Sanderlings

[Wyatt Olson]

While at the Monterey dunes I came across this group of sanderlings. I tried to make the best of the situation, which was not entirely optimal. It was early afternoon, the group of tiny birds was extremely skittish, and I was limited to a 300mm tele. I actually quite liked the results, except I wish I had used a bit larger DOF. Thanks in advance for any comments.

Canon Rebel XT
300mm F/4L IS USM @ F/9
1/400s
ISO 100
Shot in RAW processed in Lightroom and OOF seagull cloned from background in CS2

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii70/wyattolsonphoto/Sanderlings.jpg

Thanks,

Wyatt Olson

[Paul Davey]

Wyatt, I like the cooling blue background. Your horizon is tilted - is this the texture of the dune or a self-made fault? Since you have already cloned out objects, this file is RAW and you might as well straighten the horizon, unless this is a natural gradient. The birds are a buzz of activity but the focusing is sloppy and we see one bird here in sharp displaying all its glory and over there is an out of focus; to the right is a blurry bird and before that one is a relatively sharp one...etc, etc. It is all muddled and doesn't appeal to me. This clearly looks like a tight crop, no? I think you should allow more room in the top and get in more of that nice background and give the birds a place in location. Congratulations on getting close to these wary waders.

Paul

[Maxis Gamez]

I wish the bird in the foreground was in focus to balance the composition. Stepping down to f/11 would of helped that.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the idea but would prefer if no birds were clipped and the BG were straight. For wider DOF you could have used ISO 200 or 400 and stopped down to somewhere between f/11 and 16. The light looks a bit harsh but you handled it well.

[Jim Fenton]

Personally, I don't have any issue with the horizon. This appears to me as though it were shot on the curved edge of the dune. To straighten it out just because, would make the birds have an unnatural angle as the birds would all be leaning backwards!

I'd agree with Alex relative to the clipped individuals and agree with Maxis relative to having the closest bird as the point of focus.

[Wyatt Olson]

Thanks so much for all of your advice. Yeah the DOF field issue is definitely the main thing that bothered me about this image. I tend to underestimate DOF in almost all my bird pictures.

The horizon line is a dune and the blue is the water so straightening it would be the might cause an awkward stance in the birds. But I see now how that could be very deceiving to the eye.

Thanks again for your advice.

Wyatt Olson