Oyster Catcher.

[John 2]

This was the only other bird to come within shooting range on my recent outing on the marshes.

Nikon D7100
Tamron 150-600mm hand held
1/1250th sec @ f5.6 ISO 400

[IzzieK]

Oh wow! It looks like you are very close to this bird when you took the shot...it is nicely exposed and no background distraction at all.

[Shadowman]

Very nice.

[pnodrog]

Well done - nice presentation.

[bnnrcn]

Great one John

[Barbara Ponder]

I love the way you see what seems to be his foot prints and shows the path he has taken. Great capture!

[Brownbear]

Beautiful image... The image quality looks stunning at f4/500 mm. Thanks for sharing your experience with this lens.

[Sailorstu]

Very beautiful exposure. Congrats.

[John 2]

Thanks all for your comments.

Izzie, about 80-100yds away.

Christina, I has had some sharpening but I'm beginning to differentiate between lack of focus/lens performance where sharpening can help and ghosting resulting from camera shake where sharpening generally doesn't. Never really a problem until I started using a really long focal length.

[Ziggy]

Very nice. Like the light and detail.

[selig1656]

Good work on the focusing and the sharpening definitely is well applied to the main subject

[Gayathrie Senaratne]

nice

[Bobobird]

One is sometimes all one needs. Wonderful capture.

[John 2]

I hadn't realised this was still running. Thanks all for the additional comments. BoBo, coming from you that is praise indeed. Thanks all again.

[terrib]

That's a very nice shot. I like the sloping lines of the beach and the soft background.

[Rita]

This is a beauty John. I like everything about it. Must say that you are getting some great results from the lens. I have read mixed reviews on the lens but your results are confirming that it is very capable in the right hands.

[John 2]

Thank you Terri, thank you Rita.

Terri, I wish it was a beach. I might then get a bit closer to the birds. Unfortunately it is mud, glorious mud.

When I first bought the lens Rita, I mounted it firmly on a tripod and made exposures at varying settings using the camera timer, manual focus and with the mirror up. I posted them on here at the time. That told me that the lens was very capable and that if it didn't produce decent results the problem was more likely to be me. Gentle selective sharpening does crisp it up a bit but it is a good lens. However, because in the main, I find a tripod cumbersome and because it's a fairly heavy lens, I have had to work out how to get the best out of it. High shutter speed is a given if it is hand held or I support it on a bean bag where possible for shots that allow it.

[Teton Chuck]

Very nice shot. Getting the detail in the black is hard to do.

[John 2]

Thank you Chuck. I think that I was fortunate because although the light was harsh, it was effectively side on to the wing area and so has brought out the texture. That helped when I adjusted for the blacks.