Black-bellied Plover

[Raybel Robles]

Typically a very shy bird around here. There is a flock of about 50 to 60 wintering in our Island but they are really hard to approach. I tried my best over the weekend but they still all flew away, so I gave up and started to photographed other less skittish birds (Stilts, Heron etc.) and before I knew it I was surrounded by about 10 or these Black-bellied Plovers, I had ton of opportunity with different background and even portrait shots from a few that got really close.

D750 | 300mm f2.8 w/ 2x TC | 1/640s | f/8 | Auto ISO 450

[christopher galeski]

nice image,like the pose,some nice detail,good POV.TFS.

[mohammad reza shahab]

Excellent pose,detail and good POV.

[Poorna Kedar]

Beautiful moment, light and lovely low angle shot. Just that green patch at the top taking the attention, a little away from the bird.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Beautiful image Raybel. A lot to like, low POV, soft foreground and background, nice colors and exposure. You mentioned "our Island"... is that Puerto Rico?

[Shawn Zierman]

Gorgeous low angle image. Decisive moment, and it's all the better with this species due to the definitive plumage charactersitic of the wing pit. Exposure looks perfect to me. Light quality is yum!

[Raybel Robles]

Beautiful image Raybel. A lot to like, low POV, soft foreground and background, nice colors and exposure. You mentioned "our Island"... is that Puerto Rico?


Hi Joseph,

I live in the Cayman Islands. 3 very small Islands just below Cuba. Thanks for you comment!

[Lyle Gruby]

This is just beautiful. Light quality along with a beautiful subject and setting. Wish it were mine. In my limited experience with shorebirds, it seems best to just sit and wait and they'll come to you.

[Mike Poole]

That's a stunner Raybel - light, PoV, pose, head angle, BG, everything fell into place for this one

[gail bisson]

A lovely image Raybel.
Great low POV and colors and a lovely head turn and wing position.
I would suggest adding a bit of black to the image. The black areas of the wing seem to have a brown hue to them. You can do this in photoshop by going to "selective coloring" > "blacks" and once in the blacks > 1 or 2 points of black,
Gail

[Raybel Robles]

A lovely image Raybel.
Great low POV and colors and a lovely head turn and wing position.
I would suggest adding a bit of black to the image. The black areas of the wing seem to have a brown hue to them. You can do this in photoshop by going to "selective coloring" > "blacks" and once in the blacks > 1 or 2 points of black,
Gail

Thank you for the great input. I went bacl and added a hint of black to the image like you suggested and it looks even nicer. Thanks again!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Lovely, very lovely image, light and bird!. The raised wings add to the image. The low shooting angle was a great idea to produce this image.

[David Salem]

A real great looking image Raybel. The details, colors, low POV and that green in the BG all look fantastic. I too feel that a few points of black will look better in this image. Well done

[Frank Schauf]

Great background, very nice shot.