American Avocet

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon EF400mm f/5.6L
1/800sec f/5.6 ISO 800 HH

S/H and sharpening in CS5
NR on BG in Noiseware Pro

[annmpacheco]

Hi Ian,
This is a sweet image, I like the simplicity. Preening position or bowing behavior; it's graceful. I like the sharpness overall and the BG is lovely especially with the lighter greens. I see some ? water drops or smudges to the right of the bird's head that you may wish to clean up. TFS I look forward to seeing my first Avocet one day!

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Ann. Those blobs are from bird feathers all over the place on the pond surface. I'll get in there and clean them up.

[Peter Farrell]

I agree, a very nice preening pose and good detail. I love the light and color on the left side.
Also agree about clean up on the floating feathers.
Peter


Please comment on my images; I need all the help I can get

[WIlliam Maroldo]

I have noticed similar blobs in my images and wondered what they were. I was thinking something optical, but your explanation makes more sense. In any case the spot removal tool in ACR works very well for them.

Very good exposure, and good detail, for a bird that has fine feathers. I think a bit more contrast is called for. I like the water and background but the yellowish area on the left makes the image un-balanced.
regards~Bill

[John Chardine]

This is super. Love the soft light and pastel shades. Also the preening pose is great. Other than the mentioned water cleanup can't think of any way to improve this. OK maybe one but it's small- to my eye it would have been ideal to have a some lighter, yellow tones on the right to balance the left side of the image. The eye could be lightened a bit as well.

I will never forget seeing 26 of these birds in the early morning at the tip of the spit at Point Pelee back in the 1970s.

[Lance Peters]

Love the soft pastel colours - Good preening pose - agree with the water cleanup and lightening the eye just a tad!
Good show :)

[Julie Kenward]

I think this is one of your best, Ian. Lovely, simple...beautiful lighting and exposure. Clean up the feathers and you'll have an outstanding image on your hands.

Only thing I think might bring this up another notch would be to see if you could bring out any more detail in that steel black eye.

[Ian Cassell]

My PP skills are still limited, but I gave this a try. I'm having a tough time with the eye, but think I brought it out a bit. I cleaned up some of those globs too.

Any better?

[Julie Kenward]

Ian, I think it looks much better! Nice work in pp.

[alexgwoodruff]

Really nice Ian - I have been enjoying seeing these back at the Riparian Preserve over the last couple of weeks.
You really did a great job - both on the original and the re-edit. That re-edit is really something!!
You got that really beautiful low angle that has been missing from my own shots, and that water really cleaned up nicely.