Short Billed Dowitchers at Rest

[Jim Fenton]

Image created early Tuesday morning at Plymouth Long Beach in Plymouth Massachusetts.

Nikon D300s, 500 VR, TC14EII, ISO 500, F13, 1/320, NearUniWB Preset, CW metering, +1/7 EV

[Nancy A Elwood]

Jim this is very lovely!! I love the water the best and then the positions of the birds. Just beautiful!!

[Indranil Sircar]

Beautiful composition, Jim. I love those details on the feather. Great color and the soft tones.

[Brian Barcelos]

Jim, Love this one. Pin sharp and beautiful colors, almost looks like a painting. Comp is great and the ruffled feathers on the left one (our right) is a big plus. Simply Stunning

Brian

[Jim Buescher]

I don't think an artist doing a painting or an illustration of these birds could've done a better job with the comp., colors, pose...heck, everything! Perhaps removing the small shadow would make it perfect.

[Tony Whitehead]

Love the symmetry and colours here, Jim. Nice eye contact from both is a real bonus. Plumage detail is superb but looks a little oversharpened on my monitor. If this were mine I would print it big, hang it on the wall and enjoy it! Well done.

[Roger Williams]

Nothing but compliments here. I agree with Tony - a wall-hanger for sure.

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

When I first brought up your image, I thought you had slipped a lithograph in on us, instead of a photo.
What a lovely look. Techs and composition very nice. Did you do anything special in post to enhance the painterly effect?

I am with Tony, print this one big. It should give you and many others lots of enjoyment!

Randy

[Jim Fenton]

Hi Randy...

I didn't do anything "painterly" :) I think what you're seeing is the slight ripple on the very shallow water and the light play on the non perfectly still surface.

The only thing I did was crawl to my right until I got what I thought would be proper separation between the birds bodies and prayed they wouldn't fly away before I could get the shot :)

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

Sorry for my poor grammar (painterly)! What a wonderful combination of technique/light/hard work and good fortune this image represents.

I am not prone to hyperbole.

Randy

[Juan Aragonés]

This one is just superb Jim, a wall hanger for suere. The composition is fantastic and the light... wow
Both birds resting and with a nice eye contact and both in focus and what a superb deep of field control. Did you get images of this couple without the 1/4XTC? I am wondering if you have a similar image with the reflections.

Very, very good job Jim :-)

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Fine image. I would reduce the sharpening. The reflections in water look nice. It is great that you got them without overlapping in the image.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

this is wonderful work Jim. I like everything about it! Really nice pose on both birds. Great light and eye contact.

[Attila Seprenyi]

The composition just excellent lovely colours and ligths. If it was mine i would hang it on the wall for sure.

[denise ippolito]

Jim, I think the poses and the water color really sets this one apart! Beautiful details and lighting. I'd vote for wall hanger also! Fantastic!!

[paul leverington]

Beautiful Jim!! I love a picture where more than the bird contributes to the overall composition and this one succeeds at that quite well. These little guys make such good photo subjects when they tuck in their little heads.

paul

[stuart wanuck]

great image looks like a watercolor well done

[Ramon M. Casares]

Love it, great natural moment, detail, cplors, comp and expposure, I do wish for a lower anlge.
Congrastulations!

[Chris van Rooyen]

Hmm..very beautiful, great mirror posture, and the eye contact is so effective! Can't really fault this:-)

[Marina Scarr]

This is without a doubt a picture of the week TOP contender!

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

Looks like a painting. Very nice. Detail and composition is fine.

Szimi