White-rumped Sandpiper

[Bill Dix]

Sandy Hook on Sunday. I believe this is an adult, morphing from breeding to non-breeding plumage. Might have been a little sharper if I had remembered to turn on the VR.

D7000 | 500f4 + 1.4 TC | ISO 1000 | 1/1000s @ f/5.6 | +1.0 EV

[Jim Fenton]

Nice looking creature :)

Actually at 1/1000 (maybe you meant 1/100?), VR will hurt you more than help you with sharpness.

Like the water drops and the pose. HA is OK but a little too much toward you perhaps?

I would be tempted to blur the OOF vegetation in the background to put more emphasis on the subject?

[Bill Dix]

Nice looking creature :)

Actually at 1/1000 (maybe you meant 1/100?), VR will hurt you more than help you with sharpness.

Like the water drops and the pose. HA is OK but a little too much toward you perhaps?

I would be tempted to blur the OOF vegetation in the background to put more emphasis on the subject?

Thanks Jim. I hadn't thought about blurring the BG, but it would probably help. This is SOC, at 5.6. I do have another shot with better HA and BG, which maybe I'll post in a few days, but I liked the pose in this one. And you're probably right about the VR. 1/1000 is correct; I usually have VR on, but probably should be more selective about when to use it. [edit: BG is not straight out of the camera -- I did darken it a bit.]

[Ishmeet Sahni]

I like the overall image.

Regarding the sharpness, using a 1.4 TC with a 500 F/4 does cause the image to be a little soft. This I am saying only from personal experience. I am using a similar
kit, the difference being it is Canon. In my experience, using an f-stop of 7.1 to 8 would improve the image sharpness considerably. As a rule, I stop down on the F-stop
when using a TC. Unless the light is really challenging. (this is only what I follow)

cheers,

[Arthur Morris]

A classic worn, molting adult WRSA. The orange stains by the base of the bill were bad luck. Otherwise nice with a nice pose.