Banded Snowy Plover

[Clyde Hopper]

Found this Snowy Plover with a few more non-banded ones ,at the Helen State Park ,Panama City Beach ,Fla.

Camera is a Nikon D90
ss =1/1250
F/8
Focal Length = 500 MM
Lens is a sigma 150-500
ASA =250
No Flash
Extremely small amount of pp , I'm not sure how much cleaning up of the bg is acceptable these days ,so i kept it to just a levels adjustment and crop




08 17 12_3084_edited-1 by Clyde Hopper, on Flickr

[John Chardine]

Hi Clyde- Great bird! Great bling! If I see that I try to find one without. The FG and BG are good but you need to rotate the image CW- the water LR tells the tale. BG cleanup is up to you and I think you could do some here. It's good to report what you did so everyone knows. I see a halo around the dark object behind the legs of the bird which looks to me like the tell-tail signs of air shimmer. This is caused by uneven heating of the air. You can also see it around the shadow of the bird. There is not a lot you can do in situations like this and it kills image quality. Is there any detail in the eye that you could coax out (see this thread- http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...207#post843207).

[Clyde Hopper]

Thank You John . I appreciate you taking the time to give me such an in depth Critique .I completely missed the air shimmer . I am going back and making the adjustments you suggested , if for no other reason than practice . I do have some shots of non - banded ,so this "Endangered " bird had a good years hatch .
After giving some thought to the "Clean up " of the Bg /Fg . I feel I should make the photo the best it can be ,Thus making the clean up ,Unless entered into a contest . I then will follow the rules given . I do plan on starting to enter some .
Again Thank You very much !

[Clyde Hopper]

08 17 12_3084_edited-2 by Clyde Hopper, on Flickr


Cw rotation . cleaned ,darkened and blurred the Background .Lightened the eye .

[Kerry Perkins]

Hello Clyde, you did a good job on the repost and the cleanup. I do see a bit of the funky dark stuff left over, just in front of the far leg. Otherwise a much cleaner image. Good job.