With the American Oystercatcher on my mind, as I had the time to investigate the great BPN website this past week, it was a thrill to see the species upon my arrival to the venue some of you will certainly recognize from the image above.
The oystercatcher is a species regrettably seen too infrequently around this neck of the woods.
As I kept my distance from the solitary bird, it was insistent to stay even further away.
The best revelation in the oystercatcher's feeding behavior is that it is not as discriminatory as the Snail Kite. The catcher was not reluctant to consume its meal other than in small pieces no more than four before its quarry was consumed.
In the presentation of the image here, I am grateful to Tim Rucci for his feedback on my newly acquired CS5.
In this image presented, I pursued his instruction to open the JPEG file in Adobe Camera Raw.
My first step was to open the image in the picture bridge. I added Fill Light 44. I then adjusted contrast +33 and the used recovery for 20%.
In my second step for the image presented here, I used unsharp mask at 96%, radius .9, threshold 4 levels 2X.
This is the first time I am seeing focal distance within data in an image I have captured. It appears to be accurate with the lesser information integral in my enjoyment of any wildlife image I'm viewing.
Well, back to the image here. I was observing the American Oystercatcher find a meal with it repeatedly digging for it. Seemingly hard work for the long billed birds. Every so often it would pull up a meal. The Laughing Gull was always close by especially with them working the west channel.
When the gull got too close, the oystercatcher took a stand against it with a furry that is seen by very few species that can defend itself from the Laughing Gull's tactics.
MATADOR AND THE BULL
American Oystercatcher with Laughing Gull at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve
Fort Myers, Florda USA
My first foray into serious, yet experimental, photo editing. In this shot,
the bull has the upper hand.
The head down, eyes forward pose of the OC does make you think he might charge!
Nice low angle, good exposure, sharp.
I wish the two birds didn't merge.
Your info helped explain this interaction.
You will really like CS5. Unlimited potential, lots of options, keep working it!
You did well with exposure and you have lovely light. You did well getting both birds in focus and getting down low giving us a pleasing FG and BG. I have to agree with Randy that I would prefer not seeing the birds merged. Love the pose on the gull and the crazed look of the AMOY.
Thank you for all the process info. My little question is did you used any software to reduce noise? because on my monitor the feathers looks like washed out.
Overall I like the picture very much.
Matador and the Bull/ CS5
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