Diggin' a hole - Horned Lark.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Same individual as before. When I first got close to this lark, it quickly dug itself a nice cup in the sand and sat low in it...presumably to hide from me (or perhaps a hawk as there have been many lately at this location). Anyhow, whatever or whoever it was hiding from it certainly made for interesting behaviour images. I was not aware larks did this, but I guess being a ground dweller it must be quite a normal instinct to do this when possible danger presents itself. After about 2 minutes it got back up a foraged for food nonchalantly around me - hence my reasoning a hawk may have been present.

Canon 40D + 100-400L @400mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering (+1.7 stops, metered off the sand), 1/500s., f/6.3, ISO 800, natural light, handheld lying flat on the ground, slight crop for comp (~85% FF).

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Daniel,

Like this one a lot - especially the tones in the sand. Nice one!

[Jeff Dyck]

Very nice behavioural shot Daniel. I am with Andrew - the soft lighting works very well with the sand and has given a beautiful overall tonality to the shot. I might be tempted to crop just a bit more in from the right to eliminate the black pebble and small chunk of sand on the edge of the frame and dodge / clone the second black pebble at the bottom right - I find them a bit distracting.

[Dan Brown]

This is a great image all around Daniel! Love the FG,BG,low angle and the head on look, not to mention the great behavior! With the head-on look, I might crop some off the right side for a possible improvement on a great image!

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Really neat behavioral image. Reminds me of old war movies where they would dig the tanks down into the sand to give them a lower profile.
His colors and patterns blend well with the sand. Sharp and nicely exposed.

Cheers

Randy

[denise ippolito]

Daniel, I like this a lot. The little dug out is great. Nice and sharp too.

[Bhushan Dalvi]

Daniel, this is a great behavioral image. I like how the bird blends in with the BG and the sharpness. The HA here is intresting. I think a slight tilt of the head to expose the left eye more would have made it even better.

[Bill Dix]

Nice one, Daniel. I like the complimentary colors, showing how well this fellow can camouflage himself. Comp is ok with me without any further crop; might be tempted to remove the several darkest pebbles on the right, but not necessary. Nice image just as presented.

[Arthur Morris]

Wonderful on all counts. I am thinking that this must be a young bird with the rather indistinct face patterning.... The color scheme makes it.

[Jim Crosswell]

Great image Daniel! I like the setting, BG, FG and low angle.