Ringed plover (Charadrius hiaticula)

[Jonathan Ashton]

I went to the local beach at high tide, I noticed a couple of Ringed plovers just perhaps 15m in front of me, they had been still and I did not notice them on the pebbles. I got down on my hands and knees then slid on my belly and then I managed to get some images.
Hand held, full frame just cropped to 3:2
OM-1 300mmf4 & MC20 (1200mm ff equiv)
ISO 1000 EV +1.3, 1/800sec, f8 ( took various exposures up to ISO 3200 and 1/3200sec)

ACR/PSCC

[Andreas Liedmann]

Superb Jon .... love it generally , very well captured and processed .
DOF and sharpness/details spot on .
Overall color and tone working nicely .

Being very picky ... I might work a bit on the whites and the blueish pebbles , but only a minor thing and matter of taste

TFS Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Very nice Jon, the detail, sharpness and overall look is very appealing and the colour is natural and reflective. The 2x certainly delivered on this one and if it's almost FF you have given just about the right space at the foot, not too tight, albeit a sliver more might be cool? Cosmetically perhaps a couple of clean ups just to keep the backdrop uniform, but I might just open up the eye just a fraction, but don't use exp or shadow /HL, just too basic and less than ideal.

Some might miss the feet, however hard to show with this habitat, nice one.

TFS
Steve

[Arthur Morris]

Sharp and lovely. BTW, this is a fresh juvenile and thus, more handsome than the adults in fall. Since the bird is angled slightly away from you, the head turn toward you was necessary. You might wish to open up the dark mask below the bird's eye.

with love, artie

[Brian Sump]

Jon, an overall nice frame.

I will surely be the outlier here, but the eye just does not look sharp to me, even in PS. The shoulder and knee look in focus, but not the rest of the head.

Otherwise, you might consider treating the large, brown rock at right. I do like the diagonal rock line and faint bkg.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I lie the image, and I agree with opening up the eye area. As per Brian, I get the sense that critical focus was on the shoulder, with the eye itself perhaps needing an extra dose of sharpening?

[Dorian Anderson]

I agree with Brian about the focus point/plane. The shoulder looks great but the face and -- more so -- the beak do look to be out of the focal plane. I do really like the scalloped back feathers and the low angle! I could rotating the canvas CW a bit to level the foreground and minimize the OOF blob at bottom right. If nothing else, I'd close the big, dark rock in that corner.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I did lighten the dark mask a little but I take your point. Eye sharpness - it is sharp but on reflection I could sharpen a little more.