Black Turnstone

[Isaac Grant]

My wife had a conference to attend in Portland, OR so me and the kids tagged along. We spent a morning at Canon Beach where I got my life Tufted Puffins (no shots unfortunately) and then went to Seaside. We were searching for Wandering Tattlers (which we did not find) but had a nice consolation prize when we happened upon a flock of Black Turnstones that were huddled together during high tide. I crawled along the wet rocks so I could get at eye level with the birds. This was a bird that I really wanted a shot of as shorebirds are my favorite birds and we do not have these in NY. I have shots of some of these birds with the waters of the Pacific as the background but I think this is my favorite of the bunch. I like the brown rocks as the background as it really shows how well these birds blend in to their environment.

Canon 1DX and Canon 100-400 ii. ISO 800, F6.3, SS 1/3200. 382mm. Hand held. Processed with DPP 4.6 and PS

[Bill Dix]

Excellent in all respects. Nice pose, good exposure, love the arc of blue wetness on the rock with a hint of same in the beautiful background. Sweet feather rendition. I, too, would love to capture one of these some day.

[Chris Elliott]

Isaac,

Congrats on a great find. I tried to find these little ones while we were on Vancouver Island this summer, but no luck....did get the Tattler. You image is quite sharp and i like the way the blue water in the background plays with water on the rock in the foreground.

Chris

[Jonathan Ashton]

Isaac looks great on the web but in Photoshop it looks totally different - not too sure what's happened, it looks very red. I was just going to investigate if there were any blues that could come out of the plumage, having said that I think the image on web looks great. I haven't seen one of these before, interesting to see the legs are not orange.

[Isaac Grant]

Yeah that is weird Jonathan. Perhaps something happened when you imported the image. There is nothing red on any of my screens. Looks the same in my Photoshop as it does on the web as well. I have pics of many of the birds that were in this flock. This one had the most orange legs of the bunch. Most of the rest were even darker and more brown.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Isaac, I really like Turnstones, but as I dont live near the sea, I dont often see these guys. Overall, nice and sharp, and I actually like the darker Turnstone against the dark BG. Im fine with the blues in the BG, but would reduce the blues around the top of the rock perch.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love this. Shorebirds are my favourite too, but this year has been less than ideal up here due to high waters at the best spots for "proper" artistic photography. Great perch, BG processing. Pretty much a perfect image for my tastes.

[Glenn Conlan]

On my list to capture and you did a great job on this one. Nice detail and perch with pleasant BG

[Glenn Pure]

Excellent 'text-book' perfect shot, Isaac. Simple and effective composition, excellent clarity, lovely detail in the underside and rich tones There's nothing I'd change here at all. I especially like the reflection on the wet rock.