Alert Spotted Sandpiper

[Dan Brown]

This alert Spotted Sandpiper was captured at a small Sierra Nevada lake this past weekend with a shoulder stock mounted Nikon D200, 80-400VR at 400mm, 1/1250sec, f8, ISO 400, manual exp mode, spot meter mode, TTL fill flash with SB800 -2.0, high speed sync mode. PP in CS3, cropped about 20%. Next time, I will lay on my belly!

Dan Brown

[Maxis Gamez]

I like the pose and low angle. The light is harsh but you did well for what you had.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Next time, I will lay on my belly!

Laying on your belly is great on beaches, out in the open, and in short grasses but if you did that here the bird would be obstructed too much by some of these tall grasses :-) Harsh light mentioned, and I'm sure if you pulled back on the yellow saturation you'd get more pleasing and toned down colours on said grass.

[Doug Brown]

Agree with above comments Dan. I wonder if reducing contrast a little would help? Thanks for posting!

[Dan Brown]

Thanks guys for the great comments! I agree with all. Laying on my belly probably wouldn't have been helpful on this particular shot, but the grass was much shorter nearby (with lots of goose poop in it!). On the repost, I reduced the yellows as best I could and the contrast a bit. Dan