Western Sandpiper

I made this image in 2019 in Sand hollow State Park.

I would have loved to stop down a little bit more If I had to take this image again.

Camera Settings:-
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Nikon D850 600 f/4 + 1.4 x TCIII
1/4000 sec; f/8; ISO 1000
Manual; Matrix metering


Post Processing:-
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Raw Processing using C1P 20
Cropped from Top right side
Added Canvas in lower left
Nik 25-25 Filter on Bird at reduced opacity
Neat Image NR
Sharpening for Presentation
Dodge and Doge selectively
Cloned few elements in Beach.


Let me know your thoughts and comments.

Thanks
Krishna

Dof does not bother me at all here. Stopping down would have made the line crossing behing the head stronger anyhow, so better as is in my opinion, even with the legs and tail out of dof range. The face, neck, and back are all very sharp and that is where my attention stays at (unless critiquing!). I kinda wish it was reddish all the way to the bottom of the frame though, but I love the clean sand, feeding behaviour, and beautiful feathers. Could the image use a touch of CW rotation?

I'm with Daniel on this one. The feet and tail being OOF don't bother me. I love the clean canvas, here in Missouri all we have are mud flats full of debris.

Krishna, the action and the detail on the subject are fantastic. I like the rich magenta in the image although a bit of a drag that it crosses through the head.

I echo Daniel's comments on the feet being in focus, it feels important in a simple and intimate frame like this **EDIT** your point on dof is noted, but f8 is a great starting point. After further viewing, I think it's the leg that bothers me more than the foot Krishna (just a personal pref).

Also agree on CW rotation as the blue in the FG angles UR just like the magenta line.

Tone and comp are good with me.

Superb and sublime. DATPCA. A bit of CW rotation would increase the diagonal linesof the bird making the image even stronger. In today's blog post I wrote, And some folks on BPN often ask for “more d-o-f” in low light-, already high ISO-, slow shutter speed situations. That is why for decades, my mantra has been to focus on the eye, get that sharp, and to heck with depth of field. https://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2021...field-lessons/Learn the basics of long lens d-o-f in that post here. Even with lots of light, I see no reason to have stopped down for this one.

I am gonna guess 18 August as the date. When did you make it? My clue is that this bird in in fresh juvenile plumage.

with love, artie

Lovely picture, i love the detail in the beak and contrast with the sand. Really good pic well done

hi,

Daniel+1

colour and eye very good.

congratulations.

Thank you all for the comments.
Hi Artie, This was taken on Sep 01 2019 at Sand hollow state park UT


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I like this one Krishna, the sand makes it special. I am OK with feet OOF as my attention is on the head, if you wanted to get the feet sharp you could take the TC off

TFS

The sandpiper looks very focused. Nice detail on the bird. Clean sand as well.