposure that could have easily have been underexposed by the inexperienced. I do find the comp a bit tight, but you had to contend with a large FG area that would have been too prominent with more room around the subject.

[nick clayton]

Kaustubh, I can assure you the head is pin sharp on the full size original. Randy and Sidharth, I did have a go at removing / reducing the dark LLC but made a bit of a mess so left it alone. Tim, a better angle may have kept the tail in focus not much I could do about that as the bird was moving towards me, but more depth of field would have made the background less smooth. Daniel, the bird was constantly moving towards me so had to make do with the tight composition, I wouldn't of had time to remove the extender or move back, I could have done with your 100-400. Karl, Please write 1000 times I must read the writing under the photo. :S3: Many thanks for all your comments.