Dipper Pair

[Iain Barker]

I found a spot on the river Kent near Kendal where these dippers were nesting. I sat quietly nearby and had a few chances to get some images as the came to the nest with food. This was one of only a few with both birds together.
The exposure was very difficult due the the dark shade of the riverbank and the bight white on the front of the dippers.

I compensate for this I have lifted the shadows and reduced the highlights in lightroom and then adjusted the whites and blacks to get an exposure I am happy with.
Cropped from top and left for composition and some sharpening.

Nikon D7000, 300mm F4 AF, + 1.4x tc. 1/500sec f5.6 ISO800;

All C&C welcome.

[David Salem]

Nice that you got both of them in the frame with food in their beaks. The exposure looks good also but the bird on the right is out of the DOF and a bit soft. Nice natural scene.

[Iain Barker]

Thanks David,
I have wondered if the OOF bird adds to the image or not. I have quite a few shots with just one bird and am interested to hear what other think about it.

[Daniel Cadieux]

That is a tough call to include the second bird or not, but in this instance I think I would have preferred to concentrate on just one. Had they been closer then that would have been better, or if you have more roomat right (even if that makes them smaller in the frame). Neat natural history image though, and I think the lifted-foot shadow is fun.

[Iain Barker]

Thanks Daniel. There was no more room on the right on this one but I do have shots with the dippers closer together. I will look at those again but I don't think the pose of the dippers were as good as they are on this one. I do have plenty of single birds to work on though so hopefully more to come.