Piping Plover Brooding Chicks

[Mike Milicia]

EOS-1D Mk III, 500mm f/4 + 1.4xII, 1/250, f/5.6, ISO 800
Fill Flash at -3
About 90% of Full Frame

Removed some OOF blobs from foreground/background.

Photographed yesterday in very cloudy and misting conditions on Plum Island in MA.

Looking forward to your comments and critiques !

[Randy Stout]

Mike;

Lovely light, nicely exposed, sharp,cute! I kept counting the legs, and only got seven for the chicks? Three and a half chicks?

I like the bit of greenery in the RLC.

In the the very small category, I would knock down the sheen on the adults leg. It betrays the flash use (which otherwise is very nice)

Randy

[Mike Milicia]

Mike;
I kept counting the legs, and only got seven for the chicks? Three and a half chicks?

Yes, I was confused by that as well at first. The eighth leg is sandwiched between the adult's
left leg and the chick's leg that you can see crossing it. Much easier to see at actual pixels in
the original but, if you look closely at the jpeg, you can make out a toe of the eighth leg
in front of the parent's left foot (the chick is facing to the right).

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great capture of this behavior, it's fun to count the legs. I also like the details and low angle.

[Arthur Morris]

Too, too precious; even the seaweed adds to the mood. Great that you could get so close.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

This is just too precious Mike, with all the legs. So sharp too. I always enjoy plover (piping) photos as I babysat some last year. They are endangared up here. (Ontario, Canada.)

[Daniel Cadieux]

This is too cute!! I love that you got some greenery. At appears as if you lighten the eye a little too much and thus gave it a bit of a haze, or clouded look. After reworking the eye (darkening it) you'll have a real winner!

[Kiran Poonacha]

Cool shot this... The angle and so many cute little legs make the image for me.. congrats..

[Morkel Erasmus]

agree with Artie - the seaweeds add a nice touch. love those legs! super cute factor here and well exposed.

[Mital Patel]

i really like the level you managed to get. also with that green part(dont know what it is) addint lot more to the frame. just awesome.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Perfect mood, love it!

[Danny Laredo]

Such a cute image Mike....

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Just when I thought you had a three-legged chick! :D

I love the cuteness factor Mike. Really well composed and executed. :)

[Stu Bowie]

The first thing I did was to count the legs. Yep, three and half chicks, but you have explained above. Lovely pastel colours, and I agree the eye is a bit distracting.