Masked Lapwing Chick

[Lance Peters]

shot from my car - this little guy was strolling along the footpath.

D3
Nikon 300mm f2.8 with 1.4x converter
F5.6
1/1000TH
1600 ISO
-0.3EV
Matrix Metering
Car window as support.

Comments welcome and appreciated. --- SHOULD have cropped some from the top - IMHO
:)

[Harshad Barve]

Beautiful compo with amazing feather details
TFS

[arash_hazeghi]

love the comp Lance and the details in the eye

[Gus Cobos]

A beautiful composition, image and capture Mr. Peters. The color rendition and feather details are superb. Love the facial expression and big sharp eye...well done Sir. :cool:

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Great details Lance! I adore these little guys, still at the cute, fluffy stage. :) TFS...

[Bill Dix]

Cute little fellow in a scruffy sort of way. What an eye! Wonderful color and detail, and I love the composition.

[Alfred Forns]

Great find and glad he cooperated !!! Cute little guy !!

[Joe Brown]

Excellent capture Lance, great eye detail and BG with nice colours, I like the softness in the down. Very good composition and crop. I would not take anything off the top.

Joe

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Fuzzy little ball Lance! Looks like you have almost the full dynamic range here. Would crop a bit off the top. Sharpening looks very natural.

[Kerry Perkins]

Nice! I don't see these from my car!! But seriously, very well done and I love the reflection of the sky in the eye.

[Jay Gould]

Great image Lance; they are sure are mean :eek: when they grow up and you get anywhere near their nest. I have been unwittingly continuously attacked by them the past few days. :)

Beautiful processing and agree with addt'l cropping.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Great image Lance; they are sure are mean :eek: when they grow up and you get anywhere near their nest. I have been unwittingly continuously attacked by them the past few days. :)

Jay, I hope that's not because you are deliberately getting close to nail a shot or two of babes and the adults are trying to drive you off! :) I have successfully been able to photograph with short lenses using my car and the adults were settled with chick no more than 6-8m from my vehicle.

Looks great to me Lance. Well done mate. Cars make excellent hides. :)

[Lance Peters]

Jay, I hope that's not because you are deliberately getting close to nail a shot or two of babes and the adults are trying to drive you off! :) I have successfully been able to photograph with short lenses using my car and the adults were settled with chick no more than 6-8m from my vehicle.

Looks great to me Lance. Well done mate. Cars make excellent hides. :)

Hi Akos - cars do make excellent hides - these guys are everywhere down here were I live - Have had them nest in the front yard - so depending on were they are nesting and the mount of human traffic they can be a little more accommodating of humans.
But they are not worried by cars at all - they even nest on a roundabout on the highway.

[Jay Gould]

Jay, I hope that's not because you are deliberately getting close to nail a shot or two of babes and the adults are trying to drive you off! :) I have successfully been able to photograph with short lenses using my car and the adults were settled with chick no more than 6-8m from my vehicle.

Looks great to me Lance. Well done mate. Cars make excellent hides. :)

Nope!! I have never seen a chick!

When I was at Ibera Marshes there were a pair off Lapwings and the nest was clearly marked. You never knew how close you could get to the eggs. They were right outside our room on the lawn and sometimes the birds left you alone and other times they came at your from great distances.

The past few days when we were South of Buenos Aires at a 150 year old estancia - 1000 hectacres/amazing place, the polo fields were covered with Lapwings - I still have to determine the particular type/photo to shortly be posted - and the birds were sitting on lots of eggs. Unfortunately, if they were sitting on the eggs you never knew where the eggs were located because no effort was made by the owners of the Estancia to protect the eggs. When the field was mowed - which was often - scrambled eggs.

Each day when I walked the perimeter of the field attempting to keep the sun at my back so I was shooting away from the sun - thank you Artie! - sometimes the birds would attack and other times not. I have a couple of full frame images of the birds beak open flying directly at me screaming and flapping their wings in an attempt to hook me with their spur.

At Ibera one day I watched one of the guides walking in the field unfortunately too close to the birds' eggs and they flew at his legs and gave him a serious cut.

Same problem with the Magpies in Australia. I have had my helmet attacked several times; the cure: putting big eyes on the back of your helmet.

I can only hope to someday capture a chick as Lance has beautifully done.:D