Spotted Sandpiper Staredown.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Taken at a nifty little local urban pond where on one side lies a few protruding rocks from out of the water. I've seen and photographed this species there before, but really wanted one on one of those rocks. I hid in the reeds and put on the audio...within seconds one was on this perch...which was the one I was hoping it would choose. It was alert but rather calm, and displayed like this when a grackle landed between us momentarily (the grackle also perched nicely on a rock for me:S3:).

Canon 7D + 100-400L @400mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/640s., f/6.3, ISO 800 (histogram checked), natural light, handheld from the ground, small crop for comp, removed an ygly dry grass strand on the perch via patch tool, and lightened the shaded side of the face and body a tad (dodge tool).

[jack williamson]

High IQ, great stare and a wonderful BG. Perfect exposure.

Jack

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Very well executed, Daniel. The stare, gorgeous bg and nice low angle make for a great image.
Wonder if this would work as a vertical too.
Would love to go photographing with you someday. You make it look so easy :)

[Lorant Voros]

Nice head on picture, great IQ as usual, nice BG. Do you have a vertical version with showing more of the rock? Nice work, Dan.

[Bill Dix]

Unusual look at this guy. Well conceived and executed. Lovely BG.

[Bruce Enns]

Beautiful Dan! Great pose and superb IQ as per usual...love the smooth two-tone background.

Bruce

[dankearl]

You couldn't pick a better perch and pose.
Perfect set up including the very nice BG.

[Arno Ellmer]

Awesome shot ,Daniel. Perch , bg and general pose are all superb. Never seen this bird before.
If it were mine ,I would tone down the perch slightly .
Do you have a frame with a side - on view of the head and/or body ?

[Frank Schauf]

Exellent image quality, great details and bg, Daniel.

[christopher galeski]

great IQ,magic BG,like the fanned tail.well done.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dan, good head on capture, eye contact, and with good DOF throughout sandpiper and rocky perch. I feel the central placement works well, and you positioned yourself nicely to get that BG. :w3

[Tony Whitehead]

Interesting to see one from this angle, Dan. Lovely BG and feather textures.

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot. I really like the head on shot, very nice background, excellent details, and very nice light.
Well done.