This image captured a Sanderling running from the incoming wave. The late afternoon light on the smooth, wet sand, provided a wonderful reflection. The quick movements of these birds make them captivating to watch and a challenge to photograph. Patience and perseverance paid off this afternoon.
This was taken on the shore of Juan Ponce de Leon Park on the Atlantic Coast of Florida at about 3:30 PM.
Technical date: Canon EOS 450D, 300mm, f/7.1, 1/2000 sec, ISO 400, hand-held
Post processing: Adobe PS CS3, cropped about 10% from original, Auto Contrast, shadow/highlights used to adjust highlights only, resize for posting
10-09-2010, 10:11 PM
Lance Peters
HI Dawn - big warm welcome to BPN , DOnt hesitate to jump right in and leave comments on other peoples images - no better or faster way to improve your own. All we ask is that you say what it is you like or don't like about the image. This is a great place to learn!
I will reserve my comments for now - will let some of our members offer up some advice and came back later :)
10-10-2010, 12:06 AM
Indranil Sircar
Hi Dawn, welcome to BPN. I can only echo Lance; this is a great place for learning. Very nice first image. For me, I like the pose with raised foot, reflection and background surf. You also got a nice head angle here. Ideal would have been if the sun was behind you to avoid the shadow as a also lower shooting angle. As for post processing, I feel you could have cropped tighter reducing the surf on top and left. There is a bit color noise, which can easily be remove as also the slight halo around the sanderling. Keep posting.
10-10-2010, 09:01 AM
Julie Kenward
1 Attachment(s)
Hi Dawn...I agree with the other comments so far but wanted to show you a different crop to consider. If you put a ROT's grid over your image you'll see that the bird is almost dead center horizontally and images tend to be stronger compositionally if the bird's head/eye (or another strategic part) is in one of the ROT's positions. I moved him higher and to the right to do that using a 10" x 7" crop.
10-10-2010, 10:01 AM
Peter Farrell
Very nice pose. I like the reflection and the BG wave. Julies crop is a big help.
Peter
10-10-2010, 08:49 PM
Maureen Allen
Sanderlings are such fun little birds. And quick!
Nice pose. I like Julie's crop. I agree with Indranil's comments about lower perspective and angle of the sun, which would give you more details on the bird and eliminate some of the shadows.
10-22-2010, 09:10 PM
Bill Randall
I like the reflections, bird and wave and the implied action of the raised foot. I would remove a small amount from the bottom.