Black Skimmer

Gallery: AvianPosted July 6, 2011144 views11 comments

Photo taken 10-15 minutes after sunrise on June 21, 2011 at Opal Beach near Pensacola. D700, 300mm f/4 + 1.7x tc, hand held. 1/2000 sec at f/6.7, ISO 400. Full frame. CS5 used for sharpening and adjusting exposure levels of whites and blacks separately.
Comments and suggestions most welcome.

Comments

11 comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on July 6, 2011 at 10:57 PM

Real nice lighting on this and always cool to get the bird in action. A little tight to the right but the reflection is an extra bonus

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on July 7, 2011 at 12:25 AM

Hard to see how you could improve the shot, David. The water droplets and the reflection are excellent. A bit more room to fly into would be nice, but it's a superb shot as posted.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Verdon on July 7, 2011 at 12:30 AM

awesome quality, detail, moment and composition, low angle is helping a lot, congratulations

Registered on June 10, 2011, 147 Posts, 1444 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on July 7, 2011 at 7:52 AM

This truly is excellent Dave. The detail of the skimming and the eye contact are incredible. Excellent exposure and I'm especially fond of the scalloped shadow edge on the side of the bird. Very well done.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on July 7, 2011 at 9:46 AM

Beautiful image, David. Incredible close up for a flight shot. I'm not sure about the framing. Normally I'd like a bit more room in front, but I always like the streak these guys leave as well. On balance, this seems to work.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Jagdeep Rajput on July 7, 2011 at 10:50 AM

Terrific frame, very well captured, you're certainly at the right spot. I do wish for some more room in front and wonder if possible to bring out some more details in the black area.

Jagdeep Rajput

Registered on April 29, 2008, 686 Posts, 2857 Comments

Comment posted by Terry Sohl on July 7, 2011 at 12:22 PM

This is lovely. I really like the focus and lighting of the shot....the face is so nice and sharp, and there's very strong eye contact. It really draws my eye to the most important part of the image.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 513 Posts, 6889 Comments

Comment posted by Ray Whitt on July 7, 2011 at 5:05 PM

Superb image David, this is outstanding.

Ray

Registered on May 27, 2011, 92 Posts, 2619 Comments

Comment posted by Angela McCain on July 7, 2011 at 10:17 PM

Truly a beauty, David. Difficult to get detail like this in the eye-really well done. Water in the trail he is leaving has a wonderful sparkle.

Registered on April 19, 2009, 367 Posts, 3589 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on July 7, 2011 at 10:58 PM

wow, this is nice, David! the others have mentioned all the really super aspects of this, so I'll just add that normally I would want more room in front, but since you've got a nice skim trail and the eye/head has plenty of room in front of it, this comp works for me as is. very cool.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Ajit Huilgol on July 8, 2011 at 7:49 AM

Superb - just love the sharpness, the ripple created by the lower bill, the 'wake', the reflection.... Now, if you could just crop out the oof foreground.......

Registered on December 19, 2008, 302 Posts, 2055 Comments