From Plum Island several weeks ago. Someone might help me with the aging -- I'm guessing a worn juvenile morphing into adult winter plumage, losing his dark belly patch.
D7000, 500f4 + 1.4, ISO 800, 1/1600s @ f/7.1. Full frame.
Hi Bill,
I like the fluffed up pose and the lifted foot.
Good low POV. Excellent IQ.
I would take a bit of the OOF foreground away (just above your signature)and clone out the bright specular highlight on the foot.
It is a dunlin and I agree with your assesment.
Gail
I love images of birds preening and ruffling their feathers. It seems to add a bit more dimension to the bird. This is really nice and also has the nice extra details of the raised foot and water drop on the bill. I agree with Gail on the slight crop from the bottom.
Great bit of ruffled plumage captured here with lots of nice details and dimension.
I think in this case, the light source is a bit problematic as it appears to be full sun,
but off angle. This has caused the head to be less illuminated than the back parts
of the Dunlin. If you had achieved a slight body or head turn back into the light source,
I think it would have made for a stronger image. The image also appears to be slanted
slightly down to the left, and a bit of clock wise rotation seems reasonable.
Thank you all. You're right, of course, about the crop. I think it was false pride that made me post the full-frame image. Here's a repost with a bit off the bottom. Also rotated per Shawn's good eye. Couldn't do much about the light. It was two hours after sunrise and I was packing up to leave when he walked in front of me. I have other frames with a better bird position relative to the light, but without the ruffles that I liked in this one. I've tried just a bit of dodging and burning in the repost. Also took out the specular highlights -- I don't always do so, thinking that a bit of shininess just shows that he's been in the water; but when they become a distraction I guess it's time to remove them.