Avocet Couple

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L
1/1000sec f/6.3 ISO 200

Levels and sharpening with slight crop in CS5

[Julie Kenward]

Beautiful image, Ian! I like the position of the birds in relation to each other! It seems well exposed and it's a lovely image overall - nice BG and the water is beautiful as well. I think I might take a small slice off the bottom to put them just a bit lower in the frame...everything else is perfect.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Jules. I've tried a few different crops off the bottom, but maybe you're right.

[Stan Cunningham]

Nice job Ian, last time I was at Gilbert just as the light got good and I went to photograph them they left.
Very nice pic, are you hand holding the 400?
Stan

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Stan. I was handholding exclusively until a few days ago. I bought an Induro GHB2 Gimbal head at a good demo price for my tripod a couple of weeks ago and have been experimenting with it. I never could stand shooting birds with the ballhead. This was tripod mounted, but I haven't decided yet whether I like this approach (especially with the 400). It does make me slow down and think a bit before I shoot. I'm trying to decide how I feel before I trade in my aluminum legs for an expensive set of CF (as it is likely to be some time before I buy a 500/4).