Snowy Plover

[Cheryl Slechta]

Please correct my I.D. if this isn't a Snowy. This was taken at Anna Maria Island in Florida in July. I cropped, levels, curves, usm. I know the lighting isn't ideal but wasn't sure if ruined the image.
Thanks for looking. Comments and suggestions appreciated.

[Bob Miller]

Cheryl....I am not sure of the ID myself but I like this image. The light looks soft and that complements the baby motif. You handled the bg well and I like the repeating browns in fg, middle, and bg. The whites look good to me. The only thing i might try is to go a little bit sharper on the feathers on the back. Very nice!

[John Chardine]

Hi Cheryl- I think you are correct about the Snowy ID. This species is similar to the Piping Plover buy one distinguishing feature is non-yellow legs. These are greyish, which fits.

I love the lightness of the image. I can almost imagine the sand is snow, which would be very appropriate considering the name of the bird! The low angle is great and I really like the dreamy background. There is a lot of negative space in the image but I am OK with it. A better head angle with the bird's head turned CCW towards you would be optimal.

[Cheryl Slechta]

I forgot to post the specs on this one:

Canon 7D
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L
f/9, 1/500 sec., ISO 250
Tripod

[jack williamson]

Great shooting angle, great light, the bg is lovely. Like John I can imagine this one is standing in snow with his feathers fluffed up like that.

Jack

[Jeff Cashdollar]

I like the feel of the shot, very sweet and innocent. The material at the feet does distract from the hansom subject, a beautiful baby. Love the low angle. What did you not like about the lighting. The shadows provide texture and definition?

[wendell westfall]

Cheryl, I like it too . . . I might take a little off the top and make it closer to a pano . . .

[Kerry Perkins]

Cheryl, lovely little peep! I just love how the colors of the plumage are echoed in the environment. Coincidence? I don't think so... Excellent job on the exposure and detail is pretty good - could be a tad sharper all around to my eye. I agree with Wendell on the crop, I don't think you need so much on the top. There's a tiny bit of blue cast in the shadow areas. Well done.

[Susan Candelario]

Some good suggestions offered above that perhaps you might want to explore with. I like the soft dreamy look of the image. Good angle and nicely done, Cheryl.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions. I cropped some of the space from the top but I wanted to leave a little patch of the sea. I also sharpened - let me know if it's too much. I think my problem is my eyes aren't great and what I see looks soft so when I sharpen it looks too overdone I left the seaweed in the fg because as Bob pointed out I liked the repeating soft browns. I hope the changes improve the image.

[Kerry Perkins]

Cheryl, looks great to me! This is exactly what I had in mind.

[wendell westfall]

Cheryl, just right now . . . a beautiful photograph!

[christopher galeski]

nice image Cheryl,like the soft lighting,would like a betterHA,but still a nice image.well done.