ruddy turnstone

[allanrube]

It has rained a lot here in New England. Yesterday, the sky was clear at 4:00 a.m. so I headed to the beach. After a few minutes of sunlight near dawn, the fog rolled in and conditions were far from ideal. I watched a pair of ruddy turnstones for quite a while as they looked for breakfast.

D300 - 600 with 1.4 tc - iso 1250 - 1/500 at f6.3.

[Fabs Forns]

Very nice catch with great head angle and pose. Soft light yielded a very good exposure. I'd warm up the picture and maybe boost the contrast for extra pop.

[Arthur Morris]

Light and sharpness stunning. Too bad he was not checking out a beautiful scallop shell....

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the soft light, angle and sharpness. Maybe a bit more saturation?

[Stu Bowie]

Super low angle, and love the pastel colours in this. An early morning well rewarded.

[Jasper Doest]

Nice behaviour captured Allan. And good techs as well. However, next time you might want to lose some of that empty space on top and have some more at the bottom as this is where the action takes place.

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

Nice one. Love the smoothness of the sand. I might add a bit of contrast on the bird. Espec the back is paler than it is in the reality.

Szimi

[allanrube]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I will try adding saturation and contrast to see how that looks. I will do selective color too to see what they looks like.
I do like the pastel look.
Jasper, I see what you are saying. I took some off the top but did not like the pano look. I did have more on the bottom but what was there did not look good.

[allanrube]

Does this look any different?

[Arthur Morris]

Well, I stand corrected. The re-post looks even better! And yes to different; much more punch but not overdone.

[allanrube]

Thanks for the comment on the repost.

If anyone wondered what the turnstone was looking for...

[Arthur Morris]

Still love the bird, the light, and now the prey item. Still wish for a nice scallop shell instead of a pile of ???