Piping Plover chick

[gail bisson]

I took this shortly after sunrise. We are fortunate to have a pair of piping plovers that nest every year on the same beach.
Lots of pebbles on this beach and despite wearing elbow pads and knee pads I scraped up my elbows so badly that one is now infected!! My knees are black and blue.
The piping plovers live in a cordoned off area so there is a lot of waiting and PRAYING (!!) that they will leave the cordoned off area when the light is nice!
The things we do to get nice images.
Caonon 1DX
600mm and 1.4x
ISO 1600 F 7.1 SS 1/1600
Hand held (can't use tripod here because it seems to sppok momma plover ) while belly crawling. Skimmer pod gets stuck when pushed against all these small rocks and pebbles.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks.
Processed in LR Classic CC and Photoshop CC!! Yes-I finally made the leap to the creative cloud!
IN PP, I did reduce the yellows in the whites otherwise pretty much straight out of the box.
Gail

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lovely image, I like it a lot. I wouldn't change a thing. Hoping you recover quickly from your infection, hopefully it is not a infection more common in Florida that the state doesn't want tourists to know..Vibro vulnificus. People die every year from it. Thank you for sharing, Gail.

[annmpacheco]

Lovely and sweet, well done Gail. Sorry bout your combat wounds, but what a pay off. I like the smoothness of the rocks, the G and BG colors and the lil plover looking your way. Such a puff of sweetness!

[Bill Dix]

Sweet. The small-in-frame fuzzball works nicely with the pebbles. Reinforces how tiny and fragile the chick is. Hope you recover doon. It's a rough world out there.

[Arthur Morris]

Wow, that tells the whole story. Get better fast.

with love, artie

[Juan Tolentino]

Wow Gail! This looks even better on my large screen. Absolutely beautiful, I wouldn't change a thing here. Well done and I hope you get well soon. Thank you for sharing.

[Isaac Grant]

Love these little birds. I was fortunate this year to watch a baby piping run around that was just a few hours old. Such adorable little birds. Hope you heal soon. On the 5k imac the background looks a little grainy. Something I see all the time on my pics of these birds is that the eye does not look tack sharp. Not sure if it is from heat haze as they are so close to the ground or what. To me this has the same look to it, where the bird looks sharp but not tack sharp. I could never figure out of it is motion blur, heat haze or that is just how they look in pictures.

[gail bisson]

Ha ha Joe- you sure know how to reassure a girl!!!
In Nova Scotia, Vibrio F. is rarely acquired through open wounds exposed to ocean water because our ocean waters are way too cold for this bacteria!
I am more worried about falling down and breaking something when I am out and about alone in the woods photographing stuff.
Elbow looks great today after 72 hours of antibiotics. Time for me to go do it again!!
Isaac- I just blew up my image and to me the eye is very sharp. But I do agree with you that chicks are so low to the ground that there may well be some heat distortion. I just don't see it on this pic on my 21 inch monitor.
Gail
Gail

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Gail,
Super cute image. Lovely puff ball. Great low perspective with nice BG. Well done.
Hope you recover soon,
Allen

[John Mack]

Very nice. Like the low angle and that sweet sweet light. Bird looks good small in the frame.