OysterCatcher at Sunrise

[gail bisson]

I took this at Nickerson about 30 minutes before a major downpour.
The light was very limited so I had to crank the ISO up to 3200 and had an EV of +2.0.
I am pleasantly surprised by the ability to control the noise. Loose crop to show the gorgeous sky but can take a bit off the top if you think I should.
Canon 1DX
F 600mm and 1.4X III
F 5.6
SS 1/400
70% FF.
PP: Processed in DPP ,NR to BG , NR at 1 to the bird (rarely do this) in Photoshop, levels, Detail Extractor at 5% on bird only, USM to JPEG
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[Markus Jais]

This is fantastic. Beautiful light and colors. Great low angle and head turn.

Markus

[Melissa Groo]

Oohh! i remember you taking that one! That was such a good opportunity grabbed. We had terrible light that morning but you saw that and executed it perfectly. The colors in the sky are just beautiful and I love the OC's look at you. Nice work, Gail!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Gail, well exposed on the OC, and a good eye contact from him too. Super low angle - but cant help thinking that shooting a touch higher may have eliminated the OOF seaweed in the FG, not a biggie though. That BG is simply sweet, sweet, sweet. I would hate to crop away any of those pastel colours. Definitely an opportunity well used.

[vishaljadhav]

Lovely image here Gail
how much i want to like the bird but the BG is what i just felt in love with, the tones in the BG is what every photographer dreams of
Exposure is spot on, great head angle and lovely IQ
Again i am love with that BG colour , may some day love to paint my wall in that colour scheme its just superb

[Jim Crosswell]

Beautiful image Gail! I like the HA, low angle, sharpness, exposure and the BG really makes the image. I could do without the OOF seaweed in the LLC and might take a little off the top. Still a wonderful image as presented.

[Greg Oakley]

Stunning image Gail - fantastic background, pose and excellent techs on the bird

[Daniel Cadieux]

How cool is that BG! I would not crop any more off of it. I like the head angle, exposure, details. My eye is drawn to the dark areas in the FG, and I'd eliminate the white feather speck under the eye. Well seen opportunity Gail.

[Marina Scarr]

The BG of this image is stunning, Gail! Nice pose and details. Interesting how dilated this male's pupil is. The light must have been pretty bad, but you made him look quite stunning.

[Minh Insixiangmy]

Gail, fantastic pose and background. Noise is very well controlled.

[Josh Gahagan]

This is such a gorgeous image. Love the saturated but natural looking colors, and the composition is very nice with the pink layer of sky. I wouldn't change a thing. Looks great for ISO 3200, I wouldn't have been able to tell...

[dankearl]

Very nice and good exposure makes the high iso look like nothing. Beautiful colors.
I know you don't like to clone, but since it is completely oof, I would get rid of the seaweed in a split second.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Amazing image and the BG is sweet.

[LinzRiverBalmer]

Impressive lighting.

i agree on the speck of white below the eye.

i actually like the FG, didnt know it was seaweed, only part I don't like is there is one harsh diagonal line in that seaweed kind of on the angle of 10 o'clock to 4 o'clock, right in the middle of the seaweed part.

neat bird, had to go look him up.

[Girish Prahalad]

lovely pose with good details, exp & comp. the pastel BG is awesome!

[Martin Dunn]

beautiful Oystercatcher Gail.
The exposure is super with great vivid colours on your subject and pastel shades behind.

If it was mine I'd chop off the out of focus bit at the bottom forground.

[Frank Schauf]

Sweet light, nice low angle. Great capture.

[Richard Unsworth]

Wish I could use ISO 3200 , would look like bricks!
Fantastic image in every respect vote for no change on crop

[gail bisson]

Thank you all for your comments. I have cropped from the bottom and cloned out the remaining OOF seawood as per your suggestions. Here is the repost

[Jim Crosswell]

Repost looks great Gail.

[Grace Scalzo]

Darn! I actually liked the seaweed as it anchored the image to me. (I seem to be in the minority!) I might have just lightened it up a bit. But either way, it is a fine image. Well handled with the high ISO. There is nothing like that soft glow that you have captured so well.

[mohammad reza shahab]

Hi Gail,
Sweet light, nice low angle. Great BG.