Elemental

[John Chardine]

A beautiful, tiny Least Sandpiper in washed-up eel grass, and completely in its element.

Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Lens: EF400mm f/4 DO IS USM, @ 400 mm
Program: Aperture Priority
ISO 800, 1/320s, f/5.6
Exp. comp.: +0.7

[Arthur Morris]

Beautiful bird, pose, and look-back head angle. The slightly busy BKGR complements the bird nicely. The bird's upperparts look a bit too YELLOW. Getting any lower would have cost you the feet so your choice of perspective was excelente. Sharp too.

[Roy Priest]

Great image John. This bird is truly in it's element. I also like the complimentary background.

[LinzRiverBalmer]

what a neat base for this bird and this photo. the same on the yellow for me but mostly in the tail region, thinking you could remove the brightish yellow spot in the BG above the tail and that would help. The tail looks a little over sharp on the edges of the feathers to me too, but not sure.

[christopher galeski]

loverly image,sharp with good detail and nice light.

[hennieloots]

Hi John - I like the comp, pose and HA. very good IQ and love the details visible on the white feathers. I agree with the previous posts on the yellow, also on the sharpening of the tail, but a very minor nit.
Regards
Hennie

[Karl Egressy]

Beautiful image. Excellent sharpness, head turn and detail.

[Girish Prahalad]

lovely portrait with lots of details on the bird with great HA . the exp looks spot on.

[Arthur Morris]

The tail looks just fine to me :).

[John Chardine]

Thanks everyone! I don't have time to post as much as I used to on BPN, but when I do I always appreciate it!

The colour balance that day was very funny- heavy cloud, almost threatening. I love that kind of light by the way. In comparison I lead a shorebird photo workshop today in bright sun and would have preferred the cloud! I took a look at the white belly of the bird and it is running ca. -2 in the A channel of LAB and -6 in the B channel. This means on the green side in A and the blue side in B. If I adjusted the belly whites to be neutral, I would have to add some magenta to the A channel, but mostly some yellow to the B channel. Go figure!

[Marina Scarr]

Loving the habitat on this one!!! Bird belongs there.