My pet "Spotted Sandpiper"

[gail bisson]

Canon 1DX
F 600mm II and 1.4x
ISO 1250
SS 1/1600
f 5.6
Almost FF.
This little gal has been living around our pond in Ingonish all summer. She brought out her chick on this day and was very tolerant of me taking their picture!
Here, she is walking down the rock face when she used her wings to balance herself. The greens are the grasses along the pond edge about 10 feet away. I was sitting in the middle of the pond.
PP- Crop ~ 10% from right and top of frame, levels. NR to BG, reduced magenta by -1 point, DE at 3% and USM to JPEG 30%/0.3 pixels. Nothing else.
Comments and critiques always learned from and appreciated with thanks,
Gail

[vishaljadhav]

nice one , the pose captured is interesting
i like the way the tilted positioning of the perch and the greens look nice to the eye, IQ looks terrific

[Don Lacy]

HI Gail, Lovely pose and detail I find the grassy BG pleasing with the added texture from the grasses. I do think the OOF rock is close to being a distraction and might consider cropping it just a tad more.

[dankearl]

Lucky you!
Great pose and very attractive bird.
Maybe a tad tighter crop with a bit off the bottom and Left side?
The green BG goes very well with the Sandpiper.

[adrian dancy]

Everything to like. I can understand the reason for the cropping suggestions given above. I am however content with the image as it is, which shows the scale of the bird's task in traversing the rock.

[christopher galeski]

very nice Gail,like the composition,nice BG,sharp with nice detail.

[Mike Veltri]

Very nice Gail, love the raised wings and downward position you caught him/her in.

[David Salem]

Love you little pet, she's beautiful. I like the wings up pose and the detail looks great. The BG makes this for me as it highlights this bird so beautifully. I might think about cropping some off the bottom to reduce the rock a bit. Well done Gail

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Gail, great detail and sharpness on the chick, and well timed to capture the balancing act. Nicely posed against the OOF grass BG, and Im fine with the comp as is.

You must have a pretty large pond to have shot with all that glass, and not have filled the frame.

[gail bisson]

Hi Gail, great detail and sharpness on the chick, and well timed to capture the balancing act. Nicely posed against the OOF grass BG, and Im fine with the comp as is.

You must have a pretty large pond to have shot with all that glass, and not have filled the frame.

Hi Stuart,
The sandpiper is pretty small, maybe 18-20cm long! I would say I was only 20 feet away from her,
Gail

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Very cool image Gail. Love the angled rock, the body pose, the bg and gotta love those feet.

[Girish Prahalad]

lovely comp with good exposure & details. BG is superb.

[Marina Scarr]

Really like this image a lot, Gail, esp the raised wings. It's fun to seeing a bird on its way down an embankment...a new perspective. That said, I LOVE the last one you posted of this species.