Carmel beach this evening, saw these little plovers running around (sure someone can easily ID for me), and was hoping for some nice evening light on the birds. Unfortunately the grey clouds stopped that idea, and the birds settled in. Was just sitting on the sand getting the dog-walkers to stop walking over the little things when the clouds got a short of color from the setting sun, I think it makes an interesting image, if not for bird ID.
Canon 1DXII and 100-400II with 1.4x, flash at minimum power through Magmod.
f8, 1/400, 560mm, ISO2500.
Cropped from the bottom, full frame across.
Greg
For sure something different. I also like it and tried a similar shot a couple weeks ago that I haven't gotten around to posting yet. The sky is gorgeous here and I like the hunkered down pose. I don't mind the OOF bird here. It looks like theres a slight halo around the in focus bird though. I agree on cloning out the right stick. A very nice shot and different than the 'standard' shorebird stuff. TFS
Background is striking. I like the 2 birds. Beach is too cluttered for my liking. These are Snowy Plover. Looks like you had a bad selection above the bird or perhaps it's a sharpening halo.
Thanks all for the comments. For me this was a situation which developed very quickly, and disappeared in seconds, I only got 2 shots off before the cloud went grey, but reasonably well prepared I guess... Isaac and Alex, you are right about the halo, that was a brush in Lightroom to slightly brighten the bird, I am sure I can improve that. The stick I personally don't mind, but I think I will experiment with cleanup.
Thanks for the ID Isaac. Sure it is simple for you, but not for me. Actually when I got home and searched for an ID the Snowy Plover seemed most likely, but according to the Audubon App last night it had not been seen in the area for at least 30 days. I see tonight someone registered the sighting yesterday at Carmel.
Thanks,
Greg
Really eye-catching shot, Greg. Lots I like here and great you saw the potential here and used some fill flash to bring the birds back into the picture. Sky is spectacular and I think the balance with the dull tone on the birds is good as is the colour. Nice to see something a bit different.