LEARNING THE ROPES

[Marina Scarr]

Felt quite privileged to have witnessed and photographed this male American Oystercatcher feeding one of its two chicks. It was amazing how many times the adult fed the younger over the span of about an hour and from various sources. Most often, the chick watched rather intently (even stuck his beak in the sea urchin) and waited (not so patiently.) Momma was nearby with the other chick.

Canon 1D3, Canon 100-400L
F11, 1/640sec, ISO 640, manual mode
Handholding down low in the water

C & C always welcomed and much appreciated.

Marina Scarr
www.marinascarrphotography.com

[gail bisson]

This is really nice.
Great HA and interaction.
I really like the sea urchin and turned up feather.
Good exposure and f stop. Colors are perfect.
I would clean up the OOF debris above the chick and the line that intersects with the parents beak in the BG and do a hint of CCW rotation.
A terrific shot,
Gail

[Joe Senzatimore]

Without a doubt , some clean-up would make an already fine image even better. Love the sea urchin. Please don't remove that.

[Don Nelson]

I agree with Joe - clean up but keep the Sea Urchin.
If it were mine, the stray feather would go along with a lot of the light colored OOF items (shells?) on the beach.

[Shawn Zierman]

After evaluating the image for a while, I'm sure this is a GORGEOUS natural history scene, and would
not "clean" anything up out of this one. I've seen many, many, oystercatcher images in this parent
chick category...the setting, debris and all, adds value here and sets this image apart imo.
Excellent!

[laurie golden]

Love the chick's pose and the sea urchin. Lots of clean up suggestions so I will add mine - delete the out of focus seaweed in the lower left corner, the brown spot above the chick's beak and maybe some of the white out of focus shells? in the background above the birds - don't remove the shells on the beach. Or leave it the way it is, it is a great photo.

[David Salem]

Like this interactive image. Good job on the exposure and nice HA on both birds. I wouldnt get to crazy with cleaning up the scene. The urchin is a nice addition.. Good Job!

David

[Melvin Grey]

A great interactive wildlife image Marina. Sure there are one or two minor things that could be removed from the BG. but it shows the habitat well and the action between the birds just could not be better, and the sharpness, use of d.o.f. and plumage detail is excellent.

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot. Love the interaction, excellent details, I really like the sea urchin and me personally I would not remove a thing. Its part of their enviroment and I think it adds to the image.
Well done.

[Tom Rambaut]

Very strong image - I would not do much in the way of clean up - maybe the line behind the bill and chicks head but I did not notice it until pointed out!. I like the urchin and the shells and seaweed. the interaction between the two is strong - I may go for a re crop with some off the bottom. TFS - competition image!

[dankearl]

Another award winner Marina. A very nice moment and very well photographed.

[Satish Ranadive]

Every thing has been said about this excellent image of interaction of mom and chick in habitat.
Love the pose of mom,chick and sea urchin.

Regards,
Satish.

[Ofer Levy]

Beautiful image Marina. Great behaviour captured superbly. Won't do any "clean up" but it does need some CCW rotation. Also applied some colour balance adjustment to get rid of the slight reddish cast. I am fine with the extra room at the bottom but had to get rid of it because of the rotation.

[HadiAnsari]

Hi Marina
Good exposure and f stop. Colors are perfect.
THANK YOU

[Mike Delgado]

Good exposure & timming.

[Bill Dix]

Great moment captured, Marina. Love the sea urchin that adds some tension. Another vote for just a little strategic clean-up. But not much; the debris is part of the habitat.

[Melissa Groo]

Wonderful behavior shot, Marina. Such a sweet moment you've captured. You are really a master at these kinds of moments. I think Ofer's repost looks better, there was definitely a magenta cast. That sea urchin is a really neat detail.

[Frank Schauf]

Very nice scene and colours, Marina.

[Grace Scalzo]

Really a fine image, Marina. I've come back to look at this one three or four times to think about the suggestions for clean up. I see no need for it, as the habitat here is an integral part of the image. I was going to suggest just a bit off the bottom, Ofer took care of that with his repost. The urchin is icing on the cake.

[Marina Scarr]

Beautiful image Marina. Great behaviour captured superbly. Won't do any "clean up" but it does need some CCW rotation. Also applied some colour balance adjustment to get rid of the slight reddish cast. I am fine with the extra room at the bottom but had to get rid of it because of the rotation.

Hi Ofer:

Thank you for removing the cast. I would like to pose a question concerning the issue of rotation. This scene was photographed on an incline. I matched the left side of the adult's beak with the reflection in order to make sure the horizon was straight, even though it may well not look straight to the viewers. Do you still think that I should rotate the image even though it is actually as seen and photographed?

Thank you for your continued advice.

[Josh Clark]

Beautiful interaction! Has a very intiminate feel to it. Nice low POV.