Black Oystercatcher in the surf

Taken this morning at the beach. There were a pair of these guys on the beach near the surf line. My camera kept turning itself off (the problem was with the battery) which was very frustrating, but I still managed a few before the light got too harsh.

I used levels and curves in PS, and added a tiny bit of canvas in front.


50D, 100-400 at 400mm
1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 400
Handheld, laying on the wet sand

Hi Aidan,

I love the pose of the bird, with 1 foot up and leaning forward, with a purposeful look as if to say I'm running from here to there, and no-one's going to stop me! Some people might not like the oof surf in the bg, but for me it adds to the depth of the image. Eye and bill look great. I might get rid of the black dots behind the right leg. I don't see any real problems with this image.

Richard

Thanks Richard! The black dots are mud from the Oystercatcher running, so I decided to leave them in.

Lovely image, Aidan. Agree with Richard, that purposeful gait is cute. Beautiful details and love the cool blue bg.
Bill looks slightly jagged along the edge on my screen, perhaps from sharpening? Bill could also be optionally cleaned.

Thanks Sidharth! I didn't notice the jagged bill edge, yes it's probably from sharpening.

Aidan, I like the way you got down low to make this image ... I like the black dots behind the bird!

The jaggies are there on the bill but I wonder .. is the bill really so blunt at the end? Looks like it has been chopped off !!?

Amano

I like the running position, low angle and eye on this beautiful image. Well done Aidan!

Very nice image Aidan! Perfect motion pose, and I love the splaying mud drops. Great handling of the black plumage.

Amano, Oystercatchers' bills are made blunt (or "chiseled") this way as an adaptation to easlily open bivalves.

Thanks for that explanation Daniel !!

Amano

A very good image. These guys are not easy to capture well--and you did very well. They are also hard to get the sharpening right on.

Thanks everyone for the input! Daniel explained the use of the bill tip nicely.