Theme-eye--2-eye oystercatcher

[Bob Smith]

These black oystercatchers are quite cheeky little fellows, being quite willing to go eye to eye at close proximity. They often will hunker down amongst the rocks or sea asparagus tussocks as you approach whilst staring you down with their baleful yellow eyes. I debated whether to clone out the bit of down on the beak but it adds a whimsical touch I thought, so it stayed. 7DII,EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 IS MII @ 400mm, ISO400, f/8, 1/1250,HH, about 50% crop

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[dennis greenwood]

Nice low POv ,something i like to achieve when possible ,not sure Bob if its just lacking a bit of punch,possibly a bit of contrast ,just my opinion

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Bob, I find the FG rock on the LHS catching my eye, sadly going to the right would have taken the 'head on' away but may have avoided the bolder. I feel being slightly more in front, avoiding the rock would have been better, perhaps tracking the subject earlier on may have helped here, the beauty of a zoom. The image does look soft, lacking depth and tone and perhaps even a bit warm on the WB. Going slightly 'cooler' and adding some Curves, HSL and general Exposure sliders does bring back more depth and tone even in the lighter stones and that left leg as viewed. Applying some more selective sharpening does bring back some of the finer detail too. I think there is more within the capture, so if time allows I would revisit the image.

Anything doing around Boundary Bay?


TFS
Steve

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Bob,

After the nice bird and the neat, down the barrel stare this image has many problems:

1-the horizontal white stick behind the bird's head.
2-the dark tones and BLACKs of the subject looks grossly over-lightened giving the low contrast/lack of pop look mentioned above.
3-the feet are partially hidden.
4-the large o-o-f rock in the lower right is a big distraction.
5-the background Boken of the plants is disturbing.

a

[Bob Smith]

Thank you all for the input--it is much appreciated.
I will take a run at working on the processing recommendations and ,perhaps most importantly, thinking in the field about image content and composition and not being too bedazzled by those eyes.
Boundary Bay is pretty slow for birds right now Steve but Canoe pass suddenly filled up with Canadas over the last couple of days as all the groups of young ones fledge and start to gather into the big river flock that forms out there every summer. There should be lots of good opportunities to catch them coming and going to the fields once harvesting starts and also over decoys out on the Brunswick flats and on the river bars.

[Bob Smith]

A retake on an oystercatcher. I had messed too much with the colours on PP of the 1st post. On this one I barely touched it with a hint of levels, added a bit more highlights and backed off completely on shadows. I had considered cloning out the bright log 1st time around but chickened out---this time I gave it a try. The reframing brings in more of the sea asparagus but after an initial "Oh oh..", .... I liked it better .Maybe it's just that the bird is brightened up but somehow this positioning gives him/her more impact in the image..

[Bob Smith]

Don't know why but the image posted funny the 1st time on that last post so I tried to redo it and ended up with two images and you have to move them left and right to see the whole image.

[Arthur Morris]

The repost is a big improvement. At least the bird is black now

a

[Bob Smith]