American avocet

[Ilija Dukovski]

• NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D850
• 200.0-500.0 mm f/5.6
• ƒ/5.6
• 500mm
• 1/5000s
• ISO 400
• Ilija Dukovski
• Thu, 27 June 2024 6:37 PM
• Ilija Dukovski 2023
• NIKON D850 Ver.1.20

I took this one in Irvine CA last June. It was mid day light, so I tried my best with the shadows.
Let me know what you think.

Nikon D850, 500mm, iso400, f5.6, 1/5000

Thanks,
Ilija

 

[Ian McLachlan]

Despite the midday shot you did pretty well shadows and all. I particularly like the bluish whirl pool blue reflection and background which sets off the bird and you still got a touch of eye light.Well done.

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Looks very good to me, maybe the very darkest elements a tad black/featureless but the whites and other colours look very good. I have seen other images of this species where the neck is much more saturated, this seems more natural to me - how I would anticipate the colour to be in reality.

 

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes, it does look like the light was harsh, but you adjusted best you could to minimize it. Good low angle - could go even lower if possible, but you know me! The high sun caused the far leg to be completely into shadow. Nice colours though, and I like the water movement reflections on the belly. Second (lower) catchlight could go IMO. Nice profile pose with the foot coming up!

 

[Ilija Dukovski]

Thank you everyone for the comments, I appreciate them.

 

[Dave Pastern]

Hi Ilija,

This looks better balanced than the last image which looked a bit dark on my monitor. A nicely recovered image with a great pose. The eye looks ever so slightly soft Perhaps shoot at f8? I shoot 99% of the time at f8 with my 500 prime and I don't really have too much with background issues. Perhaps give it a try? I am yet to see a Red-necked Avocet, a relative of this bird, although I don't tend to shoot waders too much (concentrating more on smaller passerines and raptors).

Dave

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Ilja .. a nice overall shot .
You had really hard conditions to shoot from the light perspective . You managed to get something good looking for the most part ... just the dark / black tones are too dense or blocked IMHO . Look at your histogram .... might be avoidable , depending on how the raw file looks .
Colors and the rest of the tonal range do look good , sharpness is good .... so you can be a happy camper with this one .
Comp and content ... very cool

TFS Andreas

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Ilija, not going to rehash all of the above apart from it appears you have resolved the big issue of dark images which is great, now we can appreciate the images you have capture far better.

The D850, delivers is spades and with that high MPX you will achieve lovely fine detail and impactful images.

So well done in persevering and resolving the initial issue. :cheers: