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Lifetime Member
This is even better than the drake image.
I love the blue color in the BG, the perfect HA,IQ and POV.
Do you have a tiny bit more room on the LHS?
Really good!
gail
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Super Moderator
I too like this one better, very, very nice! Again I feel it is a bit tight in the frame, but all else looks great. Beautiful BG!
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I like the pose and background. I know how difficult it can be to get a nice photo of these birds on that jetty. Either they are 5 feet below you, they are bunched up in a tight flock or every once in a while they are nice and close and perched up high. That is a blessing and a curse when that happens. It allows you to get a shot with a clean background, but depending on what part of the jetty you are on you may need to get too close to be able to do that. In this case because it looks like you were close it would have been better to stop down to at least f9 and maybe even f11 to try and create more depth of field. Especially since the bird was not parallel to the back of the camera. Was the focus point on the eye? It appears that the face is not as sharp as it should be and that the front foot has the best details.
Also I do not think you have the colors quite right. Female Harlequins have more warm brown tones to them, especially when viewed in full sun. I can see a bit of a blue cast as well. And that little white patch on the face is blown out and I can not see any detail. I have been to Barnegat many times and still do not have a single photo of one of these birds that I think ticks all of the boxes that I mentioned here so I know how truly difficult it is. The best photo I have seen from Barnegat of these birds came at high tide, a friend ventured out to the end of the jetty and laid down on the rocks. He went in the late evening and had the sun at his back. He waited for a large wave and got a male in perfect evening light at eye level at the top of a wave. Then the wave crashed onto the jetty and his gear almost got ruined! The thing with most wildlife photography is that it is really hard. Even close birds that are right in front of you are hard many times. I went there 3 times this year and have 1 photo that I am pretty happy with. That tells you how hard that place has been this year.
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Thanks all -- greatly appreciated it. I think I have some more room on the left so will take a look at that.
Isaac, I'll take another look at the colors, I've only seen these birds twice now, so unfamiliar with the color so I appreciate that. The focus point was on the head, but I was using d-25 so possible the shoulder got grabbed or I was too aggressive with NR. You're right about the patch on the face -- how would you handle this exposure setting? I was really unsure how to handle that patch in the field and just opted for exposing generally for the body as I'm never that happy bringing up the shadows a lot but that might be the best scenario? This spot is certainly tough, I saw some folks laying down far out on the jetty as well but opted against it, too scary for me! Thanks again and sorry for a slow reply -- busy week and got behind with email / forum. Best,
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It is really hard to get both males and females properly exposed. My best advice is to shoot them very early or very late in the day if in full sun, or in overcast conditions with nice flat light so you do not have to worry about blowing that spot out. Otherwise it is basically impossible to get them spot on. If you expose for the whites then you will have to lift the dark areas quite a bit. And if you expose for the dark areas then the whites will be totally blown and not look natural. So if you want one of them then get out there well before first light and hope to be in position when the sun is really low in the sky.
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