Black Bellied Plover.

[Shawn Zierman]

This breeding plumaged black bellied plover was photographed on the shore of Lake Superior, during late spring migration 2011.
A shooting companion, who is positioned right behind me at this point, had just played an MP3 snippet of the plover, which the bird
responded to. The call of the black bellied plover, wether up close and personal like this, or heard overhead and far off, is a wild call
that approaches the haunting wildness of a common loon call imo. SonyA300, Sigma50/500, iso400, f9, 1/1000, cropped, selective
NR applied to the background, USM. The whites on the bird were not blown in ACR, and although fine tuning them with software
is certainly an option to "reveal" more detail, I am A-Okay with how they look here
Regards,
Shawn Zierman.

[dankearl]

Nice look at these beauties, the subdued BG color goes well with it.

[gail bisson]

Hi Shawn,
Nice closeup view . Nice complimentary BG and I like the open beak.
If you are OK with the whites then keep image as is, but if mine, I would certainly try to get some more detail out of the whites. The blacks look great, HA is perfect and I like the daintily raised foot.
Would get rid of yellow spot on the OOF rock.
This would look interesting as a black and white,
Gail

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Shawn,

very nice image with crisp details, beautiful bg, and nice colors. The open beak adds a lot to the image imo. I'm OK with the whites as well, but could also see a version with a bit more detail in them.

miguel

[Raymond Lee]

Really nice feather details! I love the open bill. Really nice lighting, exposing the blacks perfectly, but the whites look a bit hot.

[David Salem]

Nice shot. Like the calling pose. Exposed well and lots of feather detail. Nice complementary BG too. Wish the OF rock wasnt there but a small nit. Great work

[Satish Ranadive]

Shawn:
Excellent image with wonderful colors on bird and nice background colors complimenting to it.
Love the details,colors and open beak.Wish OOF rock in FG would not there.

Regards,
Satish.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent calling pose , light and sharp details. I agree with bringing down the brightest whites a tad

[John Cooper]

Thats one handsome plover Shawn, nicely portrayed against a complimentry BG. The open bill is a bonus.

[Robert Holguin]

Very nice shot.
Excellent pose especially the open beak. Very nice details, great comp, and great background.
Agree on toning down the whites.
Well done.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great pose and colors.

[christopher galeski]

nice image,like the colors,good BG,agre on toning down some of the brightest whites,I too wish the out of focus rock was not there,but still a nice capture.thanks.

[Grace Scalzo]

Such a handsome bird, and the calling pose is wonderful. Not in love with the oof rock and the whites could use toned down. I often find this happens to mine too when turning into a jpeg. BG color is great.

[Shawn Zierman]

Thanks for the excellent feedback...as per usual.
Here is a repost with the brightest whites on the head/neck toned down selectively using a levels adjustment.
I also eliminated two orange lichen spots on the rocks...stemming from Gail's suggestion.