Ian Jackson

Two avocets inspire a minimalist marvel of a photo

Ian says: This was taken during a September trip to the Monterey area of

California. I arrived before first light to set up, and the early morning provided exceptionally calm water for the birds to feed. I spotted these two avocets off on their own and was struck by the clarity of their reflections in the still water.

I experimented with different elevations to get the best angle for the bird’s while maintaining a clean background. The image was captured hand-held on a Nikon D500 with a Sigma 150-600 Sport lens, shot at 500mm with an exposure of 1/3,200 sec at f/6.3 and ISO 900.

Andrew says: It’s a stunning shot. I really admire your eye for composition, because the immediate simplicity we see belies the thought you put into the

framing. The poses of the two avocets and their reflections are near-perfect, with one more upright and in the process of preening, and the other simply balancing on one leg and staring off into the distance. It’s a very calming image to view, and the type of shot I’d happily enjoy looking at again and again.

I also like the space you’ve allowed around the birds, as it can be too tempting to crop right in. I think I’d crop a little off the left and top just to take them off-centre, but that’s very much a personal choice. Your focusing is accurate and I like the detail of the post-preen feathers sticking in the beak of the first bird.

On the flipside, it looks like some of the white feather detail is lost. If you shot raw, you may still be able to rescue this, but it can be very tough to keep this detail on white birds even in soft, early morning light. The other thing I noticed is a few dust specs showing on the blue background. Blue always shows these specs more than anything else, so it needs a really thorough lookover and a quick touch-up using the Spot Removal function to sort.