A piping plover taken right at sunrise at Sandy Hook NJ. The light / scene was really pinkish red so I've tried to keep that as well as bring some depth back into the bird. Background is a wave breaking. In post, NR, sharpened, cropped / leveled the image about 20%.
I like the low angle, subject, layer of in-focus pebbles. I even like the specular highlights in the FG. I'm having a tough time getting into the lighting you got here though. I realize this is likely what you saw, but I wish it was even more backlit (almost silhouette). Not sure for now. I'll come back to it later and see if it grows :-) Don't get me wrong though, I do love what you went for!
I'm with Daniel on this one. Pebbles look super cool and you have a nice pose. Specifically I like that you got something different of this heavily photographed species. I think Daniel is spot on. I would prefer either totally backlit or with the sun at your back. While this is pretty, I think that both of the alternatives would be even more dramatic.
I really like the dreamy effect on this.
It may sound odd, but I find the sharp focus on the pebbles a bit distracting - the bird being in part-shadow loses some acuity whereas the pebbles being edge-lit are very sharp. I am not sure at the moment what the answer is, but I guess a good measure is the immediate thought on opening the image and in this case I like it.
Thanks all -- much appreciated. I'll look at the post a bit and see what some tweaks can do. Always good to experiment and I may try to go more silhouette in the future. Best,
Backlit plover
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