A couple of Oyster Catchers.

[John 2]

Fairly common around here. I normally see these in large groups on the shoreline but these two were grazing up on the fells. Comments welcome.

Fuji X plus 100-400mm and 1.4x converter.
1.


2.

[billtils]

Wow, these are superb, especially the second!

[mugge]

John, the second picture is a stunner.
Cheers Ole

[JohnRostron]

Yes, I like the second one. Black on black, but works well. I remember when I first saw Oystercatchers on the Yorkshire Moors, I was somewhat surprised. I guess that the shoreline is now too disturbed and that it is safer to breed on the moors.

John

[JBW]

well done. perhaps just a bit heavy with the background pp in #2?

[Dave A]

Really nice John. Especially nice when expanded in lighbox.

Dave

[Ziggy]

Like them both John. Love that red eye.

[rpcrowe]

Great shots...

[Dave Humphries]

Nice sharp pics from that combo John

[Shadowman]

Nice shots.

[davidedric]

Grest pictures, John. I did a bit of googling, and it seems that there has been a strong shift to inland breeding, at least in my part of the world.

http://www.cheshireandwirralbirdatla...r-breeding.htm

Dave

[John 2]

Thanks all for the comments.

Yes, I like the second one. Black on black, but works well. I remember when I first saw Oystercatchers on the Yorkshire Moors, I was somewhat surprised. I guess that the shoreline is now too disturbed and that it is safer to breed on the moors.

John

John/Brian, you're worrying me now. The background is an OOF copse and bushes and shows up as very dark green on my screen, which is what I would have expected.

Dave H.- I'm consistently surprised by the quality that is produced by the combination. I've had 1.4 converters before but they always degraded the IQ, particularly with a zoom. Fuji seem to have overcome that.

[John 2]

Grest pictures, John. I did a bit of googling, and it seems that there has been a strong shift to inland breeding, at least in my part of the world.

http://www.cheshireandwirralbirdatla...r-breeding.htm

Dave

Dave thanks for that. It chimes with what I have seen in that they are more noticeable in the Spring (on the moorland above Morecambe Bay) than throughout the rest of the year.

[Wavelength]

Two stunning images; what a spectacular display of Depth of field in the first one; it is much more creative than the second one

[IzzieK]

John...the background of #2 is very black for me. I bought a new 34" monitor I connected to my laptop/tablet which I calibrated just two days ago. Birdie really stands out black on black.

[John 2]

Thanks Nandakumar, thanks Izzie.

Izzie - Yes John R said the same thing. It got me wondering why since many of us calibrate our monitors. I use an ASUS Pro Art Graphics monitor set to sRGB. My cameras are also set to sRGB. This is a left over from when I used to do a lot competition work because that is the recommended colour profile but it reminded me that some time ago there was a discussion about the merits of sRGB Vs Adobe RGB for posting on the forum. I can't remember which was recommended for the Forum so I may not be using the right one - or at least not the same one as you.

[JBW]

Thanks all for the comments.



John/Brian, you're worrying me now. The background is an OOF copse and bushes and shows up as very dark green on my screen, which is what I would have expected.

Dave H.- I'm consistently surprised by the quality that is produced by the combination. I've had 1.4 converters before but they always degraded the IQ, particularly with a zoom. Fuji seem to have overcome that.

My screenj shows a combo of green and black with green dominating

[Merlin52]

Mine too, no problem with background, only some black areas but mostly dark greens.. I only use a laptop for browsing but I make sure I can see all the variations in this widely available image and then I know my display is ok.

[Dave Humphries]

The bg of #2 is obviously green (albeit dark) to me, I wouldn't mind betting the difference will be down to the web browsers we're using.

I am using FireFox, which traditionally does handle colours properly, even if someone posts AdobeRGB on the web (which is not recommended).

Other browsers may get it wrong, time to retest that theory ...

I just tried Edge (darker green) and Chrome (same as FireFox) and IE (wouldn't show pictures!).


I see the 20 discreet steps in (Merlin52) John's post above in all four browsers, but Edge has steps 1 and 2 noticeably closer to same tonality, the other three; including IE, all look similar enough that it doesn't 'jar' going between them.

FWIW,
Dave

[NorthernFocus]

A couple of nice shots. I like the angle on the first shot which displays the dorsal feathers. But the second one is awesome. Good example of using lighting and DOF to isolate the subject. Well done.