Ruddy Turnstone - non breeding

[Tom Rambaut]

7d, 500mm + 1.4ext, 1/2000 @ 6.3. iso 640.

I had the tripod at its lowest for this.

I did wonder about showing this - been somewhat of an experiment, first time I have touched the white balance. Too blue? Too busy background? How do the whites look? - I had to push the recovery all the way to the right in ACR. I did not get the exposure right on this one.

Have not taken many photos recently - Sydney weather terrible - rain or very overcast, those are the options.

Thanks Tom

[Randy Stout]

Tom:

Like the low angle, raised foot,head angle,waves and comp.

Too blue for me. Whites are close, might consider a multiply or linear burn selection on them to bring back a bit more detail. Some noise showing in the background.

Lots of good here, keep working on the exposure:bg3:

Cheers

Randy

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Tom,
Like Randy I like the low angle and the pose of the bird. Agree on a little too blue and some noise in the BG. Nice shot overall.

[Ofer Levy]

I like it Tom. Awesome low angle and eye contact. I see no problem with the whites - plenty detail and perfectly exposed. Would slightly de-saturate the blues but not much. Would crop a bit off the top to make it less of a square and more of a horizontal.
Weather in Sydney is indeed shocking....:e3

[Gary Esman]

Hi Tom, I like the shot. I think what helped here with the whites is the sun angle creating shadows. Agree to bring down the blues a little and also the crop off the top. The cropping would help focus more on the subject and less on the blue background. Nice low angle, sharp and like the walking pose. Really like the Ruddy's keep them coming. TFS

Gary.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the low angle, and the wet rock(?) it is walking on. The raised foot and spread toes is really neat. The WB is fine, but as stated it is the blues that are too saturated. You may opt to lighten (but not fully eliminate) the dark streak just above the head. Although the HA is parallel to the sensor plane I still would have preferred a degree or two more towards us

P.S. Whites look good from here too...all-in-all a fine image.

[Tom Rambaut]

Thanks guys - Rock with about half an inch of water from a recent wave - the bird is not walking on water!

I may try that crop as suggested and desaturate the blues a bit. The dark streaks are bits of seaweed floating around in the sea.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Slight backing off on the saturation would be lovely !! But , This is one impressive shot . Love the HA and the light on the bird. The setting is lovely too !!

[Mark Young]

Nice one Tom. I like the bird approaching you with it's head side on like this.