Two Avocets in calm water.

[Tom van den Brandt]

Taken on Lesvos Greece in early morning light. The photo is full frame, just straightened a bit.
Removed a few tiny spots on the water.
Taken from the car on a beanbag.

Canon 1D-X
Canon 500m F4 + 1.4 converter
Iso 800
F 7.1
1/640sec

Cheers, Tom

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Tom, great HA from the left hand Avocet, and this has a nice monochrome finish. The reflections look great, and as you stated that you had cleaned up a few spots in the water, I would have cleaned up the other ones too.

[Arthur Morris]

Very nice. The front bird is perfect: sharp with a perfect head angle. There are several problems with the 2nd bird: it is looking away, the fact that it is not in focus detracts, and the REFL of the bill merges just a bit with the tail of the front bird. Love the high key look and the good EXP.

[Tom van den Brandt]

Hi Tom, great HA from the left hand Avocet, and this has a nice monochrome finish. The reflections look great, and as you stated that you had cleaned up a few spots in the water, I would have cleaned up the other ones too.

I thought a few spots were allowed
Thanks Stuart for the feedback.

Cheers, Tom

[Tom van den Brandt]

There are several problems with the 2nd bird: it is looking away, the fact that it is not in focus detracts, and the REFL of the bill merges just a bit with the tail of the front bird. Love the high key look and the good EXP.

Thank you Arthur for the feedback. I thought the second bird was nice to fill up the space and a bit OOF wouldn't be a big problem so it's good to get your opinion. I didn't think about the bill merges the tail, so thanks for pointing that out

Cheers, Tom

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Tom i like this very much as presented . Nice High Key of the birds .
TFS Andreas

[Gerald Kelberg]

Love the Avocets, the reflections and the monochrome look, but the overall composition doesn't work for me, I'm afraid.

Maybe more space between the edge and the OOF bird would help.

Thanks for sharing, Gerald