Dunlin With Oak Leaves.

[Daniel Cadieux]

It's not every day you get to photograph shorebirds surrounded by fallen autumn leaves, so it was a fun opportunity to get this fella in such a setting (there were actually two Dunlins, I posted a couple a few weeks ago). At this moment they venture quite close so I waited until they got even closer for some cool portrait images. Most were nice but "boring" with nothing but a grey BG but here one of them passed a nice clumping of fallen oak leaves.

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/400s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld lying prone in the mud, about 80% FF (I think I may crop even a bit more off the top), dodged the lower part of the belly, darkened the pupil.

[Iain Barker]

Hi Daniel

I really like this and it fits in well with some of the other portrait shots you have posted recently. I wouldn't change anything.

Iain

[Karl Egressy]

Beautiful portrait shot, well defined and perfect sharpness, Daniel.

[John Robinson]

Dead right about the oak leaves. !! happened to me once with a Sandpiper.
makes a nice bottom left hand frame I reckon-- without them the shot would be quite mundane in fact.
JR

[Holger Leyrer]

Wonderful composition and soft colors in FG and BG. Love the pose, details and low angle. The exposure is perfect.

[Arthur Morris]

Sweet lady. I'd have been tempted to go out of the box here and point the lens down and left.... IQ top notch. EXP and SH perfect.

[Marina Scarr]

What a lovely portrait, Daniel. My favorite part is the way you have framed the bird with the Fall leaves.

[mohammad reza shahab]

hi Daniel,
Wonderful composition,details and soft light.Beautiful pose and low angle.

[vishaljadhav]

Wow, won't like anything more, its just perfect