Least Sandpipers

[Cal Walters]

These guys always to never let me get very close, but these allowed me to get about 25 feet away and shoot for about 10 minutes.

Canon 50D
100-400 at 400mm
f/11
ISO 800
1/800
+2/3

I was practicing Al's metering guidelines and trying to learn how to quickly set the camera. This is a 25 to 30% vertical crop of the whole image which was horizontal. The rest of the image is more of the same board and background A little sharpening and saturation in iPhoto (working my way to CS3!).:D All comments appreciated.

[Bill Dix]

Cal - These are tough little guys to capture. You were lucky to have 10 minutes of cooperation. Of course, a lower sun angle would have been nice, but you take what you can get. You might have tried a lower shooting position if conditions allowed, to get more background and less wall.

[Gail Spitler]

Looking at the metering, the exposure looks spot on to me. The focus is nicely done as well with the front bird sharp and the second bird just slightly out of focus - a nice tandem. In terms of what you were practicing, this looks good.
Cheers
Gail

[Cal Walters]

Cal - These are tough little guys to capture. You were lucky to have 10 minutes of cooperation. Of course, a lower sun angle would have been nice, but you take what you can get. You might have tried a lower shooting position if conditions allowed, to get more background and less wall.

Good call Bill. So many moving parts - I think I was just so excited to have them cooperating I was losing track of all the elements that go into it.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Cal,
I like the capture, you have good head angles and good eye contacts...would suggest cropping from the bottom just up to the rippled portion on the lower right side of the frame and also taking off 1/4 from the top to eliminate some of the negative space...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Alfred Forns]

Looks good Cal !! Exposure is on the money !!!

I also like having the second bird a lot, I think the key is waiting to have both in identical poses, this is awfully close and looks really good !!!!

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Congrats on a great capture. I like that both birds have good eye contact and are sharp.