Short-billed Dowitcher After-bath Jump.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Lots of fun photographing a bunch of shorebirds bathing at Fort Desoto's East Beach in the afternoon. Most will jump and flap their wings after a bathing session, and many were doing just that on this day. Strong west winds made them hover in place a little longer, and pointing towards us.

Canon 7D + 100-400L @400mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/1000s., f/9, ISO 400 (histogram checked), natural light, handheld, cropped for composition (about 75% FF).

[thijs broekkamp]

Great moment, nice sharpness and overall colours in the image. I mis a little eye contact with the bird though

[Ofer Levy]

Nice shot. Shutter speed is a bit slow for this action but it looks sharp in this resized version. Needs some serious CW rotation IMHO.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the wing position, sharpness and composition. Nice image Daniel!

[Joe Senzatimore]

When the wind is right , it's magic. Nice light and composition here. Fine details and great action captured.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Nice bird, light and wing position here. I only find it too close to the edge on top.

[Chris Kotze]

Excellent landing pose well exposed and super detail. Great image

[Robert Holguin]

Excellent shot. I really like the flight pose, sharp, and very nice lit with great detail.
Well done.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nicely exposed and focused. I am a little hesitant about the wings, sorry to be picky but I think I would like to see them pin sharp or more blurred, my apologies I appreciate comments like this can be irritating. I am sure that had I been there I would have thought 1/1000 sec would have been fast enough.

[gail bisson]

Hi Daniel,
It was great to meet you! Enjoyed my day with you on the Hooptie Deux.
I appreciate the skill in getting a bird with incoming flight path sharp. I like the composition and the dangly legs and the water drops. My only ( minor) nit with this guy is the head gets a bit lost. Great "angel wing " position as well. I might do a touch of CW rotation although I think it is mostly illusion created by the ripples in the water from the bird taking off.
I continue to be amazed at how you make that 7D sing.
Gail

[Jack Breakfast]

I wouldn't rotate this if I were you. I think it looks perfectly straight and proper just as it is...

[Shawn Zierman]

Great action. Very good light quality.
I think with so much great underwing showing, the image would have been stronger
if your shutter speed allowed for a sharper rendering. Not being able to see an eye
clearly is a weak point as well. I disagree with the suggestion that there is an illusion
regarding the ripples in the water. The image definitely could use some clockwise rotation,
unless of course you like the off kilter effect...

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey all, thanks for the comments. Rotation-wise this was a tough one as the ripples in the LRC on the uncropped original arched towards being straight beyond what we see in the frame here. I agree in this version there appears to be a need for rotation.

Jonathan, not irritating at all...we ask for honest critiques and this is what you gave

[Frank Schauf]

Very nice flight pose and colours.