Shadle's Oystercatcher

[arash_hazeghi]

American Oystercatcher in flight with captain James Shadle in Alafia banks, Tampa Bay.



1D4 500mm f/4 1/1600 sec ISO 1600.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Not much to say except a wondeful image! Great banking pose, nice details in both the whites and the blacks, and I like the dark marbled BG. Original vertical, or cropped from horizontal?

[arash_hazeghi]

Not much to say except a wondeful image! Great banking pose, nice details in both the whites and the blacks, and I like the dark marbled BG. Original vertical, or cropped from horizontal?

Thanks Dan, I always shoot flight horizontal and crop in post.

[Peter Hawrylyshyn]

Arash
Great pose and details
There's a fine edge/halo of "blown" whites along front of tail and parts of the wings, was it the lighting or result of oversharpening? The sharp edges almost makes it look as if the bird was pasted on the bkgd (which obviously wasn't the case)
I know the bkgd is what it is, but i might have tried to lighten it up a bit , but that's personal taste
Well done

[arash_hazeghi]

Arash
Great pose and details
There's a fine edge/halo of "blown" whites along front of tail and parts of the wings, was it the lighting or result of oversharpening? The sharp edges almost makes it look as if the bird was pasted on the bkgd (which obviously wasn't the case)
I know the bkgd is what it is, but i might have tried to lighten it up a bit , but that's personal taste
Well done

I have no idea what you are talking about Peter but thanks, have you ever seen an oyster catcher up close? :)

[Clemens Vanderwerf]

Great shot Arash. These guys move fast and are hard to get. Love the light, sharpness and the details on the feathers. "Banking" pose shows the oystercatcher at his best.

[Bob Pelkey]

Appealing shot with the ultra dark background. Keeping the bird in focus was obviously a great challenge.

[Ofer Levy]

. Original vertical, or cropped from horizontal?

I find it hard to believe that anyone would even consider taking BIF in vertical.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Well, I've seen it done before...and I've considered and tried it myself (albeit unsuccessfully so far...)

[Stu Bowie]

Excellent banking angle Arash, and just love the full wingspread and underwing detail. Ive always liked the colours and detail on these guys heads, and the OC pops nicely from the darker BG.

[arash_hazeghi]

Well, I've seen it done before...and I've considered and tried it myself (albeit unsuccessfully so far...)

Dan,
There is no advantage in shooting BIF in vertical mode, the expansion AF points for 1D4 are not cross type at f/4, so by shooting in vertical mode they lose accuracy and AF will not track efficiently. My advice is to avoid doing so, it puts you at a great disadvantage.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Great banking pose and wing position...Eye really stands out...great image Arash

[Ofer Levy]

..........

[Doug Brown]

Sweet shot Arash! Congrats on getting a nice shot of a target species!

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Fantastic shot Arash. Doesn't get any better than this.
Exposure, pose, bg, sharpness, everything top notch.

[Peter Hawrylyshyn]

Arash
The edges within the white boxes have white values around 250-256
Your sharpening of the bird seems to accentuate these borders - that's all i was suggesting
Overall great pose and BIF shot

[arash_hazeghi]

Peter, the border glow is not from sharpening, it is natural and due to sun angle relative to the reflective feathers and the dark BG. It is hard to see in the small 800 pixel web presentation but it shows clearly in the RAW. Sometimes it is hard to figure where things are coming from if you have not seen the bird up close in similar conditions.

IMO the glow makes the bird stand out in the dark BG and therefore I like to keep it as is and faithful to the RAW :)