Black bellied Plover

[Sidharth Kodikal]

A cooperative black bellied plover in nice evening light.

Canon 50D, 300 f2.8 L IS
1/1000, f8, iso 400

Cleaned up the water and the bg a bit to remove some distractions.
A bit big in the frame for my taste, but this is almost full-frame. Cropped slightly to eliminate some unsightly stuff.

All comments appreciated.
Thanks.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Sidharth, I dont feel the plover is too large in the frame. Good pose with the slightly raised leg, and just love the BG. Maybe a touch of CCW rotation needed.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Nice light and lovely frame . The pose is nice , the image sharp . Beauty !

[Ron Caswell]

Great light, does seem a bit rotated though. Ron

[Dave Leroy]

Boy you certainly must have been close.

I like the nice soft light, pose with raised foot frozen in place, and lovely bg.

Good catch on the need for ccw rotation.

Dave

[Troy Lim]

Agree on a bit of CCW rotation.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

so close to this bird...WOW. loved the raised foot pose and that it is fully out of the water. great BG...excellent sharpness and bird angle.

[Jeff Dyck]

Beautiful image! I love the nice light and great background. I'll agree with others on the need for some CCW rotation

[Herb Houghton]

Nice colors, detail and sharpness. I agree with the previous comments about the rotation to make the sandbar level.

[Mark Young]

Wonderful image. I like the composition. Full frame @ 300mm you must've been quite close to this bird. Is that normal for this species?

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Thank you all for the feedback. Much appreciated.
CCW rotation indeed was needed.

Full frame @ 300mm you must've been quite close to this bird. Is that normal for this species?

Mark, it depends a lot on the location. In Austin, birds are exceedingly skittish (and my lack of fieldcraft doesn't help). This image was made in Florida when I was visiting for a weekend last year. Birds were unbelievably tame there by comparison. I was just lying flat on the ground and this and some semi-palmated plovers were foraging all around me at minimum focus distance. Pretty amazing place for birding/bird photography.

[Mark Young]

Thanks Sidharth, I've heard that about the birds Florida. I'ld love to go there and experience it for myself. In comparison the shorebirds here really make you work hard for a decent image. Sometimes they'll get used to you and allow you to come close, but I've very rarely gotten a FF image of any shorebirds smaller than a Oystercatcher. Most of my images therefore are cropped @ approx 40%.