Piping Plover

[Alex Becker]

Hi all,

Here's another piping plover from Sandy Hook, NJ. Pretty minor edits in post, mostly pulling up the shadows, warmed the image, taken pretty soon after sunrise and cloned out a couple bits of OOF shells. I know LA (or HA) isn't ideal but I was happy to get the shell relatively in the same plane and hoping the HA can be excused as I think the image still tells a story of the plover looking for a meal. Cropped about 30%

Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: 200-500mm f/5.6 at 500mm
Specs: 1/2000 ISO 640 f/7.1

Thanks for looking and commenting on prior posts!
Alex

[Randy Stout]

Alex:

Well exposed, liked the raised foot, sense of motion. I agree that the strong attention of the bird to the shell helps overcome the head angle, as far as telling the story.

Good shooting angle.

I would be tempted to crop 30% or so off the free space on the top, as the story is all in the bottom portion of the image.

Cheers

Randy

[Alex Becker]

Thanks for commenting Randy -- very helpful. I don't have any more room below unfortunately. Here is a 16:10 crop -- does this help? I also have a 16:9 crop version as well which does take more off the top but feels too long to me. Thanks again

[Isaac Grant]

I love Piping Plovers and always like images of them. I am OK with the head angle here because as you said it tells the story. But I think that you would have been better off having what it is looking at also in sharp focus. I think it would tell the story better. Also I think the plumage on these birds really comes to life when you get them at the perfect light angle. Meaning the sun directly at your back. I would also clone out the large white pebble directly behind the birds leg.

[Alex Becker]

Thanks Isaac -- always appreciated. Agree on cloning out the pebble -- missed it on the edits. I went back today and really focused on trying to nail the perfect sun angle, for this location that means getting a little wet which was fine. The plovers weren't very cooperative this morning but in the couple shots where they were I really see what you mean. They weren't the cleanest backgrounds as someone walked and took their dog through the roped off area (:2eyes2:!) so I have some PS clean up to attempt but I will try to post one at some point. Thanks again!

[Daniel Cadieux]

I suppose that the subject looking at the shell lessens the impact of the head turned away, but I still would have preferred it at least parallel to the sensor. I love all those clean pebbles on the beach, and I am OK with the larger one behind the leg. Good exposure and details.