Dowitcher

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Sony A900~Sony 500 F4 G~Sony 1.4x~ISO 400~F/7.1~1/1250 sec~manual exposure~hand held~12-4-2012~Bryan Beach, Texas~CS6
Most likely short-billed, certainly non-breeding plumage. Mud flats. I generally place a small tarp on the mud close to the shallow water, lay on top of it, then wait for the feeding birds to get closer. Comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill

[Ian Cassell]

Hey Bill! Nice close-up of this guy. We mostly have the long-bill variety here, but they are quite difficult to tell apart without hearing their call. This one is sharp where it needs to be. My only suggestion is that it is, perhaps, a bit tight over his back. I love the little water drop on the beak.

[Colin Gilyeat]

Bill, very nice. I really like the low angle, almost looking up, love the lifted foot. Very sharp, especially the eye and the bill. I would have liked to see more of the reflection. Did you crop it or is that how it was framed?

Colin

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Thanks Colin and Ian. Certainly needs more room above. About the reflection; it was in the original image. I didn't include all of it because, as is the case with low viewpoint images, it was stretched out and disorted.

[John Chardine]

Just to add that a slight CW rotation would not be amiss- the water never lies.

[Clyde Hopper]

Bill ,my eye keeps going to the out of focus bit at the right of the beak . what was that ?

[WIlliam Maroldo]

thanks John, once pointed out the rotational error seems so obvious! Clyde; actually it is a small glob of the black muck that makes up the substrate, in which the small critters the dowitcher feeds on are located. It doesn't appear to be OOF to me, but if it is I doubt its a DOF issue. Motion blur, requiring a sufficient shutter-speed to counteract, is a problem with feeding birds like this one and needs to be considered. This image may be misleading in that the bird isn't simply posing, but captured while continually moving while incessantly plunging the bill in an out of the water, much like a sewing machine. Avoiding images at the downstroke, where the bill is completely submerged, is tricky.

[ChrisCallahan]

Great image! My main thought would be to clone out the weirdly distracting circular OOF areas to the right of the bird.

[Nancy Phillips]

Fine portrait of wader in action, with dripping beak and uplifted slightly muddy foot. The circles to the right of the beak look like a poor clone job. They need to be smoothed out.

[Alan Lillich]

Nice intimate portrait. I like that the left toes are just touching the water, I can see the foot and still get a sense of motion. Looking at the thumbnail I was thinking the crop was tight. But looking at the full image though I think it is almost perfect. Like Ian, I would like a tiny bit more space on the top.