Long-billed Dowitcher

[Gunnlaugur Sigurjónsson]

Taken with canon 1Dmark4, canon 800mm f5,6 IS. Program AE, ISO 1600, f/5,6, shutter speed 1/1600. I had the lens on a beanbag close to the water edge, with the setting sun behind me. I exposed to the right and there where no clipping in the orginal photo as showed by the histogram in camera. Post processed by lightroom. I reduced exposure by 0,33 and decided for WB 3800. As the bird was in the front of the frame I decided for a 1:1 crop.
Few days ago I posted another picture from this evening where I had put the WB higher in postprocessing, to 6000, that made the picture to warm and gave clipping in the red channel. Is this better?
The Long-billed Dowitcher is a vagrant to Iceland and this bird is either bird 8 or 9 to Iceland.
Would like some C and C.

[Joel Eade]

Beautiful bird, lovely light. I love the pose and head angle. Sharpness is good too. Water droplet is cool as well.

To me, the reflection doesn't add much because it is blurry so I would favor cropping some of it off and adding to the top and right hand side of the image.

[John Chardine]

Hello Gunnlaugur- This is very very nice. The light is wonderful and I love the green background and reflection in the water. A would suggest a couple of things- the crop is very tight on the bird and gives the impression that the bird is in a small box. I would give it some room to breathe on the top and to the right. Also I would rotate a little clockwise so that the water is level (water never lies!).

[Paul Guris]

I agree with the comments about the image being cropped too tightly top and right, and that the bottom could be shaved a bit. The background and the water that's being pulled up by the bird are incredibly sweet.

[Kerry Perkins]

Gunnlaugur, the capture is beautiful. I love the warm colors and sharp detail. I do agree with Joel, that the reflection does not add much and I would crop it out and the bird could use some space. I would crop about half of the water from the bottom. Other than that, I don't have much to say! Nice work!

[Gunnlaugur Sigurjónsson]

Thanks for the comments. I have to learn to add canavas to change the crop, to add on the top and to the right of the bird. In the tutorials and educational resources forum here on birdphotographers. net is a nice thread on that topic. I just missed the fact that the picture was not level before posting it!
I feel the pressure building to start using Photoshop.