American Oystercatcher and shell

[gail bisson]

Took this at Fort Myers in April.
Canon 1DX
600mm II and 1.4x
ISO 600 F 5.6 SS 1/2500 ay 6:35 PM.
Cropped to portrait orientation and rotated to level.
Extra sharpening to the shell.
Nothing cloned- sand really was that clean.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail
PS Does anyone know the name of this sea critter?

[shane shacaluga]

Lovely image! Great action pose and very striking orange beak against the black white and browns

Exposure is excellent and DOF works very nicely

TFS

[Karl Egressy]

Very nice image, love the browns, blacks and whites. All look nice. The shell is a nice addition to the comp, Gail.

[Marina Scarr]

This is a very pleasing image, Gail. There is just enough eye to make it work, and I love seeing the behavior with the shell! Like the hint of water in the FG and the way the sand and beach blend in the BG.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

For some reason I reckon this could also work as a horizontal. Looks good as is too, so maybe see what you think.
Nice low POV and I like the sky showing in the top 1/3 of the BG. Smooth sand too, as you had said.
You could see if there is a way to google marine mollusks of the area you have photographed this in. It's some kind of sea snail, but I am not even familiar with the Aussie ones, let alone the ones in your neck o' the woods.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice and interesting POV, techs are great. I do wish for a bit more eye contact, I might also crop him a bit tighter, especially on the top.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image, Gail.
Beautiful moment captured. Great BG with nice sky and it's reflection. Superb composition.
Rest as usual superb.

Regards,
Satish.

[Grace Scalzo]

Here on Long Island, oystercather shots are a dime a dozen with that relatively habituated group at Nickerson. So it takes something else to make an image of them stand out. In this case, the shell, the water in front and the pale blue sky above come together so well and complete the frame.

[Shawn Zierman]

Very nice light quality. Exposure work looks perfect. The timing is really nice with the bill of the bird probing inside the shell. Looks like the shell itself is just outside critical focus, which is not suprising given the narrow dof with this much focal length/working distance...so more as an afterthought for next time...trading a little shutter speed for dof to get the shell sharp, would be a suggestion to consider....Regardless, the image is beautiful and tells a story. As an aside...I hate the way that fine wet ocean sand sticks to you....would much rather crawl through some Minnesota mud than that stuff... :)

[mohammad reza shahab]

Hi gail, Great pose and BG . excellent DOF.

[Lorant Voros]

For me it is enough eye contact; love the action, the low angle with the pastel and greyish BG. I'd love to see it in horizontal.

[stuart wanuck]

YES DO LIKE IMAGE

[Bill Nuttall]

another stunning shot on this forum

prefer the background to the foreground

I know that it is favoured on here to have good space below ……. but I reckon on this one 50% less would be better, just IMHO

[David Salem]

Very nice Gail. You did pretty well in Florida this season considering the weather. I had the pleasure of shooting these beauties for the first time last year and they are definitely one of my favorite shorebirds to shoot. A nice low angle and your usual sold techs make for a very pleasing image.
I like the color above but I might try cropping a off the top to bring the subject up in the frame a bit, otherwise a sweet frame with something else to look at besides the bird. Oh, and that's a pink Conch shell, sometimes called a pink roller. TFS

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Gail! I like the behaviour, exposure, details, shell and reflection at the bottom of the frame.