Black-necked Stilt

[Andrew McLachlan]

This one photographed in a mangrove wetland behind a resort in Cuba on the island of Cayo Guillermo. I was taking my daughter, 1.5 years old at the time, for a ride in her stroller when she fell asleep. I parked her in the shade beside this wetland and photographed many of these stilts until she woke up.

Nikon D200
80-400 VR lens at 400mm (effective 600mm) (handheld)
ISO 200
f8 @ 1/1000 sec.
no crop

Look forward to comments

[Randy Stout]

Andrew:

Nice sense of motion with wake, leaning pose, leg up.
To accentuate that feeling, I would consider a significant crop down from the top, more of a pano look.
The whites on the neck don't show a lot of detail on my work laptop, but I will defer to others on this. The screen here isn't top notch.

Cheers

Randy

[Andrew McLachlan]

Thanks for suggestions Randy. Much appreciated as always. My TIFF file does show detail in the neck, but in the JPEG conversion I think I did lose a bit. I also should have cleaned up the two bright spots on the bill. I noticed those as soon as I posted.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Looks just a tad bright to me also, I like the pose but I think the bird is a little bit lost in all the water, perhaps a crop but still retain the reflection would help so there is about twice as much space on the right of the bird compared to the left hand side.

[denise ippolito]

Andrew, Brightness noted but I do like the pose and these are one of my favs. Nice job HH.:)

[wendell westfall]

Andrew, a classical stilt pose; very pretty. I would echo the crop advice . . .

[Andrew McLachlan]

Thanks to all for the comments. I'll be toning down the brightness. Very much appreciated.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I feel the light is a little harsh here and the bird too small in the frame as presented; therefore, a more pano crop as suggested would certainly enhance it. :)