Piping Plover

[Philip Pietri]

This was taken at Howard Park in Tarpon Springs Florida. For those in the area who are unfamiliar, this is an excellent location for shooting shorebirds and waders. If you ever want to shoot Oyster Catchers it is definitely the place to be.

This was shot on a lovely November evening. I brought Darth Junior out and we were having difficulty with this Piping Plover as he had the tendency to walk 'too close' to us for a decent shot. We weren't complaining.

Camera: Nikon D70
Exposure: 1/3200 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 220 mm
ISO Speed: 500
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh
Exposure Program: Aperture priority

[Arthur Morris]

Nice compostion and image design. It is noisy, even in the light feathers. No need for ISO 500--should have been at ISO 200 esp. with that camera... The dark lines in the BKGR are distracting.

later and love, artie

[Grady Weed]

I agree with Art on all counts here. these guys are fast and never stay still. A real challenge. I do like the birds general pose and the details however. And since you live close by, then you can keep going back. Tell your dad I said hello. We grew up together and I have not seen him in a very long time.

[Philip Pietri]

It is noisy, even in the light feathers. No need for ISO 500--should have been at ISO 200 esp. with that camera...

That's a great tip, thanks! Blake actually mentioned the same thing yesterday. I've been plagued with noisy images since I started shooting last year so I'm excited to make the adjustment and see the results!

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Phiilip with the new D300 and D3 you can bump the ISO They are the first two NIkons with good ISO performance ..... but if worse comes to worse I rather have noise than blur !!!

The black line behind the little guy does take from a lovely image !!!!

[Philip Pietri]

I agree with Art on all counts here. these guys are fast and never stay still. A real challenge. I do like the birds general pose and the details however. And since you live close by, then you can keep going back. Tell your dad I said hello. We grew up together and I have not seen him in a very long time.

Just talked to him...

"Yeah, he's one of James old friends from back in the Palm River days. He was quite a character! A good guy none the less. Tell him I said hello back."

It's a small world!

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

The dark lines in the BKGR are distracting,otherwise very nice angle and light!!!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Very nice light, details and composition. Aside from the dark line, a slightly higher angle might have helped to see the feet better.

[Blake Shadle]

Nice image, Philip. As Artie mentioned, it's well designed. I'm glad we got to talking about ISO yesterday :) That's the only bad part about Howard Park, there's a lot of "stuff" floating in the water near the shoreline, which means lines in your background. This image would be much stronger without the dark lines in the background.

Edit: I'm ok with the amount of feet visible.

[Marko Matesic]

I like low angle and details on the bird....:)