Black Necked Stilt

[Bob Blanchard]

Here's another one from Bob's Mudhole (here in Fort Myers). The Black Necked Stilt activity is picking up in there now, as the water is drying up fast. I plan on being there again tomorrow.

I think I may need to give this just a bit of CW rotation. Look about a degree off to me.

Canon 1DsMII, 600mm f/4L, f/4, 1/4000, ISO 200, -1/3 EV, AV Mode, tripod, face down in the mud

[Scott Frye]

Good detail in the blacks and whites with that great red eye. And with an intersting pose -- I just love the dirt of the raised foot -- nicely done

[John Chardine]

Me too. Love it Bob! Great sense of movement. Always amazed at how big their eyes are. I see a bit of noise in the BG which you could smooth out.

[Desmond Chan]

Very good as is. Love those details in the white areas !

[thijs broekkamp]

It's beautiful. The compo and with his leg with mud on it, great!

[Arthur Morris]

Love everything about this one: EXP, the red iris, perfect head and light angles, way cool pose with implied motion. It does, however, absolutely need more canvas right to give the bird someplace to go. Try a QM flipped horizontally and then warped a bit....

[Chris Kotze]

Excellent pose detail and colours

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great angle, pose, details and exposure control. I would crop a tad off the bottom and run NR on the BG.

[Mark Dumbleton]

Super angle, pose of the bird and exposure. I would add canvas on the right, and would remove the slightly distracting black dots to the right of the birds foot, close to the edge of the frame.

[Bob Blanchard]

Here's a repost with changes suggested. Added canvas per Artie (just had to re-crop, as I had plenty available), removed spots, ran NR on BG, blended and faded some of the other BG stuff.

[Arthur Morris]

I like the improvements. In a similar situation, if you can think fast enough, make an image of the BKGR in front of the bird (with the focus locked) or if you have additional frames, steal some of the BKGR from in front of the bird and create a stitched pano.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Agree with all the above comments, Artie's suggestion about making an image of the BKGR in front of the bird is great. Love the pose, detail and colors. Congratulations!

[Bob Blanchard]

Thanks averyone for all the great input on this. I like the final result better as well. Thanks for the tip Artie! I can see that being a very handy one (Especially when they're up close and you need more canvas).

Sadly, today was probably the last day for "Bob's mudhole" for awhile. There is very little water left. It followed this same pattern last year, and by mid-June I was out there in knee-deep water again capturing Black-Necked Stilts like crazy. The rains will be starting here soon, and that changes everything.