Love Dance?

That's some wonderful action David. I like the layers of color in the bg as well but the bg seems a bit overblurred to me. Did you run any blurs on the bg in processing?

Nate,
I did a mild Gausian blur for the first time. I'm not sure I like it. Just playing around. Maybe too much. Mostly it was to get rid of the noise that was so present in the background. I also lightened the shot quite a bit because of the poor lighting conditions. Wish the top bird has some catchlight in the eye. Like I said, the image quality is not the best here but the position of the birds is what catches my eye on this one. Thanks for veiwing nate.

David,

I took a similar photo recently of Common Terns (though I wasn't lucky enough to get any catchlight). This is a nice shot in a good pose, but there are some halos around the birds from post processing and the bokeh looks terrible (did you use noise reduction?)

As for the behavior, I'm 99% confident this is a squabble between 2 males over either territory or a mate. The courtship rituals for Common, Roseate and Least Terns (possibly other species) is for the male to bring a fish (or similar food item) to their prospective mate. If the female accepts, the male will continue to do this until they eventually mate.

- Luke

Luke,
The Bokeh is terrible because of me trying to fix a questionable photo. I used some blur to rid the background of lots of noise. I have never used the Gausian blur tool before and need to practice some more obvously. But like I have said this is not really about the quality of the photo but rather the position of the birds. Thanks for the information regarding the behavior. It did seem to me a little like a squable rather than love.

David, I think the dynamic nature of the poses and the way the two poses interact are both fantastic. definitely a cool shot. wonder if simple NR would be more effective on the bg?

Very nice catch David. The interaction is great and the image quality on the terns looks very good to me. The background blur is a bit overdone I would agree. I spent some time shooting Black Terns today and witnessed the offering of food items (minnow on one occasion, and an unidentified morsel) that Luke describes.

Great comp and interaction David - love the complementary wing positions of the two birds

cheers
Rob

Wonderful shot David! Flight shots are tricky, but you captured the action well and the poses are incredible.

David, if I was looking at this as a nature piece, then yes I agree the BG is over blurred and so on...but, looking at this as an art piece, I am not so certain I would say the same thing. So i might take this one even further and just turn it into an art piece period. I am thinking the same thing with my Pelican shot based on the coments I am seeing. I say that, because the moment you captured here is special and this is an emotional peiece you have. Nice work!

Great action image, David. Love the interaction between the two birds. The bg could definitely use a bit more work and the image is worth the effort.

Stunning interaction captured here.

Exceptional timing, very well done.

Fascinating natural history captured here David.

Find a contest enter it, accept your prize. Sweet image.

Hi David,
Great job of catching the interaction between these two rivals. At this size they look fine. To bad about the overall quality as it would be awesome printed large. Minor nits already mentioned.
Thanks forposting,
Ronnie G.

Fantastic poses and interaction, David. It definitely makes up for a little softness. Great job on the exposure.

Whatever you did post processing (and you can always go back to it later, hope it's a raw file) this is a fantastic capture, such a great composition. It's a fleeting moment but sometimes lady luck smiles on us eh, well done I love it.
There's also an interesting lesson in catchlights, it is easy to see why the lower bird has a catchlight and the top bird, well look, sometimes a bird is not in a position for a catchlight. Sometimes folk will still 'put one in' and it never will look right.

Love it! What great action you got.I'm on the fence about the bg. I don't terribly mind it and almost agree with Kurt. I love the bg colors as well.

Fantastic interaction! Their relative positions are just about perfect. Technical issues aside, this is wonderful.

Wonderful action shot, David. BG comments already mentioned, but I'm focused on the pose of the birds. Very nice.