Courting Avocets

[Robert Holguin]

Hello everyone. Well while shooting these beautuiful birds a pair decided to mate. Captured the whole thing from start to finish. This is the first time I have ever captured any type of bird mating. So I was thrilled.
C&C welcomed and encouraged.
Nikon 300s l Nikon 200-400 w/1.4tc l ISO 640 l 560mm l 1/1600 l F8 l Multi Segment l Manual l Laying on floor gear on skimmer ground pod.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

That is some beautiful light robert and i love the soft colors and behavior.

[Grace Scalzo]

wonderful image, Robert. I like everything about it. Please post more from this series.

[Colin Driscoll]

Sweet shot! Great low angle too. BG and bird colors compliment so well.

[dankearl]

Killer shot, Colors and everything else is superb.

[Arthur Morris]

Beautiful light, BKGR, and colours. My only problem is that sharp focus is on the rear bird which is the male. It is almost always best to focus on the closer subject. As presented some selective sharpening of the face of the female would improve this one (nice as it is!)

[Peter Scholer]

The soft colors work really well . Head angles are working too. Simply a very pleasing image. Well done.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Robert, getting down and dirty here has paid off nicely - great perspective. Just love the light, and the colours of the BG compliment the avocets very well. I feel a central placement was the only way to go. I agree trying to selectively sharpen the female will work, but am amazed you didnt get her in the DOF at F/8.

[Jack Breakfast]

Delighted to see the focus on the back bird...with this particular scene, I think the image is much stronger this way.

[Yves Guillot]

A VERY beautiflu picture here! Nice behavior and great soft colors BG and FG. Well done!

[Arno Ellmer]

Beautiful capture of these handsome birds,Robert.I like the low angle and the central placement.Agree that some selective sharpening will greatly improve this already great image.

[arash_hazeghi]

beautiful interaction and nice breeding plumage. I agree with Artie re sharpness, would sharpen the female head and maybe bump up the saturation a bit.

very nice low angle and habitat too well done

[gail bisson]

Beautiful action and low angle. Arash and Artie have great suggestions but, I too, wonder why you didn't get both sharp at f 8.0 Weird...
Gail

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Robert, poses, the comp, exposure, low angle...all excellent. good positioning of the camera to not let the shoreline intersect the head.

not sure why front part of the male's bill is so soft? did you do NR on BG and forget to mask that?

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Robert, getting down and dirty here has paid off nicely - great perspective. Just love the light, and the colours of the BG compliment the avocets very well. I feel a central placement was the only way to go. I agree trying to selectively sharpen the female will work, but am amazed you didnt get her in the DOF at F/8.

No surprising at all to me or to a d-o-f calculator :). At 25 feet (my best guess) at 560mm with a D300s d-o-f is less than one inch in front of and behind the point of focus.... The female's head is about 3 inches in front of the male's head.

No matter what the d-o-f the big mistake here was focusing on the rear bird's head. I always find it best to focus on the closest bird and to let the d-of fall where it may.

[Arthur Morris]

Delighted to see the focus on the back bird...with this particular scene, I think the image is much stronger this way.

I disagree but only 100%.

[Robert Holguin]

Thank you all very much for all the comments. They are very much appreciated.

Kaustubh - I did run NR on the background. Im almost positive I selected the bill, but will check into it.

Mr Morris - thank you for you advice. Now I just have a question. When you focus on the front bird, should I focus on the eye or the body?

[Arthur Morris]

Always focus on the bird's eye. That said, if you are working at f/16 or smaller, you might do slightly better focusing on the neck of the front bird hoping to take advantage of the 50/50 d-o-f with telephoto lenses.... Bt best first to go with the basics: focus on the eye of the bird in front. Recommended: ABP and ABP II but only if you want to maximize your skills by studying.

[Jack Breakfast]

A.M. it is a pleasure to disagree 100% in life, I've always found. I'll speak for myself: when I disagree 100% I feel excited about my convictions and opinions...if only I had the pleasure of disagreeing wholeheartedly more often...a lad dares to dream...

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot, I haven't looked at previous comments (so I have probably just shot myself in the foot!) but would suggest at this mag the DOF would be very limited, as a rule of thumb I would focus on the nearer bird. Nevertheless a fine image, lovely exposure and colours.