Black Skimmer

Gallery: AvianPosted June 27, 2013122 views7 comments

Black Skimmers are back at Bolsa Chica Wildlife Preserve in Huntington Beach, California. This shot was taken June 26, 2013. I purposely cropped this shot tightly to make it more of a portrait than a shot in context. I have enough canvas to allow him to have something to fly into, but chose not to with this iteration.

Nikon D4 Nikkor 600mm 1/4TC shot at 850mm ISO800 1/1600 f/8 White Balance Auto Tripod, Wimberley Gimbal, Processed in Lightroom, CS6 and NIK.

Comments welcome

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on June 27, 2013 at 6:24 PM

Nice detail, Patrick. It looks like a pretty tough exposure with harsh light, but it worked fairly well. Excellent detail, and I like the composition you chose.

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

Comment posted by Buck Ward on June 27, 2013 at 8:20 PM

Way to go. Skimmers around here skim at twilight and there's hardly ever enough light to stop the motion, so we get silhouettes or blurs. I really like how we can see how shallow the water is. Great in-flight portrait.

Registered on December 8, 2003, 96 Posts, 1917 Comments

Comment posted by Roger Kirchen on June 27, 2013 at 9:39 PM

Very nice detail, and sharp. Plenty of light, but a bit hash though well managed. I like the X flight attitude and the composition with one of the lines running almost diagonally and ending up at the brightly colored bill.

Registered on March 6, 2011, 95 Posts, 847 Comments

Comment posted by Jefferson Silva on June 27, 2013 at 9:48 PM

This is great, Patrick.
Very nice light, colors and details.

Registered on December 18, 2012, 162 Posts, 975 Comments

Comment posted by Sharon Hallowell on June 28, 2013 at 8:34 AM

Nice job on the exposure. The clear water adds interest to the action you captured. Sharon

Registered on November 1, 2003, 392 Posts, 4810 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on June 28, 2013 at 4:45 PM

Cool shot Patrick, I particularly like that you can see the beak in the water, lighting looks a bit harsh but you handled it well.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by May Haga on July 1, 2013 at 9:00 AM

Excellent timing and great action.
May

Registered on February 22, 2007, 714 Posts, 8470 Comments