Semipalmated plover

[gail bisson]

Taken yesterday at a local beach near Glace Bay.
Mom (me) and her new baby( F500mm) are bonding well. Baby is soooo heavy!!
Canon 7D
F 4.0 500mm
SS 1/1000
ISO 640
F 5.6
I know some with find the BG busy but I like the fall colors. I cropped about 10% off the top.
LR3 and NR and curves in CS5
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

Your plover is sharp, nicely posed, well exposed, nice shooting angle.

Yes I like the colors, but they really compete with the bird for our attention, esp. the reds just in front. I would consider toning down the bg colors a bit to keep our attention on the well imaged bird.

Cheers

Randy

[Karl Egressy]

Beauty shot, Gail. The fall colours are very uplifting. The 500 is a sweet bay. You will love it!!!

[Jim Fenton]

Love the substrate, pose, exposure and sharpness of the subject.

I agree with Randy about the reds. Overall, I would mask the BG, blur it a bot more and definitely tone down the reds as that is the first place my eyes are drawn to.

Lastly, there are some bright things in the substrate toward the back that you could easily remove to make this even better.

[Melissa Groo]

Beautiful pose, sharpness and details, Gail! looks like you are already having such fun with that lens. I guess I will agree with the others about toning down the BG though I am at the same time in love with the colors. But the orange/red spots on the right are particularly strong. I really like the colors in the rocks too. Such a gorgeous shot!

[ramesh anantharaman]

Hello Gail,

For me the contrast between the nice sharp low ange birdand the colourful BG works. IMHO I feel a round of selective NR on the Bg would do a lot of good to this beautiful image image

[Stu Bowie]

Gail, the plover is really sharp, and you have brought out the feather detail very well. Although the plover is separated nicely from the BG, In this particular image, I do agree the colours compete with the plover. Its a pity, as we always look for colourful BG's for our subjects.

[gail bisson]

I have cloned out the bright red in front of the bird and black splotch above bird's back out. Is this better?
Gail

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

Def. making progress here, the red spot was very effective at pulling our eye to the background, better now.

Cheers

Randy

[David Pugsley]

Gail, congrats on the 500! I'm glad I could be a bad influence on you. :)
I'm a sucker for these little guys and love the re-post. I think you may need a slight CCW rotation.

[Emily Norman]

Congrats on your new lens, I know you're excited that it finally arrived!! And to think...I was complaining about my new 300 feeling heavy :-) I absolutely love this one, the eye contact and slight turn of the head is so very nice. Of course I prefer the brighter background in the first post but you know how I love colors. The repost is excellent too and does draw the eye more to the bird. Still, I would print that first one and hang it on my wall, it would go nicely with my brightly colored living room!

[Melissa Groo]

I think that looks a lot better, Gail!

[noelle zaleski]

Congrats Gail! Don't worry you will get used to the weight of your new baby :)

Looks like you have a nice sharp lens, your plover is very nice. The re-post is better with the toned down BG. Nice low angle on this one

[christopher galeski]

very nice image Gail,and the repost is better,the bird is nice and sharp,well done.

[Chad Caswell]

Congrats on your lens Gail Looks like your holding it plenty steady, nice and sharp!!! I love the bkg and the repost is very nicely done. Love the multi colors you were able to capture in the bg.