I took this in the late afternoon last month at Nickerson Beach. I instinctively went to remove the sand but decided I liked it.
D300s with 600 VR. 1/800 f/7.1. 250 ISO.
Yep I sort of like the sand too as a post action look. If I were to try to eliminate something it would be the stray feather on the neck. Wonder wht a vertical would look like but a little tight at the top.
Love the eye,head detail and color of the beak.
The bird looks well exposed but I think he could be brightened just a little. I don't mind the sand at all, I would rather the forground be clean in this one and I like the bg just like it is.
Nice low angle and HA on this, Allan. BG works well, love the eye, bill, and nice job on blacks! I might be tempted to clean up sand clump on bill, but nicely done!
Nice with the framing veggies but I must admit that I like the background vegetation better than the foreground vegetation. If it were mine the big glob of sand on the nares would be gone in a millisecond. I would also eliminate the two whitish areas at the base of the lower mandible and perhaps make it a bit less yellow. My last concern is with the seeming lack of fine detail in the brownish-black feathers (that from someone with an admittedly poor eye for fine detail).
How were the skimmers doing?
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,