Dunlin With a Watcful Eye

[Jim Fenton]

Image created yesterday evening at Plum Island in MA.

This Dunlin had been bathing but a peregrine flew over several times on low runs and this bird became very still with an eye tilted ever so slightly to the sky.

Interestingly, for the next 5 minutes, whenever I would move away and onto another subject, this bird would follow and stay very nearby. One of those speacial moments in my book....

Subject was in low cloudy light.

Nikon D300s, 600VR, TC14EII, ISO 600, f6.3, 1/640, NearUniWB preset, CW metering, +2.7 EV applied.

[allanrube]

Very nice high key shot. I might take a little off the right?

[Karen Summers]

a very nice image but not so keen on the crop would take some off the right

[Jim Fenton]

Interesting comments on the crop....I originally had it less pano and thought this looked better.

We'll see what the consensus becomes :)

[Mike Milicia]

Nice one, Jim!
Great pose, low angle, reflection, and really like the high key BG here!

If I were going to go for pano here, I'd make the pano more exaggerated and move bird up in the frame a bit to emphasize the symmetry.
Easier to show than describe so hope you don't mind a repost.
Probably not for everyone but that's my take.

[Michael Bertelsen]

Wonderful image Jim,
Crop or not , I wish it was mine.

Michael Bertelsen

[Mike Landwehr]

Beautiful shot, Jim!

I love the soft light, the high-key effect, the overall sharpness, and the super head angle. I like both your composition, and Mike's repost, but lean a bit toward your original placement, with more space above the bird than below.

[Jim Fenton]

Looking at Mike's re-post, I think something in between my original and his would fit the bill nicely.

I didn't notice the color differential until just now...mine looked fine at home, much closer to what Mike posted.

[Daniel Cadieux]

My persoanl preference is Mike's comp (I often prefer symmetry for reflections). I love the high-key effect and pose. Good read to, I can see why this was a special monent:cool:. Some work on the eye would improve things IMO as there is a bit too much going on in it and the catchlight looks odd. Still, highly effective image, lots to like....

[Jim Fenton]

Hmmmm...I'll have to look at the eye when I get home as my work monitor stinks.

Looks fairly normal here though?

Perhaps there is a bot of a reflective bounce off the calm water along with the catch light from the filtered light. I did selectively sharpen it but very lightly at 85, 0.3, 1

[Martin Wallis]

Love the high key image & clean BG, Also prefer Mike's crop

[Gary Esman]

Very cool image and a great memory to go with it. Congratulations. High key looks great here. The slight ripple in the reflection really grabs my eye. Like the repost also, but maybe a little to much pano. TFS, enjoyed looking at it:D

[Paul Randall]

This is beautiful, love the "white water" look to this one. I would be going for a more symmetrical 3:2 ratio crop but the pano still looks pretty good to me. Agree about dulling down the reflection a little. Its a delicate job and the line between slight reduction and making the eye look too two dimensional is a thin one. Here is a quick job.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Jim, this is quite special. I loved your crop. The ripples adding a lot.