Short-Billed Dowitcher in Some Sweet Light

[Melissa Groo]

Canon 1D Mark IV

500mm +1.4x
Gitzo/Wimberley

1/160
f/5.6
ISO 1000

I live for this light. The Dirty-Girls-Do-Long-Island team (see Intro, Interviews, Family, Friends and Fun Forum to see what I mean) had a few moments of this utterly wonderful light just before sunset one evening last month, and we were fortunate to find a group of Short-Billed Dowitchers foraging among the rocks. The light was dropping fast and I had to go to a pretty slow SS to get the action, but was pleased to see the upraised foot here was relatively sharp.

I cropped some off the bottom, which showed the edge of the water-- a lovely pink, but it was not a super reflection, and so just seemed distracting. Sharpening, NR on BG.

Thanks for looking and for all comments and critiques.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent foraging action captured in beautiful evening lights.Wonderful colors in frame.
Love the pose with raised foot, soft light,lovely colors and above all beautiful reflection of sunset in the eye.
Very nice composition too.

Regards,
Satish.

[Nick Palmieri]

The light rocks! Love the environment. Nice exposure on bird and I like the lifted foot. Sweet image.

[Grace Scalzo]

Sweet, and I just LOVE the environment.

[Karl Egressy]

Amazing light, excellent pose and nice environment, Melissa. Nice low shooting angle.

[Shawn Zierman]

Really nice job isolating the subject with the low angle work. Foraging pose and subject motion/leg lift are nice features to this image....and yes of course the light quality is very nice. Two considerations would be to selectively run another light round of sharpening on the subject, and the light colored rock on the right edge of the frame (lower right hand side) could be ejected or toned down if not against your ethics...

[Bill Dix]

Gorgeous light, great low POV (I'm guessing this explains the Dirty Girls). Superb environmental detail of the shore. Yes, a tiny bit more sharpness would be good if it is there, but the need for low SS probably explains it. What matters is that the head is nice and sharp; no mean feat in this low light, when their action is normally described as like a sewing machine.

[gail bisson]

Very nice Melissa! The light really is wonderful and the sunset reflection in the eye lovely,
Gail

[Doug Brown]

Lovely light, great habitat, and a nice feeding pose. I agree about a little more sharpening of the bird.

[Ivan Ellison]

Everything has worked well, the light is stunning, position of bird with raised foot , love the mottled bg. well done with this.

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks for the feedback. Here's a touch more sharpening.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the behaviour, light, sharpness(repost), setting and composition. I would tone down the rock that Shawn mentioned as well. Still a beauty as presented Melissa!

[dankearl]

Gorgeous light and a really cool environment, I would run a another round of NR on the BG.

[Frank Schauf]

Sweet light, nice low angle. Great capture.