Yesterday I found two Red Knots, one already in breeding plumage. As they breed on the northern Tundras we mainly seen them during winter and when migrating, and in much duller plumage - so this was a real treat and the first time I actually good make some good images of this plumage. As always, I spent my time flat on the ground, in this case between plenty of geese-poo and smelling mud. But, it was worth it …
For more images, you can check: https://www.hansoverduin.nl/knot-red-2/
Thanks for any comments !
Cheers,
Hans
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Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Nikon D500 with 500mm | 1/1250s | f5 | ISO500 | overexposed 1FS | handheld. I removed some little grasses in Photoshop.
Wow what a beautiful bird. Thanks for braving the mud and poo to bring this to us. The soft bg really emphasizes the color and you left the bird relatively soft as well. I don’t mean focus, I mean contrast-wise. Focus looks great. And that little strip of grass it’s on is visually helpful to ground the bird.
Beautiful head turn, Hans. I saw a couple of these on their breeding grounds in Nome a few years ago, but they still weren’t in this glorious plumage. This one’s a beauty. I know you love to shoot wide open, but in this case a bit more depth of field might have been nice as the out of focus legs really stand out with the head on pose and the size of the bird. Still an excellent image that I’d love to have taken.
PS: I checked the blog post, and it’s great. Do you do your own laundry after an excursion like this?
Thanks @Kris_Smith , @David_Schoen and @Dennis_Plank @Dennis_Plank : that’s always the trade-off between nice and clean BG or the whole bird in focus - but I wondered the same myself. And YES, I did operate the washing machine myself when I returned home
Hi Hans
Really pretty Red Knot well worth the problems of dealing with geese. F5 as a larger DOF when used on a C crop camera then it does when used on a full frame camera so I am surprised the the legs are not more in focus? Anyway Great looking photograph.
Peter
Hi Hans! This is a beautiful photo! The Red Knot modeled well for you! I’ve never seen this kind of bird before, I love his orange against the nicely blurred background and I love the perspective! Great capture!
Hi Hans, a really striking image with the bird’s head in strong focus. Beautiful exposure on the bird and the entire image. I like the DOF choice as that great head turn is emphasized so well. Well done.
Red knots are becoming scarce and am glad to see that you captured a knot in colorful breeding plumage. Wonderful comp and well worth the effort. Comp is very pleasing and crawling in the mud and other stuff put the camera in the ideal spot for the shot. Awesome…Jim
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