Golden light yellowlegs

[Jake Levin]

There are lots of these guys at the local fall shorebird spot. I ran a linear contrast curve on the whole shot, and applied the NIK detail extractor to the bird and noise reduction to the blue background (the 7d mkII, for all its strengths, tends to make dark-coloured backgrounds grainier than a roll of Kodak Tri-X).

1/1600 @ f/5,6 (would have gone with more DOF but blurring the background with all those distracting lines and swirls was more important than perfectly sharp legs)
ISO 400
7D mkII
500mm f/4 IS
ACR conversion, Photoshop optimization

[Glenn Pure]

Nice frame and composition here, and nice pose from the bird too as it forages with slightly raised back leg. I'm surprised you had much noise to worry about at all at ISO 400 though... and I do remember Tri-X (coincidentally also ISO 400) - I have an 80D which is very similar to the 7DII and rarely have an issue with noise at ISO 400. Getting detail in those whites is always hard in that lighting situation and I think you've done well in the circumstances.

[Arthur Morris]

Nice one Jake, one of your best. I love the classic yellowlegs feeding posture. Keep checking that spot for at least another month. You might be surprised.

with love, artie