long-billed curlew

[greg cowle]

Long-billed curlew on Moss Landing State Beach this afternoon. Feeding on the wet sand. I had gone wide open to control the ISO with this camera body, so the back leg is going out of focus, but I like that droplet.
Canon 7DII and 400/f2.8II on tripod.
f2.8, 1/1000, ISO640, processed in Lightroom.
Greg

[Juan Tolentino]

Good head angle, and raised leg. Compositional wise, The bird needs to be moved down and a little back. The addition of a catchlight will also improve the image. Thank you for sharing and I’d like to see more of your pictures Greg.


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[John Mack]

Nice pose i like the high key feel. Looks like it needs more room above.

[Glenn Pure]

Great background and foreground, Greg, that make the bird really stand out. I agree with Juan that more is needed at the top of the frame and maybe a bit off the bottom although I do like the blurred reflection. Detail looks excellent but I'd be inclined to boost the tonal range on the bird as this will really lift it, I think. For your aperture choice, I think you could close down more than you did and use a higher ISO. The 7DII performs very similarly to my Canon 80D on noise and I can work at ISO 1600 with good results. The caveat though is that you might want to investigate more sophisticated NR tools like Neat Image. They make a huge difference due to their ability to treat noise while still preserving detail unlike the NR you get standard in Adobe products. It will give you more confidence to work at higher ISO, I think.

[greg cowle]

Thanks all for your comments, in the repost I have added some canvas top and left, cropped a bit from the bottom right, and brightened the bird. I think this is betters thanks for the coaching.
On the aperture Glenn you are right. If I am in a unique situation I am not an ISO snob, but I was playing around with settings yesterday on a local beach, and it happened that this guy ran past as I was at 2.8. Focus has to be super accurate...
Greg

[Raybel Robles]

Lovely image, really like the white BG showing the bird well. I will be tempted to even move the bird a bit lower still after the repost. Just by where the reflection of the legs start to disappear.