A brief bit of sun was forecast yesterday morning and I had a couple of hours spare and so popped over to a beach in North Wales where two shore larks and 7 snow bunting had been reported the previous day. The shore larks were the main target as it is not a bird I have previously seen let alone put in front of the camera. After a bit of searching I found them and applied the 'snow bunting' tactic of sitting on the beach and waiting for them to hop towards me which worked well. The only problem was they were searching along the strand line with all its debris looking for washed up seed to eat so it was difficult to get them in a clean setting. The background is the breaking waves along the shore line which was rapidly turning the background between blue, brown and white.
Taken with 7D with 500mm and 1.4TC on a monopod at ISO 250 1/1000s and F7.1
very nice image Rich,
The BG is fantastic and the bird looks great - very sharp!
As you noted, the preference would be for some cleaner sand. I find the OOF foreground a little distracting. Perhaps the composition would not suffer too much if you took some off the bottom(?).
Interesting setting, good angle, sharpness and BG. I might crop a bit off the bottom and wish for a bit more eye contact. The feather on the ground adds interest in my opinion.
Very similar to our Horned Lark. You were rewarded with your patience. Good exposure, colours, and sharpness, and BG. The feather is a great addition IMO. Re: OOF FG...I don't mind it at left with it's smoother transition, but find it too abrupt at right.
Shore Lark
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