First Post-Surgery Outing

[Arthur Morris]

Headed out to the beach on Saturday morning (after getting out of the hospital on Friday after a 5-day visit) into the cold, Long Island spring. It was dark and windy.... Got the chills--not too smart--and headed home well before 8am.

The usual horseshoe crab egg-eating shorebirds were present. Stopping the action was a challenge....

Canon 800mm f/5.6 L IS lens with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1D MIV. ISO 1000. Evaluative metering +2 stops: 1/200 sec. at f/9 in Tv Mode with ISO Saftey Shift enabled. (Could have used at least 2/3 stop more light....) Lens Micro-Adjustment (http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2011/01/11/the-lens-align-mk-ii-the-lens-align-tutorial-micro-adjusting-magic/): 0.

Beach clean-up.

To learn more about my two surgeries, see the blog (http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/) and scroll down.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Love everything about it. signature image of yours. excellent low angle, terrific sharpness, exposure and pose. I am liking the texture in the sand a lot. And of course, feet visible is a big plus....easier said than done.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Quite lovely Arthur!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Artie. As usual - excellent exposure, sharpness, comp, and low shooting angle. These guys seem to (almost) always have their heads in rapid motion when foraging - you did well to get a sharp image at 1/200. I like the sand on the beak and the posture of looking down for the next food item. Well done.

[Chris Kotze]

Excellent low angle and DOF, sharp and superbly exposed

[Jonathan Ashton]

Looks spot on to me, the colours and exposure look great. When you refer to the exposure did you mean it was underexposed by 2/3 or you would have liked to have given another 2/3 stop. The reason I am asking is because the colours/saturation looks superb to me. The only possible nit for me is perhaps there could be a tad more detail around the eye???

[Kim.K.K.Lam]

Wonderful image,Sper low angle and sharp...Arthur.

[Troy Lim]

Very nice image indeed, love the composition.

[Steve Wasson]

Beautiful image! Bird's posture angle are great. Thanks for suffering to capture it!

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie. As usual - excellent exposure, sharpness, comp, and low shooting angle. These guys seem to (almost) always have their heads in rapid motion when foraging - you did well to get a sharp image at 1/200. I like the sand on the beak and the posture of looking down for the next food item. Well done.

Steve, You asked the key question. Note that I was working in Tv mode. I set a shutter speed that I thought would freeze the bird if it paused for an instant. But the key was my doing something that I have trouble doing: putting the pedal to the metal, holding the shutter button down firmly once I had a good angle to the bird and a relatively clear view of the feet and a nice posture. Usually when "rapid firing" I almost always hesitate for an instant between images, almost imperceptibly. But I know that I am doing it. With the Sanderling frenetic head movements as they search for the tiny eggs I made a conscious effort to hold the shutter button down firmly. Doing so worked perfectly here. Thanks for helping me write part of the text for an upcoming blog (http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/) post on when to use Tv mode :).

[Arthur Morris]

Looks spot on to me, the colours and exposure look great. When you refer to the exposure did you mean it was underexposed by 2/3 or you would have liked to have given another 2/3 stop. The reason I am asking is because the colours/saturation looks superb to me. The only possible nit for me is perhaps there could be a tad more detail around the eye???

Jon, First off, understand that exposure and brightness level of the image as presented are two different things. The RAW file here was underexposed by at least 2/3 stop. I could have gone to +2 2/3 or even +3 in Tv mode but I was trying to save ISO a bit. It is rare for me to have to move the EXP slider to the right when converting as I did here. By E-ingTTR (exposing to the right you produce larger image files with more data). And the resulting image will have less noise in the shadows. This topic will be another future blog (http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/) post, probably early next week.

I did lighten the area in front of the eye a bit as the feathers there were a bit matted from the wet sand. I try not to worry too much about "possible nits." (Heck, I do not like the use of the words "nit" or "nit-picking" as it suggests "minute and usually unjustified criticism." I ran a campaign against its use here probably a year ago and am happy that few folks use it anymore, :)

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all for stopping by and for your kind words. There are some excellent lessons in Panes 10 & 11.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Great to have you back Guru.. :cheers::cheers:

[Stu Bowie]

Well Artie, if your RAW file was underexposed as you say, your final product looks great. Love the low angle, sharpness, and how the sand has stuck to the beak. Well placed in the frame too.

[Arthur Morris]

Staurt, What I am saying is that you can make an underexposed file look great, usually rather easily, but that there will be a bit more noise in the shadows with darker captures that are lightened and that in addition, the file size will be smaller, i.e., less data which will theoretically yield a slightly inferior print or image file. :)

[denise ippolito]

Lovely image Artie, I like the classic low angle and clean beach and BG. The sandy beak is a nice touch.:S3:

[Mark Young]

Lovely image Arthur. I like your low angle and exposure. The colours in the plumage look really nice. Is this an adult bird?

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Mark, Yes. This is an adult in breeding plumage. Sanderlings are very variable in spring. Some are bright orange, others grey. And as the feather edges wear,individual birds become brighter for a while.

[Mark Young]

Thanks Arthur, these birds aren't too common in Sydney.