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Thread: Purple Sandpiper

  1. #1
    Ed Vatza
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    Default Purple Sandpiper

    Having seen the Purple Sandpiper images that have been posted in the past day or two, I post this image with a bit of trepidation. This image was made on 12/29 on the jetty at Barnegat inlet (NJ). The skies were overcast and the jetty very wet and slippery following an all night rain. Matter of fact, I fell once but managed to save the camera, lens, tripod at the expense of my knees. Then while making these images, a wave washed up over the jetty and caught me in the back of my legs. Feeling sorry yet??? :D

    Anyway, I was using my 30D and 400mm f/5.6 lens tripod-mounted with flash and Better Beamer.

    1/125 sec at f/6.3; ISO 400; EV=0; FEC -2/3

    Image cropped to approximately 1750x1400


  2. #2
    Axel Hildebrandt
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    After photographing these sandpipers yesterday, I know very well what can happen. :) I'm always happy if I get back without bruises and no wave catching me. :) Pose and details are very good. I would tone down the whites a bit. Too bad the legs are hidden and I find the BG a bit distracting. I would crop a bit off the top.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ed Vatza View Post
    . Feeling sorry yet??? :D
    No not really. I busted my camera,lens and flash last year and lost my Better Beamer last year while on the jetty; some other unpleasantries happened the year before.

    As for the image, at -2/3 FEC, the images seems a bit overflashed to me and the the highlight to the right of the bird bothers me a bit, so I would see if I could selectively darken it a bit (not much though). Otherwise, this seems very nice and representative of the environment.

  4. #4
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    overall image is very good. The pose meets and the mood of the background and we can feel the harsh weather you are talking about. The eye seems to be a little out of focus. You probably could have raised the ISO to avoid motion blur or have a better depth of field.

  5. #5
    Maxis Gamez
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    Wow, looks like you had a bad day! As far as the image goes, I would like to see the whole bird or at least not have the foreground cover part of your main subject. The exposure looks good and the image looks sharp in my monitor.

  6. #6
    Ed Vatza
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    Thanks for the critiques guys. I appreciate the feedback. The background is obviously two huge jetty rocks with the darker area being the space between. I pushed the highlights without overexposing but could back off a tad. And I usually use FEC at -1 but just backed off by 1/3 for these images. I guess -1 could have helped a bit. And I know what you mean about the legs. I had the camera on a tripod so I was already at a higher angle than the ideal. The bird was in a bit of a crevass so even at the higher angle, the legs were hidden.

    Quote Originally Posted by Christoph Belanger View Post
    No not really. I busted my camera,lens and flash last year and lost my Better Beamer last year while on the jetty; some other unpleasantries happened the year before.
    Ouch! Was that at Barnegat? My wife who is the birder of the two of us refuses to go out on that jetty. It just doesn't look as dangerous as it is.

  7. #7
    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
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    The things we do for our images, eh! Apart from the hidden legs and slightly bright whites I like this image alot. With your crop dimensions mentioned I wouldn't mind if you put a little more canvas back all around as I personally find it ever so slightly tight.

  8. #8
    Judy Lynn Malloch
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    Really like the pose and the composition but do agree about cropping a little off the top. The whites are a little hot as already mentioned but overall a very nice capture Ed.

  9. #9
    Ed Vatza
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    Hmm! To quote Goldilocks "This porridge is too hot!" "This porridge is too cold!" :) Do I need to crop or do I need to add a bit. Or does it mean that "this porridge is just right!" ;)

    Thanks for the critiques Daniel and Judy. I do appreciate them and take them to heart. So please don't let my feeble attempts at humor make you think I am not appreciative. Sometimes I find myself just marveling at all the little tidbits that I have picked up here over the past two weeks. Now if I could only get post-processing skills ratcheted up.

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