Oyster Flats

[Connie Mier]

I'm not sure how well this shot will go over here, but thought I'd throw it out there to see what happens. This white ibis was feeding in the oyster bed, prominent in the foreground. From my canoe, I attempted to photograph several birds during the full moon low tide on Chokoloskee Bay, Everglades. The bay is wrought with oyster shells as you can see, so not easy when floating in 2-3 in of water. I could get out of the boat, but a low profile would be difficult and quite painful. The ibises would attempt to get away by moving to the opposite side of the flat, as seen here. It took it out of the ideal lighting, with a bit more side lighting than I would like to have. The background is a mangrove shoreline.

I thought this might show another view of the Everglades not seen by many. Please let me know what you think.

Sony a700, 70-400mm Sony lens
1/640, ISO400, f5.6, @400mm
Manual and pattern metering, -.7EV

Connie

[Aidan Briggs]

Nice exposure, HA, and BG, but I don't like the prominent oysters in the FG, they aren't attractive, and detract from the image IMO.

[Tony Whitehead]

I like this habitat shot, Connie. Your explanation of the situation makes sense. The bird look overexposed with a lot of clipped tones on the bill and neck - reprocessing the raw may recover some detail in these areas. I like the close eye the bird was keeping on you and the differential focus pops the bird against the OOF FG and BG.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Interesting idea and I like the peeking bird. I would tone down the whites and am wondering what it would look like if you removed the dark band at the top and make it a pano this way, just an idea. :)

[Connie Mier]

I like this habitat shot, Connie. Your explanation of the situation makes sense. The bird look overexposed with a lot of clipped tones on the bill and neck - reprocessing the raw may recover some detail in these areas. I like the close eye the bird was keeping on you and the differential focus pops the bird against the OOF FG and BG.

Thank you for the comments guys. I like the pano cut as you mentioned Axel, but orginally thought a framed effect might work too. Tony, I did highlight recovery in LR and did not have any clipped whites showing. Still, I do think the light is a bit harsh, despite being shot before 8:30 am.

[Tony Whitehead]

Tony, I did highlight recovery in LR and did not have any clipped whites showing. Still, I do think the light is a bit harsh, despite being shot before 8:30 am.

Sometime the sharpening for web display will push values over the edge and clip some that were not clipping in LR/PS.

[Harshad Barve]

Interesting idea and another vote for pano
TFS

[Ramon M. Casares]

I wish you could've gotten closer so to get less DOF. Very Nice comp though. :) Congratulaitons!