Blackwinged stilt

Mangalajodi, Chilika.

Canon EOS 1D MArk IV, Canon EF 400mm f2.8 L IS USM, EF 2xII, ISO 800, f7.1, 1/2000, full frame image.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Lovely eye. Reminds me of a seed we used to play with as a kid called kaincha in oriya or Jequerity (Abrus precatorius) in english.
:)
The pose looks nice. Any reason for choosing a central composition?

Beautiful shot

Excellent shot Sabyasachi.I like the pose very much.Precise DOF.TFS

Awesome shot this is, Sabyasachi! Superb exposure and pose. The eye makes the image so lively. Would love to capture a pose like this. Center compo is working for me here...

Bibhav,
The reason for the central position is the weeds on the right. I quickly made this decision that if I create a composition with more space at the left than some of the weeds would be cut off with the stems appearing out of no where. I feel it also gives an idea about the habitat. Also, the eye not being in the central position. However, I am aware that people will question the composition.

To give where credit is due: I wanted to capture action of a common species. Gautam has beautifully captured action in a Blackwinged stilt. So when I saw these stilts I remembered Gautam's image. So I spent about 20 mins waiting for it to give a good pose. Gautam's excellent image can be seen here: http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5434

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Lovely pose captured. Looks like a ballet step :). The details are nice. The open beak and the eye contact is nice. The habitat enhances the image further. Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful image and lovely ballet step ;). The eyes look stunning, wish you had details on the left wing that has got under exposed, did you try opening up the shadows?
tfs

Great image.The pose and composition are nice.The eye is a killer.Dont know if it is my monitor but the left wing seems underexposed. Thanks for clarifying the composition logic, helps learners like me.

Roopak

Roopak,
I can only see a few dots of blue (meaning blacks are underexposed) when magnified at 100%, so I didn't do any processing and just converted the raw image into the 800 pixel jpeg. Infact, in this image, the histogram extends from the left to very closer to the right. I am posting a massive crop, with no processing as earlier to show the left wing underside. It was in shadow. I don't think, anything more could have been done to get more details in it, exposure wise, while shooting. While processing using little bit fill light would be better, albeit marginally.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi
PS: I love my Mark IV

point taken sir.In any case as far as PP goes im a dud and wouldnt want to get any deeper into it than the basics.
Roopak