Spotted Sandpiper

[Ken Janes]

I found this sandpiper in a fresh water pond near our house on the coast of Maine.

1/400 f5.6 ISO 640 Canon 400mm f/5.6L on a tripod. Any critique will be appreciated.

[Richard Stern]

Hi Ken,

I like the arrowhead-like effect of the rocks the bird is perched on, and the symmetry of the reflection, but the bird itself seems too small in the frame, the head angle is poor in that it is looking away, and the head and bill seem slightly oof compared to the flanks - ? movement blur? Exposure, bg and placement of the main subject in the frame are excellent.

Richard

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Ken, I like the idea you had with this image but agree that there is too much competition for attention with the rocks and the reeds sticking out of the water. Good points made by Richard, would love to see this bird captured in a less distracting scene. Exposure and color look great. Hope you get more opportunities to capture this bird.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

The ideal and composition concept is good. Might clone away tiny elements under bird (backend). A bit sharper and more light on subject would make the picture stronger - love the background. Richard makes good points - keep it up - thanks for sharing.

[Ken Janes]

Thanks for the helpful comments. I appreciate the input.

[Marina Scarr]

I very much like the idea you had behind this image, Ken. However, one big issue is that your horizon is off. It's easy to see if your horizon is off when you have a reflection b/c the top of the picture and the reflection should be in a perfect line. In this case, I simply used the grass on the left. You could also have used the tip of the bird's beak. I took the liberty of fixing your horizon and then recropping which was necessary as a result. I also selected the bird, inversed and then popped those lovely BG colors which I felt needed some umph. A better HA on the bird would have been nice, but you're on the right track. This image has a nice environmental feel.

[Ken Janes]

Thanks Marina It took me a while to understand what you meant by the horizon but by using the overlay grid made it easy to understand what you meant and how you corrected it. Thanks for the great input.