Juvenile Black-bellied Plover

[Ross Taylor]

This photo was taken Presqu’ile Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Skies were heavily overcast.


My Canon EOS 7D mkII and EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, were mounted on a small beanbag on the ground. Settings were f/5.6, 1/1000s, ISO 1600, 400mm. Shot RAW and processed in Lightroom.


Cropped to 65% frame width for composition. Cloned out debris from beach, an OOF bird near edge of frame, and dark areas in background trees. Brought up the shadows in the eye. To the background I applied NR and decreased contrast.


I very much welcome and learn from your critiques - Thanks for having a look!

Ross

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Ross, I really like your low perspective here, together with the walking pose with the raised foot. I like the soft light, ( sometimes overcast conditions are for the better ) and two tone layered BG. Just enough FG. I wish for a slightly better HA.

[William Dickson]

Beautiful colours Ross. Great detail and POV. The raised foot adds to the image. I am with Stu, and think a better HA would take this up a few notches.

Good work

Will

[gail bisson]

Love,love the color palette. The soft light is really beautiful!
Great foot up pose and I like the amount of FG you have included.
HA already mentioned.
IQ and POV couldn't be better.
Gail

[Grace Scalzo]

Beautiful pastel colors, great stepping pose. Head angle noted but to me it isn't fatal to the success of this image.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Only a better head angle could improve the image. I love the low angle and the raised foot. Good processing to clean up the finished product.

[Mike Poole]

Great low angle and a nice walking pose. HA already noted

[Bill Dix]

Lovely pastel presentation. Raised foot adds to it.

[Ross Taylor]

Thanks so much everyone for your kind words! I was really not sure if the pastel background would be liked by anyone. Glad I posted it.

By head angle, am I correct in assuming that if the head was angled perhaps by only by a few degrees toward the camera ... that would be ideal?

Ross

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey Ross, yes, a couple of degrees towards the camera. Although with this pose the whole body would need to be angled more towards the camera by a couple of degrees. But that's me being perfectionist in a wild world that does not always play perfect too easily :-)

[Ross Taylor]

Thanks Daniel, last night I studied the thread by Arthur Morris regarding fine points of head angle. That was very helpful, and enlightening. Now I hope to be able to recognize these things in real time from the viewfinder ... but will settle for screening shots better after import from the card :)