Swowy Plover and chicks

Canon 1DIV and 600mm
f 6.3
SS 1/1000
ISO 800
70% FF on a cloudy day
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

Wonderful behaviour captured! lovely low angle with good details & exposure. Maybe a bit tight at the bottom, but not a deal breaker.
Just love how the chicks seem to be head butting their mother.

Nice moment captured ... love the raised foot and excellent detail!

Might brighten the mid-tones just a bit and lighten the whites just a tiny bit to lessen the cloudy day effect.
Agree with more room on the bottom if you have it.

This is an extremely cute shot -- tells a great story. Inclusion of habitat is nice. Agree with others that it would benefit from more room below, and maybe a bit of brightening or warming.

Excellent behaviour captured! Love the way chicks are hiding under the mom's wings.
Superb composition.

Regards,
Satish.

What a beauty, Gail! Would love to see what the little ones look like, hope you have more on this family?

I love everything about this image, the composition is great (I like the space around the subjects), I like the patches of green in the background (they give depth, and also context to the story), great IQ, and I must mention that little foot kicking sand-simply adorable!

Kind regards,

That little foot up in the air really makes this one special. Your details are lovely. Whites look good. Agree on a tad more space below. I feel the vegetation works very nicely for this family potrait.

Wonderful shot.
Excellent timing, details are superb as usual, and terrific shooting angle.
Very well done.

What a unique and wonderful behavior image you've captured. As noted above, the vegetation adds to it, as does the sand-kicking of course. A typical sample of the white areas shows them overweighted about ten points toward the blue channel. I could imagine a slightly looser comp all around, but judging from the bit of green around your signature you may have had issues with oof foreground outside the frame. Well done.

Beautiful Gail, exposure perfect I think and a big cute factor...as usual :S3:....the chicks are really quite large.

Great low angle as we've come to expect from you and many others...your avatar speaks for itself. The little bit of oof vegetation works in nicely for the composition....my only thought was it may need a little more room on the bottom and then a bit more all round to compensate

Loverly. I am surely in the more room below club. A great nesting bird find for Nova Scotia :).

I like this one a lot, plenty of detail. I like the way the BG frames the family.

Jack

Lovely image. OOf grass really works for me. Spot to the left of birds head looks odd and draws my attention. Maybe cloning a bit of vegetation there or reducing the oof grey edge by the head/neck area.

Jim

Awesome storytelling image. I agree with all the compliments offered thus far.
The only thing I would add, is that a better head angle on the adult bird would have
only served to improve this excellent image. By a better head angle, I mean
the adult looking to it's right a bit more, not showing it's right eye, bill more in profile,
and left eye showing better....my opinion of course.

Hi Gail

Yes, a beautiful moment captured. Love seeing their little legs sticking out. Techs are solid, especially for a overcast day. Nice crisp detail on moms head and chicks. I also think a profile HA would have taken this one up a notch. Well done.

Thank you all for your comments.
Jim-I didn't clone anything on this image.
I do have more room at the bottom but it is OOF sand.Will go back and see if I like the inclusion.
Artie-As I am sure you know:w3I took these shots in Sanibel.
I am away for the next 12 days so will repost then if I remember,
Gail

Thanks Gail. I know that Snowy Plover is a Gulf Coast breeder but I thought that Swowy Plover might be a new maritime species that I was not familiar with.

sweet shot Gail, I also prefer more room in the bottom