Avocets at sunrise

[Downrigger]

Another yield from the Bear River Refuge - these sweet characters were active at sunrise. C&C very much appreciated.

[joebranko]

Both shots are beautiful!

[NorthernFocus]

Those are cool looking birds. Love the long legs and beautiful coloration on them. Lovely light on both though challenging to shoot. There is enough noise in both to negatively impact feather detail. The flight shot is just a tad soft.

[Rebel]

Very nice shots, good light in both.

[deetheturk]

Lovely shots Mark, no.1 is a cracker

[dje]

Nice shots Mark, well done. Great light.

Dave

[Shadowman]

Very nice.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice light on the birds in both shots

[John 2]

First one could be sharper but I love the second. Nice light too.

[IzzieK]

In #1, I like the painterly look of the feathers. It is a bit noisy when expanded but it is OK...my favourite is #2 that looks like the bird is strutting its stuff. Nice feather details there too. I have not seen this kind of bird before...

[Barbara Ponder]

I am not familiar with that bird but I wish I was! Very interesting looking. I like the calmness of #2 the glassy look of the water plays well off the texture of the bird.

[Downrigger]

I appreciate the kind and helpful comments.

Dan and Izzie saw a bit of noise/softness which I struggled with in PP. The problem was the squeeze play between enough shutter speed, enough DOF, and ISO noise, which then led to a pinch between sharpening and noise reduction. I tried again at sharpening the first and did maybe a little bit better. The solution would be, as Dan points out, more photons.

The sensor on the D600 does pretty well at high ISO - imagine shooting at ISO 2200 on film...

Barbara - these migrate through most of Texas, summer range is roughly the mountain/intermountain west. They are shorebird-like in their busybody behaviors and fun to watch.

[Whistletown Wilds]

Good stuff love the lighting!

[Texas Dave]

I like them both but #2 stands out to me. I like the warm hues the morning sun is casting, the soft shadow break and all with a beautiful cool background. Very good eye and nicely done.

[NorthernFocus]

Mark, are you shooting RAW or jpeg and if RAW what software do you use for conversion?

[Downrigger]

Thanks very much, David, and Sherwood.

Dan - always and only RAW. Then directly to Lightroom with occasional touch-up in Viveza.

[NorthernFocus]

...always and only RAW. Then directly to Lightroom with occasional touch-up in Viveza.

Then the amount of noise is surprising. At least in the first shot with the lower ISO setting. Sharpening/NR can be a dilemma to be sure

[Downrigger]

Thanks for thinking on it, and the sympathy, Dan. I've started over with PP a few times working on getting better sharpening, but not fruitfully. Part of this softness is probably a slight out of focus, part of it is the crop (about 0.7:1). Anyway - I don't think I can blame the technology.