Buff-breasted Sandpiper

500f4L & 2x, 1DMkIIN, ISO 400, 1/125, f/11.

Taken this afternoon on a Guernsey headland. A rare vagrant to our shores from N.America. This is just a quickly processed image for my site and I'll spend a bit more time on it and the rest I took over the weekend.

Thanks

Paul H
Guernsey

Hi Paul,

Nice image of a bird I've never seen. I know you have stated a quick process but it still looks good. minor nit is the BG, for some reason looks a little odd to me(looks to have a painted effect??), also if possible a lower shooting angle would be nice.

Regards

Rob

Thanks Rob, yes I agree about the BG but I've not altered it much from the original file accept that I've not yet run it through noise ninja which might make a bit of difference to the BG as it's a bit noisy, nothing too bad though. At the time there was no chance of getting a lower angle as I didn't want to risk disturbing the bird as there were other interested birders on their way to view. Any other time I would have been on the ground straight away

Paul, this doesn't look critically sharp to me. I think you would be very fortunate to get a sharp image using the 500 + 2x combination with a shutter speed of 1/125s. I try to shoot with a minimum shutter speed of 1/400s for birds moving around on the ground like this and push the ISO up to achieve it. I will happily sacrifice a bit of extra noise for a sharp image. I hope you another chance in brighter conditions.

I'm not sure the birds still around Phil but I'll heed your advice on future occasions such as this.

Thanks.