Taken last month at Fort De Soto, using ground pod, with Nikon D700, 600 mm lens with 1.7X TC, manual exposure f/6.7, 1/1250 sec, ISO 400.
Not sure how to crop. If consider both birds, then OOF least sandpiper is at about a 1/3 x 1/3 junction, but the main, in focus bird is centred. Wanted to leave a bit of water to my right, as the bird's head is pointed there, although he's looking straight at me. Any ideas?
I like the pose and think the open eye enhances the image. The smooth water and resulting reflections are pleasing. I like that the out-of-focus bird's pose matches the primary subject's pose. I personally like the placement of the birds in frame. It will be interesting to hear what others have to say. I find myself wondering how a little more separation of the two birds would affect the presentation but not sure you could have done anything about this.
Your expose and colors look good good to me.
It appears to me that the image could used some clockwise (CW)-rotation. I am basing this on when I draw a line using the ruler tools from the front of the bird to the same location on it's reflection that results in an angle line. Going to Image/Image Rotation/Arbitrary indicates a CW rotation of between 3-4% (depending on where you draw the line).
Nice low angle, good exposure, and I like the similar poses in both birds. As presented, with one bird near the left edge of the frame and an open area on the right, the comp looks unbalanced to me. As you say, the bird is looking at you - not off to the right. If this was mine, I would crop at least half of the open space on the right. I might also consider adding just a bit of canvas on the left. :)
Typical resting pose, eye contact makes it. I would rotate as suggested by Phil and crop a fair bit from below and right. The mirrored pose in the OOF bird is great.
My bad, re: rotation. It's one of the important things I've learned in this forum that I really didn't consider before, and have been generally careful to check/edit. Re: Steve's comment. I tried this, but ended up centering the bird even more. I actually cropped every which way, and considered adding canvas, but never ended up with anything I liked.
I find the composition very pleasing and, contrary to the general rule of not merging, I fin some merging more powerful tan if the birds were apart.
I'd sharpen the eye a bit more. Very nice image.
Very subtle changes, but looks better. Some artifact at bottom, where canvas was added (can see straight "edges"). Did you USM whole image, or just eye?
Thanks, James. BTW, how's your neck? It took mine a couple of days to get back to normal!
Peeking Sandpiper
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