Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

[Tony Whitehead]

From Miranda on the Firth of Thames, NZ. A few individuals amongst crowds of Wrybill, Bar-tailed Godwits, Pied Stilts and some Knots
Nikon D700
Nikon 500VR+1.4x
ISO 1600 1/500 f5.6 +0.67EC
Home made ground pod with RRS BH55 and Wimberley Sidekick
Comments and advice always appreciated.

[Jeroen Wijnands]

I'm sorry but I just can't come up with anything but "wow"!

[arash_hazeghi]

nice composition and details, well done Tony.

[Martin Wallis]

Tony, it's awesome, the sharpness, detail, clarity blow me away. The high ISO seems to be fine on the D7. Would it be fair to say the D7 is far superior to the D40? BTW, I've never seen these birds yet.
Cheers

[Ryan Schain]

I like the sharpness, soft colors, and nice composition. Well done.

[Mark Young]

Beautiful image! I like this composition that includes the oof bird. Exposure and detail looks great.

Some of the Shorebirds here are starting to come into their breeding plummage, I imagine the ones over there must be doing the same?

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Lovely image Tony and so beautifully composed . Excellent exposure, pose and detail. Love this one !!! The OOF in the BG really puts it over the top.

[Randy Stout]

Tony:

Lovely feeling, details, composition. Well seen and captured.

Randy

[Ilija Dukovski]

Great one, the two bird comp is great, detail and sharpness og the bird on right
is perfect, but the water is perfectly calm and clean which takes it up a notch.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Tony, I like how the OOF sandpiper is mirroring the pose of the front sandpiper. Well spotted on that count. Perfect calm water, overall well exposed, and I like the soft colours of the BG.

[Tony Whitehead]

Tony, it's awesome, the sharpness, detail, clarity blow me away. The high ISO seems to be fine on the D7. Would it be fair to say the D7 is far superior to the D40? BTW, I've never seen these birds yet.
Cheers

Thanks Martin. The D700 has a full frame sensor at 12MP so much bigger pixels than the D40 so much better high ISO performance. Focussing system completely different which is better for BIF but not hugely significant for this type of image.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Beauty of wide-open. Loved the soft light, sharpness, exposure and comp. I think the head turn of the OOF bird is working well here too.

[Sid Garige]

Wonderful comp Tony.

[Troy Lim]

Great shot, love the details of the feathers. ;)
You rock.

[Phil Battley]

And yes, migration has started. The first bar-tailed godwits were reported leaving yesterday, though it seems a few may have snuck out of my study site earlier. Sharpies should stay around until early April. In a few weeks it'll be back to brown and greys again...

Fantastic shot, Tony!

Phil