Easter Peep

[Sean McMahon]

Sort of an beach theme Easter egg hunt.

My favorite shot of last week's Gulf Coast, FL vacation. Taken on the beach behind our resort on Sanibel Island.

Not 100%, but I think this is a semi-pal sandpiper, non breeding, worn plumage.

Handheld, laying my stomach. Probably 12 feet away.

Boy, these FL birds aren't shy if your laying down! Must be the bucket hat. :D

Slight crop. Slid the shadow and highlight contrast down. Kicked up the saturation to make pink in the shell pop. Kicked up the sharpness.

Thoughts?

Happy Shooting!

Thanks,
Sean

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
Lens: Canon 75-300mm f/5.6
Exposure: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 200

[Robert O'Toole]

Love it, the little pink scallop looks great and makes the image.

To make it even better, I would say crop some off the bottom to quick mask or heal some of the distracting white spots off of the BG.

Robert

[Daniel Cadieux]

Very cute, and the perfect umblemished shell is bonus! You could clone out the OOF shell touching the head/back.

[Glenn Bartley]

Dan makes a very good point. I think this one could use a contrast boost as well.

[Sean McMahon]

Thanks everyone. I don't have photoshop actually, but for the purposes of the forum being educational, I hear ya Dan and Robert.

It's crazy but I didn't notice the OOF blob above his head until Daniel mentioned it! Weird. Now it's blatant to me. I agree, I should remove.

As far as contrast, I noticed with the shadow contrast up at neutral, the upper wing feathers were much more dark brown than than he was in person, so I dialed down the shadow contrast to make it more accurate.

And I seem to need to dial down the highlight contrast on many of my Florida trip shots because many most weren't taken at ideal light times. This one was taken mid morning, so the highlights seemed a little harsh on the original.

Can you elaborate? Will more contrast make the feather detail pop more? Or what do you think? Is the photo kind of all too grey across the board?

Just trying to learn from other folks opinions.

Thanks!
Sean

[Mike Tracy]

Nicely executed with a lot of cute factor.

[Arthur Morris]

Not 100%, but I think this is a semi-pal sandpiper, non breeding, worn plumage. Handheld, laying my stomach.

Hi Sean, The bird is a winter Sanderling: Calidris alba (Latin for white sandpiper, the whitest winter sandpiper.) Semipalmated Sandpiper does not appear in FL in winter, even late winter. They are still in Venezuala. (I would suggest getting a copy of my "Shorebirds: Beautiful Beachcombers."


As for "handheld, laying on my stomach." As one who has spent a bit of time on my belly I can assure you that your memory is off on this one (unless you were laying on a chaise lounge...) You were working from below the bird so if your lens were anywhere near the ground your perspective would have been totally different and none of the background details would have been visible.

Before reading what you wrote I was going to say that if you had move the your left and gotten your lens close the the ground the image would have been 100 X more effective. I do love the scallop shell.

later and love, artie

[Sean McMahon]

Thanks for commenting, Arthur. On the both the ID and the advice.

I could very well be off in my memory as I did do a lot of shooting that morning, reacting when this or another shorebird happened by. And if I was on my stomach, it's usually more of an elbow tripod, which would have put the lens about a foot off the ground.

Either way I hear ya that lower would have been better. I'll post another shorebird approaching a shell in a few days, hopefully my angle was lower.

I wish I could have been more to the left, but probably would have spooked him, the whole experience of him cautiously approaching the shell and sipping out of it was seconds. And he was watching me as he approached.

Thanks again! Your advice is valuable, welcomed, and appreciated!

Sean

[Dave Phillips]

Sean, this little guy is so cute. I am sitting here having a cup of coffee and played with a few of the pp suggestions.
I am learning that contrast gives a false appearance of sharpness......and have in the past had a tendency to add too much contrast, only to get overprocessed the post card look. The light casting tiny shadows is what gives the best detail IMO.

anyway, hope you don't mind my playing. I enjoyed this image, nice touch with the shell

[Jeff Wear]

i like your shot very much but Daves work does improve your a shot a bit

[Sean McMahon]

I like it Dave, thanks for the repost and the tech notes on sharpness / contrast.

Outer Sanibel is beautiful with stretches of these pinkish or greenish scallops on the beach. Many still alive. The shore birds have a buffet with these opened ones. I'm fortunate to have found a semi affordable resort that has scenes like this out the back door. I have other shots with opened scallops facing the wrong way or laying down, but this one was near perfect. I'm glad to have gotten the catchlight, and the result is cute for sure.

I also remembered after replying to Arthur that I would have been laying in the surf if I was off to the left and dead-on to the sunlight for this shot. After coffee and on a morning walk I guess I wasn't up for getting head-to-toe wet that morning! :-)

Thanks again, glad you enjoyed.

Will post another similar soon.

Sean