American Oystercatcher

[Harold Davis]

i always wanted to photograph these guys in a good environment. after seeing some this past spring at estero beach, i thought they would be easy!! the ones i saw were huge. but these guys were a lot smaller. and didnt want to cooperate!! not quite the environment i wanted, but i guess it will have to do for now!!

D300, Bigma at 500mm, f/7.1, 1/2500s, -1.3EV, ISO 400

thanks for looking and comments and critiques are appreciated!!

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Doctor Daktari,
I like your composition, great capture. The whites on the bird look a tad on the hot side, and the background looks a bit dark...:D See if you like this version. I selective sharpened the feathers and the legs and burned the whites just a little and lightened the background a tad...:cool:

[Alfred Forns]

Glad you found an OC Harold !!! Neat birds !!!

Like the way the bird looks in the re post Great looking eye and lots of shadow detail !!! Razor sharp image and excellent head angle !!!

[Lance Peters]

Nice one MR H - I haven't been able to get a good one of these guys over here either.

You have it all covered here - very good IMHO :)

[Dave Phillips]

IMO, the original is much better....look at the legs, the bill and the whites are "less" hot according to histogram.
All "improvements" in repost make for a very unnatural look for a bird

just honest critique

[Harold Davis]

in the presented jpeg, there is one pixel at 250. no hots at all. the repost is hotter with lots of pixels at 254, but not blown. the blacks however, in both images are climbing the dark wall. i think what gus did was lighten the midtones?

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Harold,
I've never managed to get a decent pic of these birds either, and I think yours is terrific. I think that I like the original better, but I always enjoy seeing reposts because there is never just one possibility for a picture - it is always educational to see what someone else can come up with. I don't agree that all 'improvements' in reposts make for an unnatural looking bird.
Regards,
Nicki

[Nonda Surratt]

Hi Mr H

Heck I've never even seen one;)

Like the image

[Doug Brown]

Really nice photo Harold! About the only thing I would change in the original is lightening the BG a little to make the bird stand out a bit more.

[Harold Davis]

OK, i bit! made a change to the bg and slight to the bird. i think it does look better. thanks for all the comments. all i did was establish a color control point on the bg below the bird in the green. brightened by 18 points.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Like it lightened the way Gus has done. Not sure which is the more accurate colour as I have never seen one of these birds. Very nice.

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Excellent re post H, the only thing I thought in the original that was not there was the background as Doug pointed out. Everything else looks more natural. Great running into you and Mrs. H yesterday at school.
Regards,

[Richard Waas]

Love the repost Harold. Way to go!