American Avocet in flight

[arash_hazeghi]

This is from the American Avocet in habitat series. Shot last week in Palo Alto Baylands nature preserve.

Notice the high breeding plumage.

http://www.stanford.edu/%7Eahazeghi/Photos/birds/AA%20%20copy.jpg

5D MKII + 500 f/4 + 1.4X TC. f/5.6 1/1600sec ISO 1600. sw : DPP 3.7

Hope you like it

[Willem Verboom]

This is a very nice looking shot. I like this kind off bird very much and I'm sure want to have a picture of that bird in my collection.
The colors are very nice and it nicely sharp.
Well done.

Willem

[Mark Dumbleton]

Superb Stuff! Lovely soft lighting and super pose of the bird. Great exposure and detail captured!
You just have to love that BG! Well done!

[jfranciskay]

Beautiful image - great capture. The light, sharpness, colors, contrast and detail are superb. Exposure is spot on. Underwing detail is fantastic. I would have left a bit more room on the left side of the image to have room to fly into. Also I would have removed the (water?) drops at the bottom right, as they are a distraction to my eye and do not add to the image IMHO.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

The light is deadly , the pose brilliant and the exposure spot on. The water droplets , if anything add to the image !!

[Ofer Levy]

Light, pose, techs, BG are all fantastic. I am not sure about the square presentation though. If you got the space top and bottom it will make a stunning tight vertical.

[Phil Seu]

great image. nice light and separation from BG. would prefer less centered

[Kiran Poonacha]

Great light Bhai, nice sharpness, loved the wing spread here... well done..

[Doug Brown]

Gorgeous light, nice exposure, and good sharpness. Like the eye contact too. I'm in agreement with Ofer about the crop. You could go vertical by trimming a little off the right and a bit more off the left.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Arash, killer light and underwing details. Excellent BG blur.

[Brent Wellander]

Love the light, feather detail, exposure & BG are excellent!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Amazing image super exposure and colours fantastic pose. I like the crop but would consider adding a little more canvas for the bird to fly into.

[denise ippolito]

Arash, I was on your web-site the other day and was thinking how beautiful your Avocet images were. Very nicely done with great lighting. Agree w/ Doug's crop suggestion.

[Markus Jais]

Arash, this shot is amazing. Awesome light, perfect sharpness and excellent image quality. The 5D II really performs well at ISO 1.600. I am currently thinking about getting one as an addition to my 7D.

Markus

[Fabs Forns]

Stunning colors, wing spread and the water drops are a plus. Very sharp too.

[Stu Bowie]

Arash, great banking angle, and the avocet pops so well from the BG. I like the light, exposure and sharpness. Well captured.

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks guys,
Here is a vertical crop, the reason I had chosen sqaure is was wing position and that I wanted the bird to be large in the frame to show the details, let me know if you like the vertical better.

http://www.stanford.edu/%7Eahazeghi/Photos/birds/aa%20vert%20copy.jpg

[arash_hazeghi]

Arash, I was on your web-site the other day and was thinking how beautiful your Avocet images were. Very nicely done with great lighting. Agree w/ Doug's crop suggestion.


Thanks a lot Denise for nice comments and checking out my website!!! :)

Here is the large version (http://ari1982.smugmug.com/Animals/American-Avocet-Exhibit/11608223_pMiyQ#815207791_5bSdZ-X2-LB) if you want to see more details

[Kurt Bowman]

Love the light, action, color and detail.

[Markus Jais]

I like both crops and I think both work very well. I prefer the vertical but only by a very small margin.

Markus

[Bonnie Block]

Killer, Arash! I like the vertical crop--but either works.
Fantastic bg on this--makes it really special. Congrats!

[Rich Steel]

Hi Arash

Wonderful image combining great light, pose, colour combinations and background. I think the vegatation at the bottom of the frame really adds to the image than it just being a plain background. I would consider taking out the water droplets which I find a bit distracting.

Cheers

Rich

[Dave Leroy]

Super image Arash. It has everything right.
If I had to choose, I would take the first post. for me it seems to accentuate the bird and habitat more.

[Karl Egressy]

Super flight shot with great wing position. I like the square crop for the same reason you do.
The background make the bird pop.

[Ofer Levy]

The repost is exactly what I had in mind - just add a little bit more to the right.

[Danny Laredo]

This is great Arash, super flight pose light and detail. I prefer the repost as its imo far better then the original in terms of comp.

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks a lot guys,

I chose to keep the water drops because they are a part of the shorebird behaivior/habitat (Avocets splash during landing and take off) plus they are very clear in the high res version :)

Thanks for all the nice comments again.

[niranjan sant]

uuff what great light and superb details in whites,and those water droplets add beauty to it

[Mital Patel]

"Hope you like it". are you kidding arash ? this is a masterpiece and presentation over the perfection. hats off to you boss.

[A_Maddah]

Hi Arash
beautiful image.I like the wing position and the eye contact.I think repost is better.
TFS

Asad

[James Salywoda]

WOW! Awesome shot Arash all has been said congrats on a beauty.

[Luis Villablanca]

Congratulations on this super image, Arash!
I wish I could get one half as good as this one.