Molting Sanderling?

[Mike Milicia]

EOS-1D Mk III, 500mm f/4 + 1.4xII, 1/400, f/5.6, ISO 800
Evaluative metering at +1 2/3
Fill Flash at -3
Full Frame

Photographed on an overcast morning this past weekend on Plum Island in MA.
Confirmation/correction of ID would be appreciated. Thanks!

Looking forward to your comments and critiques!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I think you are right about the ID and I like the angle, sharpness, monochromatic feel and eye contact. If anything, I might lighten the eye a bit.

[Aidan Briggs]

Looks like a Sanderling to me. Great soft light, pose, and serene mood. I am almost starting to like overcast days better than sunny ones.

[Ed Schneider]

Sanderling gets my vote as well. I love the meniscus of the water on the birds legs...

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Great, clean image Mike. I know nothing about waders. Love the still water and the monochromatic feel as well. :)

[Arthur Morris]

Adult Sanderling showing lots of feather wear as expected. Note all the raggedy feathers. The fresher grey feathers are winter feathers. Image is pretty much perfect including -3 on the fill, low level, sharpness, and COMP.

[Loong-Tat Wong]

Hi
I love this image. The exposure is spot-on and the details are finely captured. You can really feel the surrounding conditions just looking at the image! Superb!

[Ashutosh Sinha]

Very sharp and well exposed image. I really like the overall monochromatic feel.
How did you get completely white water? Is it just because of the overcast condition and low shooting angle or you did some post-processing?

[Mike Milicia]

How did you get completely white water? Is it just because of the overcast condition and low shooting angle or you did some post-processing?
The look of the water and bg are indeed from the overcast sky and the low angle.
Post processing on this image after RAW conversion was minimal : Levels for black/white point, Curves for a bit of contrast, and Hue/Sat (although this hardly made a difference due to the monochromatic nature of the image).

[denise ippolito]

Mike, This is a beautiful image. Nice details and pose.The monochromatic look really adds alot IMO.

[Harshad Barve]

This is fantastic shot , Loved BG. HA, Sharpness , Compo
TFS

[Jim Fenton]

Mike...

Like the lighting, pose, comp and perfect use of fill.

The only thing I might have done differently would be to crop just a bot off the bottom?

[Milan V]

This one is great. Very nice details, low angle and dof.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Such a beauty, loved the details and feel here..The effect of the water adds well. Congrats...

[Ilija Dukovski]

Very good mood with the overcast light and B/W bird. The mellow look of the bird itself
adds to it. Great as always...

[sree.kumar.h]

I love the mood of the image. I can keep looking at for a long time... In fact I have been doing that :-). It's a beautiful image Mike.