Avocet landing

[arash_hazeghi]

Avocet landing, these guys are so cute!


Nikon D700 300 f/4 + 1.4X TC f/7.1 1/1600sec ISO 500

[Mark Dumbleton]

Super image! Lovely colours, BG and composition here!
Agree on the cuteness! Well Done!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the soft light, details and landing pose. I wish for a lower angle and no wing/bill overlap.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice pose here, and I especially like the details on the front wing. I also like the muddied feet. Did you do something to the lower corners and bottom edge? There is sort of "blurriness" there that seems inconsistant to DOF as it curves upwards in the corners instead of staying level all across.

[arash_hazeghi]

yes Dan, I blurred the foreground and the sides a bit, does it look bad?

[Sharna Lee]

Arash,
This is a wonderful image! I agree with Axel in regards to the bill/wing overlap. But I too love those muddied feet and that excellent light. No, the blurred foreground does not look bad at all. I probably would have done the same. Good job on this image.

Sharna

[Daniel Cadieux]

yes Dan, I blurred the foreground and the sides a bit, does it look bad?

Thanks for answering back Arash. It doesn't look "awful" bad, but it looks un-natural...I spotted it right away. Just a thin OOF band at bottom may work, but not with the sides. What is in focus on the ground should be that way all the way across.

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks Dan,
I Agree, here's a repost

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks, and the repost looks better, but you should leave the original at the beginning for us to see the difference :-)

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Alternatively, you could try a vertical crop. Maybe something like this.

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks, and the repost looks better, but you should leave the original at the beginning for us to see the difference :-)

Thanks Dan, the above is pretty much the original except for one band of blur applied at the bottom:)