Red knot

[Tomasz Zawadzki]

Taken with:
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
EF600mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4x III
ƒ/7.1
1/1250
ISO 800

I didn't have a lot of luck with birds (not many of them and people that made it hard when i finally found something to shoot) this summer at Baltic Sea.
This was one of the days i found Red Knot feeding with Dunlins but the weather and the sun wasn't very good. It was rather cloudy but thanks to that there were less people walking on the beach.

[Glenn Pure]

Killer shot Tomasz: I like this one a lot. The low POV is perfect and the simplicity of the background and foreground really highlight the bird. Also love the raised foot and the angle of the bird along with the slight slope of the sand. Detail, tone and colour on the bird are excellent to my eyes. Composition rounds it off nicely.

[John Mack]

Like the raised foot and the detail here.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Tomasz, super pose here, and with the raised foot. Great that you got down to eye level perspective, and I do like the detail and colours on the Knot. Overall, nice and sharp where it counts, and thats a killer smooth BG. I like the sloping beach too.

[Isaac Grant]

Great pose and perspective on this one. I'd love to get close to one of these. Typically when they pass through my area they are far out in the salt marshes in the spring. Background is excellent. I think the image would benefit from a little lift in the exposure and it is on the dark side. Also think it looks to have a little too much contrast, or maybe that is caused by it being dark. Not sure but feels a bit heavy. I would also clone out the darker out of focus blob behind the right leg (our left). Easy fixes for an excellent image of a bird I would love to have.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi TZ, First off, once you learn to get the exposure right you will realize that cloudy is great light :) Isaac is right, this is processed too dark but it is nice and sharp. All you need to do is to pull up the Curve. Last, this is a female with huge bill. I have never seen a knot with a bill that long! (Females have longer bills on average than the males). Lastly, if ou are OK with a little clean-up it would really improve this one.

Heck, be right back.

with love, artie

[Arthur Morris]

Beach cleaned up and pulled up the Curve. One minute in Photoshop.

[Arthur Morris]

More: love the raised foot but with the bird angled so much toward you the pose is rather awkward.

with love, artie

[Tomasz Zawadzki]

Thanks. I like cloudy days for photos but i am not a fan of clouds for shorebirds if there is a water anywhere. It's because the water tends to be gray and without refections on these kinds of days.

[Arthur Morris]

YAW. Different strokes. Try over-exposing almost three stops off the water and you might wind up loving cloudy days for images with water ...

with love, artie

[Tomasz Zawadzki]

Thanks i will try that

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks i will try that

YAW. I will post a white sky shorebird image or two with water here soon. In the meantime I will be posting a white sky pelican dive with water on my blog tomorrow.

with love, artie