Another semipalmated

[P-A. Fortin]

... Not because I'm developing a passion for this specific bird, but mostly because it is the only specie I can find these days while shorebird-hunting. I'm not yet familiar with migration of shorebirds. Maybe it's normal that I only encounter this specie here at this time of the year at the place I'm visiting... I'm actually waking up at 05h00 once a week to go shoot for ~1h30 before work. Girlfriend says I'm crazy. I don't have much arguments to prove her wrong so far :S3:

I don't know how you guys will appreciate the head angle. I know it is far from the "rule" that states that "head-should-be-parallel-to-sensor-yet-slightly-angled-toward-viewer". Yet I definitely don't see it as a reason why this image should suffer the wrath of my delete button.

Canon 7D, 400mm @ f/7.1, ISO 640, 1/1250, no flash (dead batteries :e3). Cloned out a black rock in the background, removed an extra catchlight in the eye. NR on background, Nik Detail Extractor on the bird. Toned down a few highlights and... well that's pretty much it.


By the way, I did notice a good bunch of people from "Avian" popping out once in a while to comment here. It is highly appreciated to get comments and different views from as many folks as possible, and I believe this is no stranger to the activity boost in ETL lately. Keep visiting!

132294

[Diane Miller]

I love the head angle here -- great eye contact, and it looks like you did a good job with shallow DOF to reduce what might have been a distracting BG.

If it were mine, I'd think about reducing the contrast a little on the BG to the right of the bird, to more closely match the left side. But I'm on a laptop and might not be seeing it accurately.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi PA, am away again, but thought I would swing by to see the next in the series. Having the low POV is key, with the eye level contact, makes me laugh when I hear people then say, I got dirty in the process, yes but you got the shot. :S3: Perhaps a little to central and you could afford to lose a little off the RHS. Viewing on the laptop is not ideal, however I like the overall colours, but feel you could get a bit more mid tone in the feathers and tone down the whites. Trying applying the Luminosity mask we discussed only to the white, but change the Opacity, however watch any blue coming in at the top of the white breast. These birds do move quickly so good to have a faster SS, not totally convinced about mid ISO, think you could have gone to 800, but personal choice.

TFS
Steve

[John Chardine]

Hi P.-A. These are great birds. Well done on a very nice image. If you are getting up at 0530 to this you truly have the bug!

I would show off the subject with a bit tighter crop. Re. head angle, it's not just to do with the angle in relation to the sensor, but also the angle in relation to the body of the bird. In this case the head and body angle are more or less the same, which tends to give a rather static rather than dynamic look to the image. With the fairly pronounced body angle, the bird could have turned its head CW slightly away from you, which would bring the dynamism back and allow a better look at the face.

[Clyde Hopper]

Hi P-A . Just stopping by to say how much I like this image ! The Bg is too my liking as well !