Black-fronted Dotterel

Attachment 172407
This is a small plover-like bird that frequents water edges, although more commonly fresh water where this one was photographed (around the edge of a dam). The bird scurries up the bank every now and then chasing insects but spends most of its time with its partner close by at the water's edge. I was lying on the ground for this shot (hoping the bird wouldn't notice me). Crop is a bit under half the frame area. I've cloned out some pale dead foliage on the left of the frame.

Thanks for taking a look and any comments you are kind enough to share.

Technical: Canon 80D with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/250 sec, f6.3, ISO 1600. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, sharpness = 3, crop, lighting adjustments, reduced NR from Canon default values) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin. Modest NR applied to bird and stronger to background. Sharpened in PSE (Sharpness tool, remove Gaussian Blur: usually 0.3 to 0.4 pixels at 50-60%) after final size reduction.

What a beautiful bird, with perfect head turn, nice exposure, lovely BG. Near perfection; seeing the feet would take it over the top. One of the great aspects of BPN is seeing birds from around the world that I might otherwise never know about.

This bird really pops here. Nice colors and exposure. Details look good especially given it seems to be a large crop. Agree that a slight leg raise would take it way over the top but this is great. The BG is nice and good DOF to really isolate the bird. TFS

What a neat little bird, beautiful colors and markings. I like your low POV, nice blacks, whites and reds, techs look for the crop you describe. The green foreground and background compliment the bird. A bird I have never seen before, thank you for sharing, Glenn.

One of your best in my opinion Glenn. The contrast on the bird against the BG makes it for me.

Well done

Will

Glenn, you guys sure have some great looking birds. Nice exposure, details and colors, I wish the 2 grass strands weren't there but that can't be helped.
Nice one.

-Tim

Thank you all for your comments and critiques. I'm surprised I didn't get more comments about the grass spikes - you are all too kind.

I haven't done anything out of the ordinary to make the bird pop here. Sometimes I will play with the brightness of the background and subject to enhance pop but not in this case. It's largely how it came out of camera. BTW, the foliage was quite tall relative to this very small bird so little chance of getting a clear foot view but I liked this view better than the shoreline shots where there is a better chance of seeing the feet.

This bird and its partner visit the dam each summer as I suspect it's the same pair I've seen in previous years. Not sure where they head over the winter: perhaps the milder climate on the coastal plain east of Canberra. We sit at around 600 metres altitude here and get much colder, frosty winters than down the coast.

What a beautiful bird and you have captured it beautifully Glenn. Detail, exposure, color look excellent to me. Very well done. :-)
Nature is beautiful, but not perfect... so the two blades of grass don't distract from the beauty of the image for me.
Your image is lovely as presented... but I would be tempted to also try more of a pano crop that eliminates almost all of the gray band at the top.

Very nice Glenn. Lots of great colors and details in this one. Nice pose and a creamy green Bg. I don't mind the small blades of grass neither. Well done

Really stand out image Glenn,with nice fine feather detail and magical colours. The BG is perfect for this little fellow and the near out of focus foreground a very nice touch ( as are the two slender stalks of grass), almost like a "bird in heaven" look.

Glenn, Sorry for the late timing in commenting. I've never seen that bird, and it's wonderful to see. Exactly what Bill Dix said. I like the BG and appreciate you getting that low perspective. Thanks for sharing.