This little guy was one of three siblings at Baylands in Palo Alto, CA. If I hadn't watched the chicks with their parents, I would have had a difficult time distinguishing the avocet chicks from the stilt chicks!
Very sweet. EXP and Sharpness perfect. The light is a bit from the left leaving the top of the head and the eye socket shaded. Some flash would have helped with that. Best would have been to been flat on the ground which I know would likely have not been possible....
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
Thanks very much Artie - it definitely means a lot coming from you.
I absolutely agree about the sun position. For some of the shots, I was all lined up with the setting sun, but these little peepers move around quite a lot, and in this case, this little guy had moved farther to my left, throwing part of the face in shadow. Lesson learned - I will always have my flash with me just in case....
About the angle... (sigh) I always try to get as low an angle as possible, and usually it is pretty feasible from this spot. However, as soon as there were hatch-lings, the park managers put up a bunch of caution tape keeping folks away from the nesting ground. Due to the slope down into the slough, it was impossible to shoot under the tape. The only recourse was to extend the tripod legs and go over it - thus the higher angle. I wasn't about to move that tape due to the $1000+ fine the warning signs claimed!
YAW. As I figured with getting low.... Anyway, Tim Grey non-destructive Dodge and Burn for the repost plus some Eye Doctor work :)
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
The repost looks great - thanks for spending time on this. I'm not familiar with non-destructive dodge and burn. Is that a tutorial Tim Grey has made available, or is that from one of his courses?