Kildeer

[Jay Sheinfield]

Early morning shot. Softened BG and cloned out some FG distractions. Crossed legs a problem?

Nikon D3s
ISO 800\
1/600 sec @ f/5.6
850mm

Comments welcome

[Lance Peters]

Hi Jay - crossed legs are not a problem for me.
Like the low shooting angle and the head turn towards you. Looks to be lacking in detail - is this a large crop?
Like the clean BG - might clone out the couple of darker area's in the water.
Might have upped the ISO a little - To provide some safety margin.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Hi Lance,

Yup, mondo crop. It had a sharp eye so I went for it, but thinking about it, I was pushing it a bit far. These guys are just hard for me to get close too..................

[Julie Kenward]

These are one of my favorite birds, Jay. I really do like the image except for the crop/quality issue. You're right - the eye is super sharp and I'm even liking the "bad" HA - he's got a real attitude about him! I would prefer if he were coming to you but this is still so sweet. The water is lovely as well. I'd see if you can add back in some space and get him into a ROT's position to recover the quality of his feathers. Another option would be to go for a painted filter or some other special effect and take it in that direction. It's certainly worth exploring.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Thanks Jules,

I'm haven't done much work in special effects, so I just might try your idea of adding back some space and see where that goes................i agree, these birds are very cool. Ultimately, I just may need to do some belly crawling to get close enough.

[John Chardine]

I like the low angle and the crossed legs! The latter suggests action which I always love if portrayed in a still photograph. BTW nice to see a Killdeer in the water! I agree that this looks like a heavily cropped image. Although the D3s is superb it is still only laying down 12 mp over the full frame so in focal-length limited situations you are behind the eight ball.