Sandpiper #3: Upland

[Bill Dix]

Cape May, last month. The first and only time I've seen an Upland Sandpiper. The guide books say he prefers grasses 4-8 inches high, and that's exactly where he stayed. I waited in vain for quite some time for him to work his way into a clearer patch, but he refused. I guess in other locales he likes to pose on fenceposts, but not here.

D7000 | 500f4 + 1.4 | ISO 1000 | 1/1250s @ f/7.1 | + 1.0 EV

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Nice and sharp on the bird and i like the softness surounding it by the oof greens.

[Randy Stout]

Bill:

I like the habitat effect here, soft enough(as mentioned by Cheryl) that it works for me. You could probably clean up some of the grasses overlapping the body, but they aren't very bothersome.

Nice shooting angle and pose.

Cheers

Randy

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent shot, love the details and inclusion of enviroment

[Stu Bowie]

Super pose and low angle Bill, and Im fine with the grasses.

[dankearl]

I think the grass makes the image, in fact @ f7.1, did you blur a bit?
I think a few in focus in the FG would look nice.
The bird looks sharp and nice.

[Dave Leroy]

Looks like an interesting job in pp'n to give the photo that nice soft feel. Nice to see the bird in its habitat.

A bit nit picky but I wonder if a tad more room for right foot is needed.

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for the comments.

Dan, I did not blur anything in PP. I was lying in the grass at relatively close range (mosquitoes buzzing around my head), and all the blur you see was straight from the RAW file.

Dave, The only PP work I did was to boost the contrast of the bird just a tad to try to pop him out; use the s/h tool to knock down the highlights on the bird, just a bit; and clone out one OOF blade of grass coming out of his head. I did crop some from below. Everything below the crop line was unrecognizable green blur, but I suppose I might have left just a little more for the virtual foot. I wrestled with exactly where to cut it.

[Marina Scarr]

NIce and sharp. Love the colors of the bird against the green. I am feeling it needs a tad more space down at the bottom for the foot.

[Raul Padilla]

the colors are great, the eye contact too, it work for me, the bird in their habitat

[Mark Young]

Lovely image, nice HA and exposure. Great to get such a nice shot on your first sighting.

[adrian dancy]

I have no problem with the grasses in front of the bird. Considering it is in long grass it would be odd to get a clear shot. The cloning behind the head may need more attention. All in all I love this image.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Marina, Raul and Mark.

[Bill Dix]

I have no problem with the grasses in front of the bird. Considering it is in long grass it would be odd to get a clear shot. The cloning behind the head may need more attention. All in all I love this image.

Thanks Adrian. Actually I didn't do any cloning behind the head. The only thing I removed was a blade of grass coming out of the bird's forehead to the left. But I see the area you're talking about, which exists in the RAW file, but which might be cleaned up.

[Ron Sprunger]

Bill, I really love this one. It has a feel of innocence and freshness to it. I wouldn't mind a little more at the bottom, unless it would introduce something out of character for the scene. If it were mine (wish it were), I might try to remove the two blades of dry grass above the left foot. What a beautiful bird!