Red-capped Plover

[Leo Berzins]

A young Red-capped Plover at Merimbula Beach in south-east Australia. The background is the Pacific Ocean.

Whenever I get to the coast, I can't pass up the opportunity to photograph these beautiful little shorebirds. They're not hard to find and they seem to be more approachable than most others.

Canon 1Dx, 500f/4L IS II + 1.4x, 1/1250s, f/5.6, ISO 400, Av mode, EC +1, Mongoose 3.6 mounted on a skimmer
small crop from right and bottom for composition
OOF grass stem cloned out below the tail

[Randy Stout]

Leo:

great shooting angle, soft ocean bg, nice head angle, sharp and well exposed.

I would consider toning
down the rusty debris in left lower corner, just a bit of lowered contrast should do it.

Cheers

Randy

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Awesome angle, super details Leo, nice HA as well. TFS.

[gail bisson]

This is lovely.
Perfect POV and great IQ and perfect HA.
Love the blue in the image.
Since you cropped out the vegetation behind the tail I would crop out the orangy piece of dried grass on the lhs.
I do find myself wishing to see the left foot completely but that is a minor nit.
Overall a lovely shot,
Gail

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Leo,

The colors are the first thing that made me like the image.

The relaxed pose with "squinty eye" are great as well. I do like Randy's suggestion of the debris in the lower left corner.

Miguel

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Leo, love the low angle, light looks good, and you have brought out the feather detail nicely. He is posed very well against the sea BG, and agree to remove the 'rusty' item.

[Bill Dix]

I love the little plovers, and was glad you posted this species which is new to me. Great low POV and light. Another vote for deep-sixing the rusty patch.

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot of beautiful looking bird.
Excellent low angle and details.
I really like the background, great pose, and nice light.
Very well done.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Very dreamy, almost like it is standing on a brownish cloud. I do wish to see the full foot, and I agree about the rusty object at left, but a fine image full of nice details. I like the very subtle head turn our way ...

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great details and eye contact.