Marbled Godwit

[Ken Janes]

We know the fall migration has started when a few Marbled Godwits appear on the south coast of Maine. This one enjoyed a good shake after preening.
Canon 7D 400mm f5.6
1/800 f/8 ISO 400 EV +1/3 Handheld prone in the mud.
Many specular highlights and shell fragments removed from bg.

Comments always appreciated.

Ken

[Bill Jobes]

Prone pays, Ken .... and this is a great example ! Your low-earth perspective strengthens this photo quantitatively.

The ambient light, the catch light and the contrast between the blue water and sandy beach add a lot of interest.

The one small distraction is that perfectly round light spot at upper left corner. It almost looks like a coin. There are several other round anomalies, especially on the beach in front of the bird.

You mentioned you did some BG cleanup. You may wish to go back and clean some more, or pull a gaussian blur on it, as well as tame a bit the brightness of that rock just under the bird's bill.

Don't get me wrong, this is a really excellent image. My suggestions are simply offered to mitigate distractions and keep the focus on the bird.

[Ken Janes]

Thanks for the comments. The spot you mention is one of the highlights from shell fragments in the sand. That one was hidden by the metadata text in LR4 so I missed it. Something to watch for in the future.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Bill,

Greetings. Good looking Godwit. BG issues as mentioned - the specular highlights just in front of the neck, above the head and just behind the tail are the worst of it for me. I like the detail in the ruffed up feathers & the nice light.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Ken,

Good comments above and I really love the low shooting profile....great field technique. Its a strong post...consider these opportunities:

Crop off a small layer from the bottom...very small I like the entry profile of the frame and a bit off the top..remove the distracting brown thing on the top edge. Add a layer of sharpening too. Love the brown reflection under the bird and the HA and eye with catch-light are nice. Again...the low shooting angle allows the viewer to see what the world as the subject views it. Nice image, thanks for posting and keep em coming!

[Carl Walker]

Hi Ken
Love the ruffled feathers and low angle. Good detail and light. I think everything else has been covered. TFS

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Ken, this is lovely, like the light posture and he ruffled feathers and the low POV really makes a different to the shot, adds interest.

Now I'm away so relying on the macBook pro, not ideal, but I wonder if going a bit more 'pano' adds or not, as I just feel there is just a little too much FG water. You know better than I do as you were there, but I wonder about dropping the blue in saturation, was the water that rich? Perhaps 0 on the EV just to give a bit more tone & help the whites, however without seeing the Histogram it might have not been enough?

Perhaps bumping up the mid tones in the feathers, dropping the exposure in the water to bring out some more detail and adding a hint more sharpening only to the subject, love the catchlight in the eye and sheen on the bill. Perhaps a little off the LHS & more on the RHS.

Now I could be way off, it's just my take.

Nice work overall.

TFS
Steve