Piping Plover Stand-Off

Canon 1D Mark IV
500mm +1.4x
Skimmer pod

ISO 500
1/800
f/9

Taken during Mike Milicia's wonderful plover/tern workshop in MA last month. There was a small group of adult piping plovers near the water, and some sort of fracas seemed to be underway. These two faced off for a bit. I got a few pics of some more exciting action but alas the sharpness was not there. I liked this as they were both pretty sharp, and I really like how the two outer raised feathers on the crouched plover look like horns. I think the askew feathers on the chest were from previous bouts between these two a few moments before.
Shot on Manual, out of my comfort zone! I learned a lot over the weekend, thanks to Mike's excellent instruction.
Light was starting to get harsh, but I thought this one was salvageable, did some whites recovery and tried to even out tones a bit. This is about a 35% crop.
All critiques and comments greatly appreciated; thank you for looking.

Melissa you captured fantastic behavior here...Love those ruffled feathers, visible eye of both the birds and Super low angle.
Exposure, IQ, Sharpness, DOF everything looks great...Harsh light is evident but you handled it well...I might consider taking silver off the top (personal choice :S3:) but as presented this is an excellent image.

Great timing... That is the classic aggressive pose of a plover. Glad you were able to get that. Well done Melissa. No nits from me.

I really like the interaction captured here as well as the nice low angle.

You go girl! This is a shot I've wanted, but never had them both in the same plane. I don't know why they do that this time of the year, perhaps practicing for next ? Anyhow...back to the image. I love it, am fine with the light. A bit of fill would have lit up the bellies, but that isn't so important to me here. Really a superb capture.

Cant suggest anything significant to improve the image Melissa, just great, perfect tyiming

Great shooting angle a fantastic action shot, Melissa.

You nailed it. A fantastic image Melissa.

This is terrific Melissa. Love the crouched position and the ruffled feathers. The catchlight in both eyes is perfect.
Love the low POV and IQ is awesome.
I also like the bright blue sky as it is different than the usual piping plover shots.
You might try a warming filter to fool the eye and reduce the somewhat harsh light.
Gail

Excellent interaction Melissa!

This is really nice! Great POV, super IQ, and great color.
Superb.

The low angle, comp and IQ, along with the fantastic interaction captured make this image for me, Melissa.
Brilliantly executed.

You hit a home run with this shot. Wonderful. Bill

Fantastic interaction/behavior!
Two great poses, two good head angles, good separation, clean beach, and both within DOF ... doesn't come together like this very often.
Much better than any interaction I have managed to capture so far ... congrats! :cheers:

Hello Melissa,

Superb capture !! I really liked the interaction. Everything looks perfect and really excellent timing.

- Maya

Hi Melissa, for me this is inspirational nature photography and an award winning image for sure! It has it all, stunning behaviour, awesome light and superb techs - fantastic!
Here is a version with a bit off the bottom, some off the top and some colours balance adjustment. What do you think? If you put the two versions in the same folder it will be easier to see the differences.

Most has been said, Melissa.This is great action captured here ! Superb in all respects.I like the sliver that Ofer took off at the top. One to be proud of !!

Wonderful image, great capture of this moment.

This is a fantastic image,its got everything.well done.

Wow!!!! Excellent shot. Love the light, wonderful poses, great details, and excellent timing.
Well done.

Thank you for all the nice comments. Ofer, I think taking some off the top and bottom is an improvement for sure, thank you. I am still a little undecided about the color balance shift, to my eye it looks a little greenish to me in your repost, but could be my monitor. Maybe i should just cool original down a bit? Is that essentially what you did?
I wondered about that too Grace, why they would do this behavior late in season, but perhaps it has to do with that nests had been lost a week previously due to a huge storm? So going for another round? I don't know.

Melissa - congrats on a great image with excellent interaction.

TFS,
Rachel

EDIT: you are right Melissa! I had another look at the colours of your version and it does look better - please ignore the colours in the repost.
Regarding the composition - If you agree about cropping off the bottom then you will have to balance with at least some off the top. I have also noticed at least 8 quite large dust spots that have to be removed.
I believe this unique behaviour shot deserves the best possible processing to get the maximum out of it. I strongly recommend to convert the RAW file using DPP and not photoshop - adjusting WB using the temperature rather a preset. Congratulations again !!!:cheers:

Hi Melissa, getting down and dirty has really paid off nicely to capture this angle. Love the interaction, especially the raised feathers of the plover on the right. Good choice of aperture to create good DOF on both, and I like Ofer's crop taking off top and bottom.

Melissa...fantastic image on all counts, everything came together for you and you were able to properly photograph it. I'm jealous!! Sometimes a couple of individuals simply spat over a small piece of personal space, or a morsel of food.

VERY VERY SWEET IMAGE.

Love the low angle detail and fantastic interaction.

Exellent image quality, great details and sharpness, Melissa.

Great behavior and low angle Melissa. Wish I was there. Congratulations on switching to manual and you nailed the exposure. I am finding the more I practice it the better I am getting with manual. I haven't switched back since!

Great image quality overall. Amazing low angle, details, color tones and bheavior.