Black Belly Plover ~ Fall South Bound Migrant

[Jim Fenton]

While the south bound shorebirds at Plymouth MA certainly prefer the beachfront, when the tide is high, the resting flocks are continually hunted by raptors and many retreat to the old rock walls along the bay. The barrier beach here is only a few hunddreds yard wide, so it's not a long commute.

This particular black belly plover, still strongly colored and likely newly arrived from the breeding territories, posed briefly in a non typical black belly plover scene.

Nikon D2Xs, 500 AFSII, TC14EII, ISO 400, f 6.3, 1.400, matrix metering, +.3 EV compensation.

[Mike Lentz]

The BG is absolutely to die for! The pose and eye contact is nice... I wish that back rock wasn't merging through the birds legs, but you couldn't control that. Very nice work, Jim.

[Jim Fenton]

Was helped a whole lot by a 30 MPH SW breeze that had the marsh grasses really bent over and flowing :)

[Arthur Morris]

Yes, the yellow green BKGR is fabulous. The rocks are both distracting and what was. Very sharp with perfect EXP. The bird's body is angled slightly away from you. No solution for any of the above. You did the best with what you had.

[Jim Fenton]

Not optimal...certainly.....

A true representation of the habitat.....obviously as that's what hundreds of these birds were perched upon.

The question becomes...is reality necesarily a bad thing?

The image has been used three times in print and I've sold a number of them, so it was obviously an image worth capturing in financial terms.

Does one not bother capturing an image such as this, simply because the substrate the subject is perched upon isn't "optimal"?

In my opinion, true representations, as long as the subject isn't obstructed, are typically worthy of image capture.

[Doug Brown]

Well said, Jim! Reality can be a very good thing. I'm a big fan of BGs that convey a sense of environment. And I like this picture a lot, in spite of the rocks.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Fantastic, although the comments above with wich I agree, I LOVE this shot! That BG is simply wonderful! Congratulations!

[Gayle Clement]

Beautifully sharp. l love the color and the pose. The bird is so striking that it draws attention from the rocks.

[Stephen Stephen]

I'd be pleased to have created this one Jim.

Although I haven't sold much my work I'm sometimes surprised that some of my images attract more attention from buyers then ones that I prefer. I guess tha everyone has an idea of what they like.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Jim,

re:

Not optimal...certainly.....

Agree.

A true representation of the habitat.....obviously as that's what hundreds of these birds were perched upon.

Agree.

The question becomes...is reality necesarily a bad thing?

Nothing wrong with reality; I am a lover of what is.

The image has been used three times in print and I've sold a number of them, so it was obviously an image worth capturing in financial terms.

Agree. Do realize however that image sales often do not reflect the artistic quality of an image. All one has to do is look in 99% of the books and magazines out there. Lots of inferior images sell; we all see them published every day.

Does one not bother capturing an image such as this, simply because the substrate the subject is perched upon isn't "optimal"?

Obviously one should bother. My commentsto the ORIG post above expressed my optinions as to the artistic merits of the image.

In my opinion, true representations, as long as the subject isn't obstructed, are typically worthy of image capture.

I must take issue with this statement. If it were true, we would all be making 5000 images on each trip. And I think if you consider what you said, you would agree. On a typical walk on the beach I pass up hundreds of chances to photograph unobstructed subjects that would obviously be "true representations" and so do you. We all do. We all must. We see a subject and decide if the surroundings are nice enough to warrant our spending energy on the situation. I the case of this black-bellied, I would most like have tried to make a few images. But that does not mean that I would have been thrilled by the results.

[Arthur Morris]

Although I haven't sold much my work I'm sometimes surprised that some of my images attract more attention from buyers then ones that I prefer. I guess that everyone has an idea of what they like.

Folks pay for images that they need, not for beautiful images or for images that they like.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Despite the rocks, BG, and the bird's body angled slightly away from you, this image is still great!
The sharpness is accurate and I like it for that.