Greater Yellowlegs

[Dorian Anderson]

I spent last week bird- and photo-guiding at the Rio Grande Birding Festival in South Texas, and I was able to sneak away for some of my own shooting when not dealing with clients/attendees (most of whom didn't know **** about photography!). It was fun regardless of their abilities, and I was happy to have some time to practice with the R5 each afternoon. Eye tracking is good but not infallible so far. It does help with keeping focus on birds when I'm prone on the ground, so that's a huge improvement over my DX2. I think these low angle shorebird shots are harder for the camera than some flight shots. Here the eye is bobbing all around as the bird walks, but it stays level and flat in a lot of flight frames. For example, the camera did really well tracking flying tern's eyes even when the birds were too far away to present satisfactory results. So, more experimentation needed.

Interestingly, I see this species all the time -- around my Bay Area home and during my wider travels -- but I haven't had a decent photo opportunity at it in 8 years. So, I'm happy to report that this frame represents my best capture of this species to date.

Canon 600mm IS II + 1.4x III on EOS R5
1/4000 at f/5.6, ISO 800
Processed in LR CC. Removed the reflected catchlight in the eye, but nothing else added or cloned.

[sasan nejadi]

Happy new camera , beautiful shot , low angle , BG and iQ is very good.... TFS

[dankearl]

Classic pose and the raised foot is alway a bonus.... Nice IQ..
A bit tight at bottom for me, could use just a tad more.

[arash_hazeghi]

A clean well executes frame, lots of details and sweet light. I bet after getting used to 50ish mega pixels there is no going back to 20 :D

I agree without eye tracking the low angle (especially walking) shots were always a crap shoot, now it's a piece of cake!

TFS pretty frame

[Jack Backs]

Beautiful image. Love the light and background. I guess my only quibble would be the the tail feathers being out of focus.

[Volkan Akgul]

hi Dorian,

eyes, bird species, light and background are perfect. For me the light can be softened and the whites taken away.
Congratulations.
Glad you got the R5.

[Arthur Morris]

Lovely and perfect. DATPCA. I am with Dan in wishing for a bit more room below.

with love, artie