Not A Typical Shorebird Image.

With a very tame and at rest subject I took a few unconventional images...with only the series of the lifted foot turning out interesting...but at least it was fun to experiment! There is one major flaw that I wish I could go back to the opportunity to do over...can you guess what it is?

BTW, this is a Greater Yellowlegs...

Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/160s., f/8, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, far leg toned down (burn tool then sponge tool to liven the yellow), full-frame expet cropped left and right to 5:4 ratio.

Brilliant......
I don't see a flaw, at FF, I might have gone to F11 or even F16 with higher iso to get the far leg sharper at that focal range.
With the light BG and no crop, noise would have been minimal.
Great thinking, Birds as Art....

Hi Daniel - First of, I am a new member and would like to thank you for this great forum! On the image - I think it is a great example of thinking out of the box regarding this composition. I prefer the back leg OOF, it further draws my attention to the great detail on the foot in the air. The background is perfect.
Regards
Hennie

I'm not sure what you could have done differently but I like what I see. Not your usual image but I like the raised foot.

Very good shot. I like the detail view, the composition, the square format and the lines the legs form.

Markus

Daniel,

I find it tough to think outside of the box while out shooting, so definitely a big thanks for sharing this.

I don't see any major flaws, but my guess is that maybe you wanted the "knee" (not sure that's the correct term) of the right leg to be a bit more in focus. So, you could have either closed your aperture (although your SS was plenty low) or moved just a smidge to the right and turned the lens to the left a little. Just a guess, so I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Miguel

Great shot! Nice details in the raised foot! The raised foot is nicely placed within the frame. I agree that stopping down even further in the aperture would get the left leg more in focus. I sometimes make this mistake when I'm too close to the subject, but wanted to get that shot quickly.

Thanks all for appreciating the image as it is!

Perhaps calling the flaw "major" is a bit of a stretch, but to those of you who remarked for more dof are right on the money. Having the opportunity again I would stop down to get the far leg (and hopefully the flanks) into focus too.

excellent.....

That is the only word i have for this......

This image is contest material, Daniel. It's very unique and well executed!!!

Daniel:
Lines and details just right, yes to more DOF. Kudos for creative imaging.

Cheers

Randy