American Avocet

[greg cowle]

Photographed in Alviso CA in the early morning. Playing around with a narrower DOF so the wingtips are OOF, but the body plane is nicely in focus. What I am not sure about is the color here with the early morning light and the close water background?
800mm, 1/3200, f7.1, ISO1600
Greg

[David Roach]

I love the light, the handling of dark and light plumage, The face and eye(with catchlight). The DOF looks fine from here. Wish for better angle. TFS BTW, I actually wish for a little more of that OOF water on top.

[gail bisson]

Looks good Greg.
I like the exposure and IQ.
Do you have a bit more room on the right of the frame? Feels a bit tight.
I agree with a bit more on top to maintain same crop ratio if you do have more canvas on the right.
I love the near wing position but am not so fussy about the back wing position.I wish it was all the way down.
I would also bump up the saturation by 3-4 points.
Nice frame,
Gail

[John Mack]

How the near wing almost touches the water is neat. The head could be turned towards you slightly more.

[Dorian Anderson]

Exposure looks decent which is good for these high contrast subjects. I also wish for a bit ore room around him if you have it. I do not think I would add much more saturation as the head is really rufous already. Beyond the disengaged head angle, I wish that front wing was a bit sharper.

[greg cowle]

Thanks all for the comments. He was banking in front of me to land, hence the lower left wing. Came closer than I was expecting @800mm, this is almost the full frame. I have nothing more above or behind, only a sliver ahead and below, which is not where we want the space...

[Arthur Morris]

Ditto Gail and bummer on the head angle. The rich tones on the head are too RED.

with love, artie

[greg cowle]

Thanks Artie, thought it may have been too red, but wasn't sure.