by Allen Brooks
I rather liked the composition of this shot with the blowing sand, driftwood, and the plover. Perhaps it is more of an environmental shot than a pure avian shot given the various elements. I tried different processing techniques and liked a black and white treatment the best as it brought out the blowing sand (from a very strong north wind). Taken on the Oregon coast near Florence. The best way to identify these endangered and protected birds is to look at the legs and if they are banded it is a Snowy Plover; I've yet to see one that wasn't banded. This time of the year most of their nesting areas are roped off, but this guy was on a beach full of people.
Canon 7dii; 100-400 at 370 mm; ISO 100: 1/500 at f7.1
Processed in LR5, PSCC14; Nik Silver Efex
Thanks for looking. Comments and suggestions are appreciated.
Comments
14 commentsBeautiful image, Allen. I've been on some of those beaches when the winds been howling and this really cptures the feeling of it. The bird being small in the frame works just fine.
Going b&w here looks like a great decision, Allen. Love the shapes in the sand and details in the bird, plus the blowing sand is a neat addition. I do see a subtle halo around the bird (presumably from dodging). You can make that invisible by dodging through a luminosity mask and those are easy to make in PS.
Very telling image, absolutely love it. B+W works great too, which was a good choice of yours. I also see the haloing around the bird though, maybe try to fix that? Other than that I think this is a real winner.
I like this a lot Allen. All of the elements of the image come together to make a very dynamic photograph.
The blowing sand is awesome here, I like the driftwood and composition a lot. I would crop a little of the out of focus area from the bottom of the image, at least above the bright lines there. Sweet shot Allen
very nice comp. as Nate said about the bottom right. You could also use vivenza to tone down highlights since you have Nik filters instead of cropping.
Very beautiful image, Allen
Really dig the comp on this one Allen. It feels like he is using the log as a shelter against the blowing sand. I really do like the B&W, but not sure if I like it better than the color without seeing the color version. Any way you can post it? I have an image of a Sanderling with blowing sand and never thought to do a B&W conversion to make the sand stand out more...I might have to take another peek at it. Great work!
Thanks again for all the nice comments. Kurt, here's the original (more or less) I did some processing before converting to black and white. As you can see there is actually very little color present. As originally taken it has a high key look. I was surprised how much of the blowing sand came out in the black and white conversion. And I'm not sure why the white background became dark with the conversion. In the end, the black and white conversion was a pretty obvious choice.
Hey Allen,
Sweet image indeed, the B & W conversion is inspired and truly shows the blowing sand to create dynamics in the composition that tells the story. This image has an Art feel to it that is very enjoyable and allows for the halo around the subject to work IMO. The detail and tonal quality throughout is outstanding, I'm on the fence about any cropping and vote to leave as is. The large version is a must see as the down size conversion seems to always lose a bit of quality. This image would be a beautiful wall hanger at some one's beach house.
Well done . . .
Exceptionally effective use of black and white, Allen. A vry good shot to begin with, and made stronger by your decision. My only suggestion wold be to crop 8-10% off the bottom. The bright areas add little and are a distraction. A minor nit on a terrific shot.
This is very beautiful, Allen ! The conversion is handled with great delicacy - an overall greyish effect but one with plenty of tonal variations in the mix. An excellent composition, in which the bird is so still and the land seems to move beneath it !
Allen, At first glance I thought a wave was going to swallow the bird. The blowing sand is wonderful. I’m surprised the original shot has very little color. Nice B&W conversion. Like this one. Different and beautiful.