Black Bellied Plover

[Philip Pietri]

Another from Ft. Desoto Saturday morning - just as the sun came up over the first could bank casting a brilliant gold shine! Lots of these guys out there - seems like the ones with the prettiest colors are the most skiddish but I guess this one will do. Hand held inches above the water in the lagoon area. Feedback and criticism is appreciated. Thanks!

THE FACTS
Camera: Nikon D70
Lens: Tamron 200-500mm
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 390 mm
ISO Speed: 250
Exposure Bias: 1/3 EV
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh
Exposure Program: Aperture priority
Metering Mode: Pattern

[Blake Shadle]

This is one of your best images yet, Philip. I'd be willing to say your best. Outstanding composition, perspective, head angle, background, lighting, exposure, sharpness, and noise control. Coming from seeing some of your images at ISO 400, ISO 250 looks incredible. I think this may be a little too yellow, but from the exposure I'd say this was taken pretty early. Keep up the good work. I'd be very happy to have made this image.

[Rich Ikerd]

Wonderful image Philip. Beautiful, early morning light and a nice background that gives the right level of environmental impact to the image without being too cluttered. Hoper the water was warm.

[Harold Davis]

i dont think you could have gotten any lower without sinking the ship!!! very nice. love the light and the composition is very well done. nice work!!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great light, angle and details. The BG works well, too. I might tone down the whites a tiny bit.

[Grace Scalzo]

A beautiful, artistic capture of this beauty. I appreciate the effort that you put into your photographs, it really pays.

[Arthur Morris]

Nicely done and yes to too much yellow. I would actually like to see this a bit wider with more of the lovely marsh grasses. There is another web site where the owner (a guy named Boris, I think) writes about "skiddish" birds, but I believe in this case that you meant "skittish." Black-bellies have claws that grip quite well thank you very much.:)

[Blake Shadle]

There is another web site where the owner (a guy named Boris, I think) writes about "skiddish" birds, but I believe in this case that you meant "skittish." Black-bellies have claws that grip quite well thank you very much.:)

I literally laughed out loud when I read this!!

[Arthur Morris]

That's the plan! I think that I have seen Boris lurking. Philip, we are not laughing at you, just at Boris.

[Philip Pietri]

Thanks for all the feedback guys! As far as the yellow goes, the scene was immersed in that yellow morning light. I was under the impression that capturing the scene as you see it is the objective (and I actually like the look), so could you help me understand? I still consider myself pretty new at this point and this is something I have not run into until now.

Also, I apologize for the misspelling. My wyf eevin mayd fun uv mee four it. ;)

[Freddy Franzella]

Nice eye contact! lighting! overall great looking comp!

[James Shadle]

I'm laughing at Philip.
Early morning light is more orange than yellow.

Do to imperfect auto white balance, we need to make adjustments from time to to time.

I regularly reduce the "yellows" in early and late light images.

[Arthur Morris]

Furthermore, many digital cameras over-saturate the yellows and the reds, esp. in soft, low, rich light. This, we oftentimes need to tone those colors down just a bit.