Solitary Sandpiper with a sand crab

[Gaurav Mittal]

Morro Bay, CA. April, 2012 Camera	Canon 1D Mark IV
Exposure	1/1000sec
Aperture	f/5.6
Focal Length	700 mm
ISO Speed	400
Exposure Bias	+1/3 EV Hand Held with the 500mm +1.4TC III Image is cropped. Processed in Photoshop using Viveza 2 and Color Efex Pro 2

[Mike Milicia]

Excellent image ... great job catching the action, perfect stride and head angle, beautiful light, excellent exposure, and the crab is a nice bonus!
A little too much negative space at the top for my taste.

I'll let the shorebird experts chime in but I am pretty sure this is not a solitary sandpiper ... looks more like a willet to me.

[Gaurav Mittal]

Thanks Mike for the critique and you are right, I think it is a Willet :)

[Marina Scarr]

Gorgeous light, and the behavior, kick up of water, HA and catch really make this work. Maybe a little less off of the top and right, but this comp works for me as well.

[PhilCook]

Cropped a bit tighter in the frame is my suggestion with some off top and right hand side, nice golden light and the water splashes and striding legs add life to this nicely....crab is a bonus for bird and photographer

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yep, Willet for sure! Super nice light, and although I like the comp I could definitely see this cropped tighter, and perhaps tweaking the water colour to make it less yellowish (but keeping the golden light on the subject). Does the image need a tiny bit of CCW rotation?

[Sidharth Kodikal]

+1 to Willet and CCW rotation. Love the light and the pose with the splash. The food adds a lot.
Very nice image and looking forward to more.

[Gaurav Mittal]

Thank you everyone for the feedback!