Pectoral Sandpiper

[Joseph Cala]

Hammonasset Beach State Park last October.

Nikon D300, 500mm f/4 VR + 1.4 TC.
1/800 @ f/5.6, ISO 800, Matrix Metering, Manual Mode.

C&C welcomed!

109148

[gail bisson]

Hi Joseph,
You will learn a ton of good stuff on this forum. I am glad you have joined us!
This image has a few problems. I will be gentle but honest! The 2 main problems are the fact that the bird is too big in the frame and because you are so close your DOF of 5.6 means that everything is out of focus except for the crown of the head. Cutting off the legs is also a big no no in avian photography.
You had nice light so the thing to have done here was move back and to the right of the bird to get the body parallel to the camera sensor and wait for the bird to turn his head slightly towards you for that perfect HA. I am the first to say that it is easy to say all these things but harder to do and takes lots of practice.
Look forward to seeing more of your efforts and encourage you to post in the ETL section. The mods are great there and really explain things well,
Gail

[Randy Stout]

Joseph:

I am a fan of shallow DOF in some situations, but do wish for a bit more DOF here. Your bird is well exposed.

The subject is rather large in the frame, Artie uses a rule of thumb, that the subject shouldn't be larger than 75% of the frames longest dimension.

It is also generally more effective to show more of the legs, or if they extend into the water, to leave room for the virtual legs so to speak.

Look forward to more, and there is certainly nothing wrong with pushing some of the normal rules for image design and composition as done here, but it won't be to everyones taste.

Cheers

Randy

[Randy Stout]

Sorry for the duplication, Gail and I were typing at the same time, and I didn't see her post before I put mine up!

Cheers

Randy