Also known as Spur-winged Plover, they spend their life on the ground, they are noisy and aggressive and defend their nest site by diving at intruders.
Not sure if this works or not, I quite like the image.
The image was made in dappled light; I waited until the bird entered a patch of sun. Initially I tried at a lower angle but the grass was to long,
I find the large broadleaf plant behind the bird the strand of grass in front of the bird and the dark BG slightly irritating, but I like it as it forms part of the bird’s environment.
Olympus E500, Zuiko 300mm with 2 X TC (Lens and TC borrowed from a friend for 2 hours)
RAW, f 8, 1/320 ISO 400 manually metered.
90% of original, cropped slightly from left and right, some noise removal from BG.
Hi Ian, Nice pose captured here with one leg raised. A fill flash would have been handy here to reduce some of the contrast and also putting a catch light in the eye. I don't mind the dark BG except where the black head of the plover gets a bit lost.
Nice shot John. Impressed you got so close when you only had two hours. They tend to be very skittish when trying to photograph them in NZ. Were you hiding behind something or using a hide? Was it nesting in NSW at this time of year? Overall I think you have done very well with this shot. It is probably hard to photograph them in the pasture habitat without some grass obstructing them.
Nice walking pose and details. I agree regarding contrast and the whites could be toned down more. I would go for a rectangular crop and add space at the right and a bit at the top.
Thanks for the comments everyone, Chris I used a car as a blind, camera from the window on a bean bag. When trying to get a lower angle I kept the car between myslef and the bird as musch as I could. Just coming into winter here but I noticed very young Moorhens and Purple swamp hens on the weekend. The plovers were just feeding in a vacant lot beside the local river.
John I have been experimenting with fill flash but have nothing at this stage to show for my efforts, other than a growing pile of deleted files in the trash folder.
Masked Lapwing
Reply With Quote
