Something Fishy About This Black-bellied Plover.

A very tame individual that allowed close approach, or rather it made the approach(es) by itself. It was getting close to minimum focusing distance when it's head dropped out of view below for a split second. When it popped right back up I barely had time to become excited at the realization it had plucked a fish out of the water, then fire off two frames before it chugged its head back up and abruptly out of the frame above to swallow the fish.

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/320s., f/8, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, full frame, darkened the pupil, darkened the fish's belly area via burn tool to reveal details there, minor bill cleanup via patch tool.

Great timing Daniel!

Composition is very much to my liking. Details and sharpness are perfect. Love the detail revealed in the bill showing the barbs.

Background colours are nice and soft. A consideration may be to eliminate, or make less prominent, the darker area in the background below the fish, and just left of your copyright notice.

It was a fun shooting with you that day, seeing how this fantastic shot came to be :)

Thanks Daniel!
Ross

This is awesome. Where I live these birds are very shy. Perfect focus, love the saw like beak with the fish there, the detail and especially the eye. It could only be better if the fish was facing you. Nice work again, Dan.

I'm enjoying all the lovely details here, and I like your comp too. Nice one Dan

Wonderful image, Daniel!

Great details, superb IQ, colours, and killer BG - the little fish a bonus! Sharpness is spot-on:)

What a pleasure to view, I thank you so much for sharing, hope to contribute more in this forum as I just returned from a trip in the Kruger Park and had some lovely avian encounters:)

Warmest regards,

Amazing portrait with the fish, Daniel. I really like the showing of the inside of the beak that has barbs.

This is beautiful Daniel!
I am amazed that you got this tack sharp at this SS. These guys move so fast, especially when they are about to swallow a fish!
Great BG, really like seeing the serrations in the beak. Great BG and as always wonderful POV,
Gail

Man, this is a really beautiful image! Really is.
My kind of stuff, when I can get that close. I love portraits that are the result of hard work in the field.
A bit of luck in the way of a tamer than normal bird is an awesome reward for hard work that you put in.
Thanks for sharing mate!