Sandpiper, in the arctic.

[Charles Daigle]

Yesterday, I spotted two of these little fellows poking into the ground for food. Turns out that the village I am in is right on the edge of their northern breeding grounds. The locals here told me they have never seen such a bird. They have also said that the spring melt came about a month early.

I'm not sure if I like the pose of this one, he was moving quite quickly poking his beak in the tundra.

E3
ISO640
50-200 @ 200 & F8
EC14
1/1250th
IS=off
Taken at 12:45 AM

[Dave Mills]

Hi Charles, I happen to like the pose. You shot this in good light and the image looks sharp. I like the fact you left room in front of the bird. I would have liked to have seen more room on the bottom.

[Charles Daigle]

Thanks Dave, unfortunately, this is basically the full frame. I did not do much cropping on this image at all! The light was very nice last night, and it always gets really nice at around midnight! Is it in fact a sandpiper? My bird book is not with me, and the sandpipers I see online from a basic search have black legs.

[Alfred Forns]

... would try lightening the bird just a bit with a brush, could make one or just use the dodge/burn at less than ten percent, tiny amount !!

Water bg is incredible at first was going to suggest lowering the saturation but love it as presented, just not used to seeing it like that !! Looking forward to more !!!

[Charles Daigle]

Thank you very much Alfred. The skies here are unbelievable as they are always PURE blue. The water is the same color, pure dark blue. I have many more images from this series, but this one was the most interesting because of the water droplet from it's beak and the lack of grass/mud in the foreground. I will edit the photo as noted, and post a little bit later.

[Dan Brown]

Hi Charles. I'm not sure but this looks like a Rock Sandpiper to me. I like the drip on the bill and the head turn.

[Charles Daigle]

Here's the edited version of the photo. I dodged the bird about 10% and burned the background by the same amount. I also dodged the eye, so you can see the iris (in the full resolution version anyways)

Thanks for the tip, I have never done a dodge/burn on anything. I usually only use Adobe Lightroom for PP, so this little tip has been very helpful.



Dan, it does indeed look like a Rock Sandpiper, except for the beak which is mostly black on this one, where the Rock variation seems to be mostly yellow.

[Harold Davis]

repost does look better, especially the eye area. nice job getting this one with the beautiful bg. i like the raised foot, just wished there was a tiny bit more canvas below.