American Avocets Muckin' Around

[Jeff Dyck]

After a run of 5 straight weeks without a whole day away from work (around our annual maintenance shutdown), I was very happy to take a long weekend off and "get the heck out of Dodge..." I headed to Oak Hammock Marsh (near Stonewall, Manitoba) with a couple friends for a weekend of birding and photography. We spent the second morning shooting on some of the mudflats from "quick blinds" (basically we just found an area on the edge for a low set-up and hid ourselves under camo netting blankets). These two Avocets were there sleeping before sunrise, but once they awoke they got into a bit of a squabble...

Canon 5DII -- Canon 800mm F/5.6L IS -- f/5.6 @ 1/1000s -- ISO400 -- Manual Exposure

93516

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent, beautiful pose and interaction with great details!

[christopher galeski]

great shot,worth doing 5straight weeks working,to get a shot like this,like the action,love the mud droplets,lighting,and low angle.pity about the soft wing on the bird on the left,but still a great shot.thanks.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Fantastic interaction, low angle and BG...Light looks amazing and the exp is spot on...Great image Jeff!

[Ofer Levy]

This is fantastic!!!

[Paul Randall]

Great work Jeff, agree that a tiny bit more DOF would have been an advantage by getting that LHS birds wing sharp but not a big issue.

[Mark Itol]

Love the action and the low shooting angle.

[Katie Rupp]

Besides the great interaction, the mud drops and the low angle, I really love the wonderful light and soft colors...very, very nice!

[Hendri Venter]

Fantastic action and angle makes this a mighty fine image. Well done.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Just love this image, fantastic interaction and mud droplets take this over the top TFS :cheers:

[Chris Kotze]

Super image. Excellent detail and action captured

[Jim Crosswell]

Great action Jeff! I like the interaction, low angle and BG.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Very Very well done. Action shots are quite difficult at that low angle. loved the mud, light, comp and two excellent head positions. Such a low percentage shot, this one.

[Ofer Levy]

Hi Jeff, I have sent you a PM regarding the Canon 800 f5.6 - please have a look.
Thanks,
Ofer :w3