Red-necked Avocet Jux.

[Tom Rambaut]

1d MK4, 500mm + 2x TC, 1/2000 @ 9, ISO 500, EV -1/3. AV mode.

Took this on the weekend. New location so still learning were to go - found these Avocets and as soon as they saw me they flew out towards the middle of the wetlands. I set up and waited thinking they would come back to the area were they were feeding. I waited and they did fly back in. They both landed close and looked at me - I was trying to hide behind my lens not daring to move - then they continued to feed. I could have used the 1.4 TC and got better IQ but they were so wary I thought that they would fly off if I changed it there and then.

Thanks, Tom.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Love the low angle and comp. Would like to see some more detail in the whites.

[Colin Knight]

Seems like if they are feeding well you can always get a bit closer. =) Looks like a lot of noise in the background for ISO 500. Low angle is working great for me and whites look OK on my monitor.

[Tom Rambaut]

Not a typo - ISO 500 it was. I did run some NR on the BG.

At the time I exposed to the right with the whites in the far right box of the histogram on the back of the camera. I guess the darks were underexposed due to exposing for the whites - not wanting to blow them out. When I opened the file in ACR the whites are clipped but on the back of my camera at the time the histogram looked fine and there were no blinkies. Opened RAW file in DPP and the whites are not clipped at all. Two different programs gave me two different reading of the data.

I was sitting on the waters edge with my feet, which were in gum boots, in the water.

[gail bisson]

I like the feeding poses and the BG grasses. I agree that there seems to be some underexposure in this image. Did you play with S &H in PP? Color Efex detail extractor would also help bring out the whites,
Gail

[thijs broekkamp]

This is really nice, great low angle and light. Sharpness and lightening are also very nice

[Frank Schauf]

Great pose and setting you have here.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like that you have two in the frame. Great low angle. I personally would have preferred the far one's face visible (at least a little bit of it). The image seems to need a bit of CW rotation, and I ageree the overall exposure looks dark.

[rajojomanik]

Great low angle, background and lighting. Very nice looking species, I think I prefer this to the American one.