Purple Sandpiper

[Art Peslak]

Barnegat Light State Park, NJ
Canon 1DIII, 600mm f/4 with 1.4 TC, ISO 400, 1/500 at f/5.6

Art Peslak
www.natureimagesbyart.com (http://www.natureimagesbyart.com)

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Art, Great to see you here. This is very nicely done.It is sharp and the exposure is perfect. Love the open bill, the angled rock, the soft, flowing-water background, and the soft light. Wish only for a bit more room in front of the bird.

later and love, artie

ps: A crop from the bottom would be OK too..

[Rich Steel]

Hi Art

I have spent a bit of time photographing these in the last week but unfortunately not in the good light you had. They are quite a difficult bird to capture doing anything and seem to spend a lot of time with their beak tucked in the back, so the open beak is a bonus. I personally would have like a bit more DOF in the photograph but the rest of the composition and colours are very good.

Cheers

Rich

[Marko Matesic]

Great sharpness and colors .DOF is little shallow maybe with ISO 800 you could squeeze f8 and have more DOF .....
I like blurry water background .......I think that horizontal flip could improve overall composition leading the eye toward the bird not from her.

[Arthur Morris]

Rich, With the bird so steeply angled towards Art, he would have needed many more stops of DOF to come even close to getting the tail sharp (and this would have sharpened the background a bit unless he went really, really slow--thus risking having the bird unsharp.) My philosophy has always been "focus on the eye and let 'er rip."

Marco, With all due respect, I have no idea what you are talking about... Please explain.

later and love, artie

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Beautiful lighting , pose and the open beak is a wonderful bonus in this capture. As Artie mentioned a little more room to left would strangthen this image. Thanks for sharing Art.

[Marko Matesic]

Sorry it is probably my bad English :(
I think that ISO 800 and F8 could improve DOF ....legs would be probably sharp.....and at the same time retain shutter speed....correct me if I am wrong...still learning :)
...and horizontal flip......I think that we read from right to left and my opinion is that when you flip the image is easier to "read" and eye is faster drawn to birds head
Hope you understand what I meant :)

[Rich Steel]

Rich, With the bird so steeply angled towards Art, he would have needed many more stops of DOF to come even close to getting the tail sharp (and this would have sharpened the background a bit unless he went really, really slow--thus risking having the bird unsharp.) My philosophy has always been "focus on the eye and let 'er rip."

Marco, With all due respect, I have no idea what you are talking about... Please explain.

later and love, artie

I agree Artie, I think it would have been difficult to get the whole bird sharp as you say with the angle but a touch more DOF would have at least brought that front leg into sharpness.

Cheers

Rich

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great image and good to see you here, Art. I like the setting, open beak and BG. I also wish for a bit wider DOF so that the right foot would be in focus, too. There is a slight sharpening halo around the beak.

[Mike Poe]

Like the BG, angle of the rock. I think you captured enough detail based on the angle of the bird. Obviously not being there makes it tough to know what conditions you were working with. A polarizer might have helped to reduce some of the "shine" on the rock but then again losing a stop of light including it might have caused giving up some of the detail you achieved, the better choice.

[Chris van Rooyen]

For me the shallow depth of field works really well. A less shallow depth of field would have caused the area on the left beneath its tail to come more into focus which I think could have been distracting. The texture of the water running over the rock adds a lovely dynamic element to the image.

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Art,


Big welcome to BPN!!!!!

Sorry we missed each other at Bosque, it will be some other time.
So glad to see you here, will be looking forward to your work :)

Big hugs,
Fabs