Clapper Rail Juvenile

[Grace Scalzo]

This is an image of a species that I worked very hard on this past summer. They are extremely shy and elusive.(although there is one place on Long Island where they are somewhat habituated to people and you can shoot them from a boardwalk- not my style). I found a family (5 younsters!) and despite spending lots of time at their location, I got only a handful of keepers. Lining up low tide and sunset was tricky, they were an hour drive away from my home, and many times I looked for them but they did not come close. WIth them, I really found that I had to just settle down and wait. Trying to approach them never led to much success. But I'm not complaining, fun trying! Here is one of the juveniles.

1/60, f 5.6, iso1600
Canon 1dx, 600f4 + 1.4tc + lowered rrs tripod

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the raised tail, habitat, reflection and composition. Looks like all your planning paid off, well done Grace.

[Dvir Barkay]

very nice, could be cool in black and white as well to my eyes.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice Grace, like the depiction of habitat showing the natural camouflage. If mine, I'd crop a bit tighter and also get rid of the single horizontal strand above the tail.

TFS

[keith mitchell]

Grace it's well worth the effort to get a shot like this, love the calm setting with a nice reflection of the bird, it's a very nice piece of work.


Keith.

[gail bisson]

Hi Grace,
Patience + persistence= great shots!
IQ and light are excellent ( as always).Nice POV. I really like the raised tail and that clear eye.
I would crop in a bit from the top and have to agree with Arash that I might try to evict that horizontal grass above the tail.
Gail

[Randy Stout]

Grace:

Great angle, interesting pose, strong sense of the habitat.

I looked at it for several minutes, and kept having my focus being pulled down to the bottom of the frame by the reflections. I might try a version with the luminosity of the water/reflections toned down just a bit to help keep our focus on the bird. Not everyone will have the same reaction to it, but it def. effected me that way.

Cheers

Randy

[Bill Dix]

I love the environment in this one. Granted the bird is small in the frame, but it shows the habitat so nicely that I'd leave the comp as is. Randy's suggestion re the water is worth a try. These are hard to get, and your patience paid off. They do, however, respond to audio if that's within your ethical limits.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Awesome time spent out with nature, and it yielded you a fine effort. I love the habitat, the reflection, and although I could see a tad off the bottom the comp works very well as is. Judging from the techs you had some low light to deal with, but it looks great as presented. Some species in the rail family respond well to audio - I know it is more rewarding the way you got this image, and you may not be into that, but just a thought...

***edit: I see Bill had the same though...and apparently types faster than me

[William Dickson]

Brilliant

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Grace I like this habitat image a lot. I also would agree with Randy on the reflections, but like the IQ as is. It is rewarding when you spend so much time looking for these illusive birds, and you capture a shot like this one.




Geoffrey

[David Salem]

As we spoke of "you sure get lucky Grace". Your dedication is so admired by me. Nice frame.

[Grace Scalzo]

Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful and constructive suggestions. I am going to first look and see if I have a better one in my files, and if not work on that pesky branch. As far as audio goes, I have no problem if used judiciously. I did try it with these birds and they did not respond at all. I'm wondering if it is because their breeding season is over? Maybe that will be effective come spring time.

[Bob Smith]

Great shot Grace---you are a hunter of the first order.