American Oystercatcher

Me and Oystercatchers don't typically get along. I'm pretty sure this one loved me :D Dad, Philip Pietri and I took a trip out to Three Rooker Bar off the coast of Ozona. Amazing place with tons of action. This is one of the birds Philip and I were able to photograph.

This image is full frame, and is one of the first full frame OC images that I'm satisfied with. I've got two more that I really enjoy in this series. This one being my favorite.

Shooting Solution
Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: Sigma 500 f/4.5 + Kenko 1.4X TC (700mm), manually focused
Manual Exposure, 1/1250 @ f/8, ISO 400
Lens mounted directly to Shadle Slider, laying flat on my stomach

Thanks for looking!

Comments welcome and much appreciated :)

Beautifully captured Blake with excellent exposure and low angle but what I really love is the wonderful soft lighting and the composition with a bit of the habitat icluded. Really stunning.

Great exposure control, details and setting. I would be happy, too, if it were in my collection. Do you have one photographed at a slightly higher angle?

fantastic, blake!!!! love how all the elements are so complimentary of each other! and full frame!!! awesome!!

Love the pose and the colors I do see a halo around the bill and also the birds back

John

I can see how it would your favorite, the light on the background really makes that bird pop. If I strain my eyes, I see a faint halo in the bird's back, but for the life of me, I don't see any on the bill.

Beautiful light and colors, Blake, and a great pose to go with them. I like the shooting angle - looking slightly up at the bird. I might clone the one OOF grass stem that sticks the upraised foot and I'd be tempted to crop a wee bit from the right. Very nicely done.

Very well done.

The exposure and eye contact make this a real contender.

A little Gaussian Blur will take care of the sharpening halo.

Dad

Very sweet image Blake...

Good story Blake, thanks for sharing it :)
I love the image as is - the bird pose, BKGR and PP.

Blake, this is an outstanding image. The only thing I might suggest is cleaning up the very very very subtle foreground oofies in the lower left corner.

BTW - I appreciate how insistent you were about getting the perfect angle in relation to the light direction. It helped us both achieve some nice images!

I like it a lot Blake. The bird looks great and you were helped by excellent light. Love the BG with included habitat! How's your neck of the woods in the last couple of weeks of August?

Hi Blake. A fine oc image, with perfect light and background. You are going to think I'm over the edge, but here goes. The pose is great and I think could be emphasized by removing the diagonal piece of grass that goes up to the tucked up foot. (If you partake in such things).

Hi Grace! I definitely partake! As it stands now, this is an image that could be entered in any contest. Curves, a hint of Selective Color to reduce the yellows, and bit of sharpening. For my personal use, I agree with you.