Ruddy Turnstone

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image from a beach chair while sitting in the shade on the north beach at Ft. Desoto, Pinellas County, Florida. These birds truly are scavengers, roaming the beaches, turning over stones and seaweed looking for whatever they can find to eat. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/1250 F/5.6 Matrix Metering 0 EV ISO 280 AWB, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom 6 and Photoshop Elements 10
Cropped for composition and presentation

[John Robinson]

Thats a delightful shot Joe. Foot up and beak content great. Beautiful texture and light on the bird.
JohnR

[William Dickson]

Yes, very nice Joe. Lovely rich colours on the bird, and a great pose.

Will

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the breeding colours, walking pose, food item. A lower angle would have been better IMO, and I do find the subject a bit soft and noisy/grainy.

[stuart wanuck]

yes and like eye level composition

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Was this a big crop Joe? Perhaps that's why we are seeing the noisy/grainy look.
The bird appears sharp, but around the eye it does not quite look that way.
I like the low angle and the dynamics of it moving across the frame.
A lovely image otherwise.
Many thanks for sharing mate.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated.

Daniel and Akos, what you see here is about 60% of full frame, not sure what happened. I went back and worked on the image again from the beginning. Maybe it was something in post processing. Here is the repost without some of the shells cleaned up.

[adrian dancy]

I like the repost better even without the clean up. An excellent capture for reasons indicated above. These are scavengers alright and our turnstones even feed around garden tables in some places!

[Daniel Cadieux]

The IQ s better on the RP, but the eye still looks a bit soft...perhaps some bit of subject motion blur in that area...

[gail bisson]

Hi Joe,
Love these little shorebirds.
I have to agree with Daniel that the head is soft thus taking away from the picture.
Any more sharp ones to show us?
Gail

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone, very much appreciated.