Marbled Godwit.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Taken at Ft. Desoto in early June. This fella was associating with a bunch of Willets and was actually quite hard to isolate from them. In this image I cloned out parts of two Willets at the left and right edges of the frame. When it first stretched the bill was pointing well away from me and I did not press the shutter at all through the beginning and the apex of the stretch. I did keep my eye on my viewfinder pointed on it, and luckily just as it started to pull its wing back into place it turned its head perfectly my way...never give up on a situation!!

The light was already harsh at this point, but with the very bright sand fooling the meter I had to meter in + 2/3 stop.

Canon 40D + 100-400L @ 360mm, aperture priority, 1/1000s., f/8, ISO 320, +0.7 EC, handheld.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w98/dancad/tn_MarbledGodwit_2480-01-1.jpg

[Ramon M. Casares]

The god thing is that the sand works as an excellent screen to reflect light making harsh light as good as we can see in this shot, I like the BG, colors and pose, although the bird is giving you his/her back the head turn makes it work perfectly! Congratulations!

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Great image Daniel. Love the leg stretch and the beautiful detail in this capture. As Ramon already mentioned there is just enough head turn to make this work and I like the BG and low angle. Well done !!!

[Sid Garige]

Not sure about little blue on the top. Very nice pose.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great pose, details and angle. I also like the BG.

[Linda Robbins]

Your patience paid off when the bird gave you that head turn, and I like the wing stretch pose with the pointed foot. Nice sharp detail and pretty bg. Good capture!

[CMARINOVSTER]

Very nice shot,

Cristián Marinovic

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

Very cool. Despite photographed from the back I like it. The wing span is really nice. Great timing.

Szimi