Well, sort of theme.

[Dan Busby]

This Upland Sandpiper had been trudging through the long grasses one early day in June in the Carden Plain of central Ontario. The heavy dew from the night left this bird soaking wet until it decided to jump up on a post to dry out as the sun rose. I was pushing things a bit with 1/200 and 400 ISO but the Gitzo and Jobu gimbal seemed to keep things steady enough for reasonable sharpness. All C&C welcome.
Canon 7D, EF500mm f/4L +1.4x, ISO:400, F/8@1/200, AP, Aperture Priority, One Shot AF, evaluative metering.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent wet pose and nice details

[Arthur Morris]

Perfect head angle. Loverly BKGR. Sharp with a good EXP and a very lovely perch. I'd love to see a true 3X2 vertical with lots more of the perch but I am thinking that this may have been a crop from a horizontal original....

[Dan Busby]

Artie - this is a vertical. When making the shot I had envisioned the crop and positioned the bottom of the frame to be close to what I thought would be workable. I do have a very small bit more of perch. I cropped about 30%, mostly from the top where some skyline was ruining the background. I should pay a bit more attention to the proportions of my crops :bg3:.

[Arthur Morris]

As I wrote just the other day somewhere, most of us--including and especially me, fail to point the lens up enough when creating verticals.... Maybe in another 28 years I will learn to do it consistently :S3:

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Lovely bg, bird, pose and weathered perch. Excellent dof and sharpness.
Agree with Artie on the 3x2 and more of the perch.
Very lovely image!

[Chris Kotze]

Super pose detail and colours. Lovely background

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Awesome details in the bird ...Love the shaken wet look !!

[Stu Bowie]

Tack sharp, good pose, and you have achieved perfect DOF. What a killer BG. Maybe a little more room at the bottom.

[Pieter de Waal]

Hi Dan, excellent image with great IQ and BG.

[Raymond Barlow]

excellent Dan, i like the soggy look, and superb light, and composition.