This shot was taken on a late September foggy morning in a little artificial lake in my neighborhood. There is a small community of sandpipers that has to deal with several cans and plastic as a part of its environment. 

To be honest, the birds are not much bothered with this, but, as a message, I tried to emphasize that it is sad that sometimes we are not aware of the great damage we can cause with the irresponsible disposal of our waste. 

I use my longest telephoto lens at 600mm plus a 1.4 teleconverter, so it was shot at 840mm. The processing was a slightly heavy crop, basic adjustments with Lightroom, and finally Photoshop for sharpening and color corrections with Infinite Tools.

I have tried many genres this year, from macro to architecture, street, birds, and light trails... but I consider this my best photo of the year because not only am I a little proud of the mood I achieved in the image, but there is also a message in the photo itself.