Lesser Sand Plover

[Aditya Sridhar]

This Sand Plover was super tame and I was able to get very close to it. However, these birds are so incredibly tiny that even at 700mm, this is about a 50% crop! This image was shot as the sun broke through the clouds right after sunrise. In hindsight, I wish I'd gotten an inch higher to get the toes in the frame, but I liked the worm and the raised leg, so I hope they compensate somewhat (also the worm would've blended in with the sand) I also stopped down to f/10 (f/8 was the max. aperture) for more DOF.

Camera - Nikon D850
Focal Length - 700mm
Aperture - f/10
Shutter Speed - 1/2000s
ISO - 2000
Handheld
Manual, Auto ISO

As always, all comments & CC are appreciated!