Theme - purple sandpiper

[Mads Syndergaard]

So in my book a portrait is an image that tells the viewer something about the portrayed. For a bird, this usually means that something more than the face is included, because to human eyes, bird faces aren't very expressive.
In this image the sandpiper is shown in a very typical posture (running like a demon to escape a crashing wave) and in a very typical setting (the rocky surf). It fills much of the frame, but enough surroundings are included to give the viewer an idea of what sort of bird we're looking at. But obviously the jury is entitled to a different interpretation of the portrait theme!


150122
Exif:


Aperture: ƒ/5
Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Taken: 22 February, 2015
Focal length: 600mm
ISO: 1250
Shutter speed: 1/2000s

[Gerald Kelberg]

Hi Mads,

Interesting to see your post as this is something that I have also been giving some thought to - quite what constitutes a "portrait". I guess that in the context of the Monthly Theme, it constitutes whatever the instigator/moderator wants it to mean.

Like you, I think it should be more than simply a "head shot". I would like to see portraits that also say something about the "character or personality" that we assign to the bird - giving some insight to its behaviour or character as in other genres of photography. Or show some wonderful, outstanding or outrageous physical feature.

I think that the convention here is that these shots are close-up and intimate views of the birds - the challenge is to do more with it, find that personality or special quality.

The image that you have linked to your posting is a sweet enough image of a Purple Sandpiper - I like the sense of the crashing waves that you have captured; I don't like the out of focus tail of the other bird on the right side; I find the image a little too dark. But, in my opinion, it doesn't portray anything more special than the typical bird action images that fill the pages here. Certainly not enough so that it would meet my personal criteria to be a "portrait".

Thanks for sharing your image and your views.

Best wishes,

Gerald

[arash_hazeghi]

I fixed your link, welcome to the forum.

I like the pose, with the raised foot and the water drops although I wish you had more of them. the image is sharp and well exposed. I would clone out the OOF tail of the other sandpiper that was caught in the frame. As for themes, we usually stick to the more conventional portraits to keep things tight, otherwise the boundaries will become blurry and hard to define a "theme" at first place.

TFS

[Mads Syndergaard]

Hi Guys thanks for your comments, appreciate it. If the theme boss feels that the image should be "un-themed" then that is fine by me. As a new person here, finding out just how things are meant to work is good too.
And Arash my cloning skills don't quite expand to this level yet, will work on it :-)