World Famous Penn Cove Mussels

[cjhockett]

This is one of three Black Oyster Catchers feeding on Penn Cove Mussels as the tide is beginning to come in. This bird is up on a small rock covered with mussels. I was using one-shot with center focus point on the 1DIII with stacked telecoverters on the 500 f4 with a bean bag on-top of a rock. 1/320 at f8 iso 1600, AV with +1.67. the birds head position while not ideal looking back with open beak and the wave in the background made this more acceptable to me. I did several crops ending up with a tighter crop to highlight the three elements of the perch, bird and wave. What do you think?

I also did some shots with slow shutter at 1/30 in an attempt to get soft water breaking over the perch. They turned out ok but not great.

Lots of ducks and scooters winter over at Penn Cove because of this rich food supply.

[Jim Poor]

I like the black shells with the bird along with some of that reddish orange in there to go with the beak. The eye looks a little funny to me, but it might just be the angle.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi CJ, Nice that you got the bird calling, and a pleasing composition. The eye looks funky because the nictitating membrane is partially over the eye. The whole bird needs some selective sharpening and the eye needs some work too...

Gotta love them mussels. Later and love, artie

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the pose and composition. Adding to the suggestions, it looks as if there is a bit too much contrast, which leads to little details in the blacks, particularly in the lower left and right.

[Tony Whitehead]

I like it - contrasting texture of bird and mussels/barnacles - the wave really adds to it