South Island Pied Oystercatcher

[Paul Davey]

A close approach with a kayak enabled this. I think it's a good portrait; sharp, eye detail and movement. Don't misjudge the sharpness - I work with a 5MP camera. Taken late afternoon on New Year's Eve 2007 at a river mouth in Otago, New Zealand. Fine weather. Slightly cropped from the top.

Fujifilm Finepix S5600
Manual Mode
ISO unknown, f/3.2, 1/1000 sec, 10x optical zoom @ 380mm

Comments welcome.

Paul

[Tom Callahan]

Yes it is sharp. My preference would be to see space to the left for a "room to move" look and not cut off the feet. More room on top would be nice. The bird appears too confined. Thanks for sharing your image.

[Maxis Gamez]

HI Paul,

I don't think this image is sharp as I see movement in the feet and head. The crop is extremely tight, perhaps leaving some room in front of your subject will make this image stronger.

[Paul Davey]

Tom and Maxis, thanks for the comments. To Tom, the feet are not cut off. In fact with the foot we see to the left underwater can be made out and is simply a "virtual foot". Maxis, the crop, as I said, was only from the top. That was all, and nothing from bottom, left or right of frame. It was how I took the shot - was a bit too close but could have zoomed back.

Paul

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Paul, Whatever the situation, the bird is much too large in the frame. As a general rule, you do not want the subject to take up more than 75% of either dimension. In this image you are at about 97%.

later and love, artie

[Robert Smith]

It is a nice shot as posted, but I too find the bird a bit "cramped". Not only would I like more room for the bird to potentially "walk" into, I would like more on the bottom, left, & top as well - just more on the right. Yep, having not zoomed in quite so far would have helped make this a stronger image - but when you have the capability to go all the way in, it is hard not to do so!

I love the colors of this guy - even just the colors of his bill! Isn't photographing out of a kayak fun?

[Paul Davey]

Thank you Artie and Robert. I now understand this is not the regular portrait shot. I guess true "portraits" should be birds shot when they are posing, i.e. not moving or occupied. And yes, I did get carried away with getting so close! Photographing out of a kayak is certainly effective at this location, as the sandbanks are rather inaccessible otherwise and I do not have a longer lens. Suffice to say I don't have a lens at all.

Paul