Semipalmated plover

[David Pugsley]

I love semipalmated plovers, and I've been waiting several years for a good wing/leg stretch. I've seen plenty, but these tiny little guys are often shy and out of reach when observed. That said I'm pretty pleased that patience and good positioning paid off with this shot.

Ft. DeSoto, FL
EOS-1D MkIII
500 f/4 + 1.4x
1/800 @ f/10
+ 2/3 EV
ISO 400
"ring of fire" servo AF
On my belly and quickly sinking into new sand washed in from TS Andrea.

Processed in LR4 with final cleanup and Nik in PS6.

Cheers
David

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

beautiful shot. such nice white sand. loved the stretch. high sun angle handled so well. great details, exposure and comp. would not touch a thing. awesome.

[vishaljadhav]

Lovely image
the pose is superb, i like the wing stretch

[Robert Holguin]

Very nice shot.
Love the pose, nice background, great details, and nice comp.
Light handled very well.
Well done.

[Arthur Morris]

Spectacular wing stretch with the very hard-to-get perfect head angle. Having the bird angled slightly towards you helped in that regard. Just enough light on the face, or maybe a bit more on the eye and the mask..... Perfect SH and EXP. If you go by the flat sand behind the bird only it looks as if it needs a bit of CW rotation. The extra BKGR sand mound was bad luck. Love the wiggly foot.

[David Salem]

Nice pose and HA. Exposure and detail look great as dose the BG. Well done

[Melissa Groo]

Super low angle, and I love the pose, David. Your exposure and details are great. I think the mound in the background adds interest. Congrats on getting the image you've been dreaming of.