American Avocet

[Ron Sprunger]

Interested to hear if this image works as presented, or if the fact that the water was disturbed means I shouldn't be keeping the reflection. Taken July 31 at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge (my granddaughter let me hold the camera for a couple shots). Cleaned up the water a bit -- mostly OOF water walkers .

Nikon D7000, 200-400 f/4 VR hand-held, distance 29.9 m
f/6/7, 1/400, ISO 400, aperture +1 ev

[Ron Sprunger]

Forgot to add 1.7 TC and 650mm focal length.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Ron, Bear River. Great place. If you are gonna keep the REFL, you need some more room below. Love the sharpness, the high key look, and the raised foot with a bit of a splash and a bit of a blur. If you have room in front I'd crop 1/2 way from the ankle of the foot in the water to the belly.

[Karl Egressy]

A very nice image of one of my all time favorite birds, Ron.
I would keep the reflection for sure.

[Ron Sprunger]

Thanks Karl, I'm glad you like the reflection. Artie, I'm pretty sure you're telling me what I want to know, but I don't get the "If you have room in front..." part. I get that I need more room on the bottom, and can add some canvas to do that. I don't have room in front, but should be able to make some. I just don't get how the distance from ankle to belly relates to the crop you're suggesting.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Karl, I'm glad you like the reflection. Artie, I'm pretty sure you're telling me what I want to know, but I don't get the "If you have room in front..." part. I get that I need more room on the bottom, and can add some canvas to do that. I don't have room in front, but should be able to make some. I just don't get how the distance from ankle to belly relates to the crop you're suggesting.

Sometimes a picture (with text added) is worth a thousand words . Let me know if this make more sense....

[Ron Sprunger]

Ah, thanks for the clarification. It was taken as a vertical, and nothing cropped from the front in the OP.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Great bird, I'm not fan of reflections. I'd crop it, the way Artie suggested, and try to add canvas to the right edge.

[Arthur Morris]

Ah, thanks for the clarification. It was taken as a vertical, and nothing cropped from the front in the OP.

With the rather weak REFL and the nice green grasses back there I'd like to think that I would have gone horizontal from the get-go.... I am not a fan of the weak reflections..... Did you know that that was the bird's ankle and not the knee?

[Ron Sprunger]

I know lots of things from reading Sibley et al, including that that's the knee. First hand knowledge about birds, on the other hand, is coming along slowly. I was pleased on Saturday morning to visit some ponds up near the Great Salt Lake and identify easily all the birds I saw (except one peep I had in the binoculars, and couldn't pin down).

The Avocet's chick was between me and the mother (father?), so she was pacing side to side among the weeds for some time, crying out occasionally. I shot a number of horizontals, and a few verticals. There were only a couple shots with relatively clean surroundings and sharp. I actually preferred your crop, but didn't want the square, and would have had to add too much in front to make it decent. But that was the purpose of the post in the first place, to see whether you experts would consider the reflection a worthwhile shot. I learned a lot from your responses, and next time will do several things differently. Incidentally, I saw a number of Avocets Saturday, but too far out on a mud flat for photography. They appeared less colorful now than they were in July.

So a big thanks to you, Artie, and all the others who are giving me such good guidance in what makes a good bird photograph, as well as teaching me things about birds that I haven't found in any book. This site is a treasure for an old guy like me who wants to learn.

[Arthur Morris]

You are most welcome Ron. Your presence here has been great and I hope that you stay around for a long, long time. I think that you meant "ankle" in the first sentence above. I did not like a SQ either; the white space on the right was intended to show my preferred composition whether from the orig or with canvas added. Brightest colors will be in spring.

From one old guy to another.

[Ron Sprunger]

Ankle indeed. I should probably read what I write

[Arthur Morris]

On my blog I recommend that folks read what they type before posting . I always try to do it myself and still wind up looking like a doink-head once in a while, that despite lots of help from friends.