Wilson's Plover

[Bill Dix]

D90; 80-400 @ 360mm. ISO 640, f/9 @ 1/1250s; Matrix metering @ -0.7 EV. HH.

This is the third in the series of Sanibel plovers from last week (the best of the 3 IMHO). I believe I kept the whites under control in this one, although a few pixels are pushing 240. This was taken at Blind Pass about a half-hour after sunrise, before the sun had burned through a morning haze. C&C greatly appreciated.

[Brian Barcelos]

Love the raised foot and head angle looks o.k. I like the blue BG but it does need some NR, I'd also lighten the eye some and maybe sharpen it some more. TFS

[Aidan Briggs]

I agree with Brian 100%. Nice low angle, HA, and exposure. The BG is a strange color...

[Paul Kusmin]

I love the little details like the sand on it's legs, great low angle, nice and sharp and a cool bird to boot.
Pixilated noise in BG can be dealt with easily.

[Indranil Sircar]

Very nice composition. I like that raised foot. Agree on the above comments.

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for looking and commenting. I ran two passes of Topaz Denoise on the BG but it looks like I should run another. And I agree about another pass of sharpening on the jpeg file - the TIFF was sharp and I did sharpen the jpeg after conversion, but not enough. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Excellent exposure and low angle !! Well composed but i too wondered about the BG 's color. Love these little birds and many thanks for sharing Bill.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Judy. The color of the BG is the Gulf of Mexico soon after sunrise on a hazy morning. This is the way it appeared in the RAW files, and I didn't alter or saturate it. I admit it's a bit unusual, although I kind of like it. I hadn't thought about de-saturating it but I suppose that would be a possibility since it seems to be drawing people's attention. Thanks for looking and for your comments.