Avocets

[Rich Steel]

Hi

Avocets only re-established themselves back in the UK about 60 years ago, since then their numbers have been growing rapidly. One of my local reserves hosts good numbers in the spring and early summer. I usually pop over there towards the end of April when most of the action is happening. It never ceases to amaze me how aggressive they are and don't think twice about attacking a mute swan or canada goose. This pair were going through the long mating sequence. This photo was taken back in April of this year

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k217/squidfish_2006/MarshsideAvocets04.jpg

Taken with the 50D with 500mm lens and 1.4TC at ISO 400 F7.1 -0.33 EV at 1/2000s.

Cheers

Rich

[Ramon M. Casares]

Excellent pose, HA, light, exposure, natural moment, detail, comp and BG. I am just very jelaous :)
Congratulations!

[David Fletcher]

Super shot Richard. Lovely details and exposure control and head angles. WD!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the captured moment, light, sharpness and eye contacts. A lower angle would have made it even stronger.

I didn't know there were avocets in the UK, thanks for the additional information!

[arash_hazeghi]

Nice job with the whites, sharpness is very good and eye is clearly visible. It's great that you got eye contact on both. UK species are quite different in color compared to the spicies here in the west coast US.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Very clean image. Love the whites and blacks here, behavior adds lots to the image. Ditto about the lower shooting angle.

[Rich Steel]

Thanks for the comments. I agree a lower shooting angle would be desirable but unfortunately not possible as these birds are photographed from a built hide so you are restricted by the height of the viewing slots. The UK ones are quite different in colouring from the US version as they are just black and white.

Cheers

Rich

[Harshad Barve]

Great control over whites , super action , nice BG and sharpness
TFS