Semipalmated Plover

[Joerg Rockenberger]

This plover was photographed Tuesday at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz, CA. At first I wasn't entirely sure about the ID especially after I looked at the Sibley because the illustrations there look completely different to me than this image. But then I searched online and quickly found an image by Arthur which looks basically the same as mine and which he ID'ed as Semipalmated Plover. So, if my ID is wrong... it's Artie's fault. :)

Then, if anyone has a recommendation how to change the blueish/gray foreground color to something more in sync with the rest of the image please let me know. I've played around with a Channel mixer adjustment layer but could not get any realistic color. Also tried averaging the entire image on a separate layer and then painting a mask to show the resulting color only in the foreground while adjusting the opacity of that layer but to no avail. Any other ideas?

Oh, and some water cleanup was done.

Thanks in advance. Best, JR

Canon 40D, 500F4IS, 1.4TCII, 700 mm, 1/1600s, F7.1, ISO 400, Manual Exposure, Gitzo tripod with Mongoose 3.5a

[Arthur Morris]

The confusion stems from the fact that this is a moderately worn juveniles and the young birds have mostly black bills and much paler neck bands. I love everything about the image but the mud-crud. The head angle and light are perfect.

[Ray Rozema]

Eye contact, head angle, detail and exposure looks perfect. Too bad about the foreground. If ethic allow clone out the crud and change the blue to the same brown as the background.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Thank you for the kind feedback.

If ethic allow clone out the crud and change the blue to the same brown as the background.

Ray, how would you do that? JR

[Paul Randall]

I don't mind the blue/grey in the FG Joerg. Like Art/Ray said, HA and light is perfect. If it was mine I would consider getting rid of the second, lower catchlight in the eye that was obviously created by the suns reflection on water. Just something I do sometimes, others may disagree.

[Connie Mier]

I think you could get away with more crop on bottom to take the lighter blue color out of the photo. Beautiful bg, very nice details on feathers and excellent pose on the part of the bird.

[Danny Laredo]

Love the eye contact and pose.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment. No argument from my side that the foreground is less than ideal. Best, JR