Wilson's Phalarope

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L HH
1/3200 sec f/8 ISO 800
These guys were spinning in circles so fast, that it took this shutter speed to get reasonable sharpness.

Crop for composition and sharpening in CS5
NR on BG in Noiseware Pro

I've only seen these guys once before and that was at a great distance. There were a dozen yesterday at my local haunt (Riparian Preserve, Gilbert, AZ). They made me dizzy as they spun in circles to scare up food.

I think this one is a female (the females are the brightly colored individual in this species).

[Joel Eade]

Beautiful pose and I love the colors in the water, exposure and sharpness look spot on to me.

The only little nit I could suggest is that there is some noise on the shaded part of the bird's body you could consider fixing.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Ian,

The colors are beautiful and you nailed the composition - really like the subject placement. Agree with Joel's comments and the image does seem a bit grainy/noisy. I have noise issues with my 7D at ISO 800 and above. Nothing critical just usually need to dial up the Topaz a bit to clean the image. I bet you were trying to enhance shutter speed hence the ISO/800 to counter the motion, nice field technique. It might be a tad hot in places as well, did you clip a bit on the right.

On balance, low shooting angle and image colors are real strong. Opportunity is detail and better control of the whites. Do you have any more this of this species, very beautiful and one I rarely see.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Ian, real nice image with lovely color and composition. The brightest highlights are overexposed, could have gone for ISO 400 in this situation. Trying to compromise for the mixed light (raising the blacks), the whites got too hot. Color meter shows 255 in red and green channels.