40,000+ Sand Crab Eggs Down the Hatch

[Arthur Morris]

American Oystercatcher chick eating Sand Crab with eggs


In this image, I added the bill of the adult from an image created less than three seconds after this one. 23 May 2023 at Nickerson Beach Park, in Nassau County, Long Island, NY. I used the rear screen while working off my flattened Robus RC-5558-3 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens, the Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the thumb dial. ISO 3200. 1/500 sec. at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be dead solid perfect. AWB at 650am on a blessedly cloudy morning. Tracking: Expand Spot/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly.

You can see both images and learn a ton about Sand (or Mole) Crabs in the recent blog post here.

with love, artie

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Artie, I really really like this. The low profile, chick slightly angled and the retro addition of the adult bill. Square crop works too.

So a couple of questions:

Did you want a high key look?
Did you add the highlight in the eye
What causes the half yellow strip with the adult bill?

As an alternative just dropping the exposure, I think helps?

TFS
Steve

[Jonathan Ashton]

Super shot...... but for me way too bright. There is a halo round the tip of the adult bill tip.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Arthur ... the chick with the prey is cute . But that's about it for me personally ....

Quite some noise visible i.e. in the legs for Iso 3200 and I am not sure what the bill of the adult is doing in the frame , I do find it rather distracting , albeit it might tell a story for some folks ....
The featureless sand .... well if one like it , I do not .

All that said on a purely personal basis
TFS Andreas

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie, I really really like this. The low profile, chick slightly angled and the retro addition of the adult bill. Square crop works too.

So a couple of questions:

Did you want a high key look?
Did you add the highlight in the eye
What causes the half yellow strip with the adult bill?

As an alternative just dropping the exposure, I think helps?

TFS
Steve

Yes, I wanted a high key look. Yes, I added the catchlight. The bill looks a bit funky because it was not on the plane of sharp focus.

With love, a

[Arthur Morris]

Super shot...... but for me way too bright. There is a halo round the tip of the adult bill tip.

Thanks, Jon. I may need to calibrate my monitor when I get. As above, the funkiness of the bill is a result of being well behind the place of sharp focus.

with love, a

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Arthur ... the chick with the prey is cute . But that's about it for me personally ....

Quite some noise visible i.e. in the legs for Iso 3200 and I am not sure what the bill of the adult is doing in the frame , I do find it rather distracting , albeit it might tell a story for some folks ....
The featureless sand .... well if one like it , I do not .

All that said on a purely personal basis
TFS Andreas

Andreas.

Thanks for your comments.

Enlarging the JPEG I see zero noise on the legs. The bill of the adult was in an identically framed image taken two seconds after this one. It is not too difficult to figure out that the adult just fed the chick.

with love, a

[Gabriela Plesea]

This is simply delightful, Sir Arthur Subject super cute and I like the presence of mom's bill, adds context. You certainly know how to tell a story

Warmest regards,

[Randy Stout]

Artie:

Great POV, story telling.

I like high key images, but for my personal taste, the chick feathers blend into the background so much here that I am losing a sense of definition.

Randy