One More Yellowlegs

[Bill Dix]

Another Lesser Yellowlegs from Jamaica Bay's East Pond, Friday morning. I also tried a vertical version of this, but preferred the horiz. C&C appreciated.

D90 | 80-400 VR @ 270mm | ISO 500 | 1/1000s @ f/7.1 | -0.3 EV | HH

[wendell westfall]

Like everything about it, Bill -- beautiful, radiant colors.

[Robert O'Toole]

Love the soft light, the water colors and the birds pose is nice too. Like the low angle and the sharpness is good.

Looks like the image needs a little CCW rotation.

Also this is a personal preference but unless the reflection is sharp, I would crop it out so we can see the subject better.

Robert

[Bill Dix]

Love the soft light, the water colors and the birds pose is nice too. Like the low angle and the sharpness is good.

Looks like the image needs a little CCW rotation.

Also this is a personal preference but unless the reflection is sharp, I would crop it out so we can see the subject better.

Robert

Robert, thanks for the comments. I can't agree with the rotation. I rotated just a tiny bit in creating the OP, to the point where the eye, tip of tail and elbow all aligned vertically with their reflected counterparts, so I believe it is right as originally posted. The water ripples could create a perception of needing rotation, and perception is important, but I'll stick with the original.

As to the crop: The reflection is far from mirror-sharp, and I generally agree that a blurry reflection does not add to an image. In this case I felt that the geometry of the legs and their reflection was part of what made this interesting, so I chose to leave the less-than-ideal reflection as part of the presentation. I've reposted a tight crop, with the eye at ROT point, to see what it looked like (seems a bit low in the frame, but to show more at the bottom exposed more of the bill and legs which looked odd without showing them in their entirety). Because it becomes a large crop (repost is 47% of full width) it lacks some critically sharp detail. As you say, its a personal preference; I think I prefer the OP but I'll be interested in hearing what others think. Thanks for commenting.

[Ed Prete]

I prefer the second crop, however would like a little more leg room. both are very nice though.

[denise ippolito]

Bill, Very nice details and pose. The raised foot is nice. The legs look a tiny bit saturated. Either comp. works for me but the second one seems a bit tight on the bottom. Hope to meet you out there.:)

[Bill Dix]

Bill, Very nice details and pose. The raised foot is nice. The legs look a tiny bit saturated. Either comp. works for me but the second one seems a bit tight on the bottom. Hope to meet you out there.:)

Thanks, Denise. I didn't intentionally increase the saturation, but I did experiment here with a "Soft Light" blending layer at around 25% opacity instead of my usual Levels and Curves adjustments, to make the image pop a bit. I believe it did also boost saturation of yellows, and especially reds where I tried it on a Short-billed Dowitcher that I haven't posted yet. Believe it or not, last Friday was the first time I'd been to Jamaica Bay. I hadn't realized it is actually closer (in time) for me than Brig, and about the same as the tip of Sandy Hook (especially if I'm on the road by 4:45AM to get there by sunrise); and much easier to get close to the birds. So I'll definately go again; and maybe next time go on to Nickerson. Hope to see you there.

[Mark Young]

A beautiful image Bill. I like the composition of the first one, but prefer the closer details of the bird in the repost, so maybe something in between?