American Oystercatcher Adult and Juvenile

[Bill Dix]

I enjoyed watching the parent Oystercatchers teaching the youngster how to forage for crustaceans in the sand. First one parent would walk with him for awhile, and then the other. The juvie, and one of the two parents, sported bright orange leg bands which I removed. Full-frame + (I applied some rotation and filled in the corners to expand the canvas slightly.) I don't mind the head angles here, although I'm sure some will. I won't give this a Theme prefix, but I do like the way it shows the difference between the two birds' eyes, as well as the legs, bills and plumage.

D500, 500f4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 5000, 1/1600s @ f/7.1 manual. (odd settings; don't ask me why.)

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lovely, parent and child... with both in the same frame it shows the changes the juvenile will make before becoming an adult. Very nice capture, thank you for sharing.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

A wonderful moment captured as the parent teaches the youngster, and how concentrated he is on finding crustaceans.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu (http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu)

[Michael Thompson]

Wonderful interaction between the parent and fledgling! I don't see any issues with the head angle, and both birds are sharp, well done!

[Steve Kaluski]

I like it as presented Bill, but would look to getting more 'tonal depth' back into the FG as it gives the subjects a platform to stand on, it's all a bit light & airy I feel. Ditto darkening the legs will also help and show the detail there. You have it there in the capture you just need to tease it out with your software. Techs look fine to me, 1/1600 is good as they are moving, so you want to freeze them, not have a blur with a slow SS.

TFS
Steve

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all. Steve, it was a dull cloudy morning which probably did diminish the tonal depth. I used some Levels adjustment to pop the birds a bit, but didn't on the fg/bg. I'll take a look at it.

[Steve Kaluski]

I used some Levels adjustment to pop the birds a bit, but didn't on the fg/bg. I'll take a look at it.

I think it's worth it Bill if you have the time, but watch the shadows on the neck of the juvenile, the blacks area slightly choked loosing some of the finer detail.

[gail bisson]

i just love this Bill.
The pose, IQ and natural history shown are excellent.
My only wish would have been for better light but I still think this image is special.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Gail. Yes, I agree about the light. The thick morning clouds just didn't thin out the way I had hoped.

[Bill Dix]

Steve, I'm not sure if this is what you had in mind. I didn't get fancy, but just used a gradient coming up about one-third from the bottom, and applied a Linear Burn at 25% opacity to the gradient area, including the beach and the legs.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Bill, hadn't considered a Linear burn too, but I think it's going in the direction I was thinking off. I just thought that having more 'tone' (albeit subtle) and a little more definition than the white areas was more preferable, but WDYT?

[Bill Dix]

I do think the repost helps give the image a bit more of a base, or "platform" as you said. I'm sure there are other ways to do it. I hadn't thought about using the gradient layer and applying a low-opacity Tonal Contrast to it. But I don't want to distract from the birds.

[Steve Kaluski]

There are many ways Bill as you say, plus it all depends also on the software you use. If you were worried about the birds then you could simply make the adjustment, export it as a Tiff, drag & drop onto the current tiff and then add a mask and 'paint' it in, in that way you can be 'selective' in the area you wish to cover and if you make an error, then by simply painting black over the area you conceal it. You can then use Opacity, Blend modes etc to control the desired end results. :S3: