Bathing dunlin

[Grace Scalzo]

A few hours last evening at my local beach spent with a few dunlin gave me this image. The contours of the beach are greatly changed thanks to all the recent storms. Challenging to get clean images, but some nice tidal pools are forming in some of the depressions, and once in a while, a bird takes advantage of one for a bath.

1/1250, f8, ISO 800
1dx, 500 f4 + 2x tc + lowered tripod

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nicely exposed, good detail and I like the water droplets, the pose is good too.
I have some reservation over the amount of space above the bird.
Also there are a few marks in the water below the bird, I think they may be reflections of water droplets - they form a more or less vertical line that is similar to this sometimes seen in cloning, I would suggest remove them.

[Randy Stout]

Grace:

I do agree with Jon about the amount of space above. Without looking at his comments, I thought of suggesting you try a crop just below the dark band at the top.

Having seen this countless times with my loons, I think the bright streak in the reflection is from the drop/highlight in the actual image, and would consider toning it down.

Well expose, nice bathing action, browns in the water pick up the birds coloration.

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Grace, well timed to capture the water on the back during the bathing behaviour, and I do like the blues and browns in the overall image. Another vote for taking a bit off the top. No one has mentioned it, but I can see this with a touch of CW rotation.

What really puts this up a few notches for me is the droplet ' bouncing' off the tip of the tail. You timed that well too. :w3

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the action, water drops, HA, light and calm water. I would also crop some off the top and do a little CW rotation. Beautiful image Grace.

[Frank Schauf]

Great timing, great action.

[Arthur Morris]

Good comments above but I would actually prefer a bit of a crop from behind. Wish that the bird itself were angled a bit towards you rather than fractionally away. Drops, SH, EXP, and patterns in the water all perfect.

[Karl Egressy]

It is always a treat to see a bird taking a bath. It is very well captured. I like the slight head turn, water droplets and the turbulent water around the bird. The IQ looks very good.
Nice work, Grace.

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely details, Grace. Nice light and behavior. The pano-type crop isn't working for me. I agree with Artie on a crop from behind.

[David Salem]

Nice capture of the act of bathing. Techs look great as do the details. I can see why you cropped it like that, to keep most of the ring in the frame. I think? I like it as is.