Semipalmated Plover at Nickerson

[Melissa Groo]

Canon 1D4
500mm +1.4x
Skimmer pod

ISO 500
1/3200 sec
f/8.0

Took this lying flat by the water's edge at Nickerson Beach, NY a couple weekends ago. There were scores of sanderlings and semipalmated plovers in amongst the usual oystercatchers, skimmers, and terns.
Cloned out a few blobs. Cropped off about 25%. Did a touch of whites recovery and desaturated legs just a bit.
Wondering what folks think about the double catch light and whether I should remove one of them. Thanks in advance for any comments/critiques.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Really like the pose. The position of the back leg gives it a little bit of an extra 'spark', separating it from a still image. You were really able to pull some detail out of the whites! Can you get a little more detail out of the blacks?

[Marina Scarr]

Exposure looks great with lovely details and colors. Since you have already done some cloning, I would go ahead and remove the smaller lower white speck. While like the clean look, I wonder if one of the blobs you cloned out might have given this image a bit more depth.

[gail bisson]

This is lovely Melissa.
Excellent exposure and great POV. IQ is excellent as well.
I really like the trailing water behind the back foot and also like how the FG merges into the BG. A slight head turn would have me rating this a 10 out of 10!
If mine, I would clone out the extra catchlight as well as the specular highlights on the bill but still like it as is,
Gail

[Sachin Saraf]

Melissa, Fantastic exposure, light, low angle, sharpness and details...Love the walking pose and I am fine with HA....
But I would remove additional catch light and specular highlights on beak.

[Grace Scalzo]

The rear foot drawing up the sand is a nice little detail in an already pretty image.

[Arthur Morris]

I too am fine with the head angle. I love the running rear foot with the water trail behind it. I think that Gail's specular highlights may be grains of sand.

[Josh Clark]

Outstanding running pose you got Melissa! Well placed in the frame. Great low angle and lighting. Normally I take double catch lights out on my photos, but I think in your case it is small enough that it is hardly noticeable, IMO. Glad you are having shorebird activity because it sure isn't happening here this year. :(

[Randy Stout]

Melissa:

Good comments above. My first reaction would be to consider cloning out the lower catchlight, but Josh does have a point about it being so small and not bothersome. It doesn't detract from the apparent sharpness of the eye as some of the larger/sloppy catchlights do.

Neat pose, with trailing water on foot, good shooting angle.

Cheers

Randy

[Satish Ranadive]

Every thing has been about this absolutely superb image.
Love colors,details,trailing of water and low angle.

Regards,
Satish.

[Ofer Levy]

Lovely light and colours, sharp with good detail and sweet dynamic pose. The only thing that bothers me in this lovely image is that it looks a bit too 'clean' to me.

[Melissa Groo]

Thank you for all the comments and suggestions. Ofer and Marina, I now see what you mean about the image needing a bit more, it does look a tad sterile, and that's something I normally don't like. Should have left a few blobs. Thanks.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Depends what the "blobs" looked like to leave them in. I'm all for a clean image so it works for me as the faint water ripples, leg reflection, and water trailing off the back foot add enough for me. I'd see if you can coax some more details out of the blacks, but all-in-all I like this alot.

[arash_hazeghi]

sweet low angle details light and a nice walking pose!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Melissa, love the light and colours in this, and well timed to get the raised foot and trailing water. Good placement in the frame, and Ive never been happy with a double catchlight.

[Frank Schauf]

Great pose and setting you have here, Melissa.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the low angle, HA, sharpness and water trailing off the foot. Well done Melissa.

[Robert Holguin]

Excellent shot. Love the walking pose, exposed very, excellent shooting angle,vand details.
Well done.