Splish-Splash

Hi Chuck, for me you needed more SS to freeze the head, but still retaining movement in the wings, it's a fine balancing act I do appreciate, but for me it just lacks that defining detail in the head, just so close... The wispy grass in the FG is a tad annoying, and personally I think moving the whole crop down a wee bit more would help, I just get the impression it's moving out of frame, just needs a bit more weight at the foot and less dead space above, but just my personal taste.

TFS
Steve

Cute little guy! My only nit is the motion blur seems a bit extreme. Hindsight is always better than foresight, so maybe next time think around 1/1000 sec.

Interesting one Chuck
I do a tremendous amount of this sort of shot, and very often get away with 80th of a second (not always) Strangely birds bathing hold their heads very still even though the wings are moving. I,ll post some shortly.
Cheers
John

Thanks John. Interesting about your experience in light of the previous comments suggesting more speed. I'm relatively inexperienced with motion blur shots, at least the intentional type, and I would have gone to a slower SS had I not been hand holding the rig and been concerned I'd induce camera motion. I look forward to seeing your shots.

cool shot, Chuck. the head looks sharp to me, and with the flying water I don't mind the motion blur in the wings. wish that blade of grass wasn't there though. what a neat bird.

Chuck: I think you did really well with this. There is more than enough detail in the head to make this work for me. The image really conveys the sense of what is going on. I like it very much. The mix of blur and sharpness is just fine as far as I'm concerned.

I know that bird bath! Wish I was there now; it's very cold and very dark here... A good mix of motion blur and sharpness, telling the story well. I wish you'd had a little less head turn, but sometimes the birds just don't do what you want.

I really like the splashing action in this one Chuck. When I opened the larger prison of this, I also think there is enough sharpness in the head for this to work. I like the effect of the slower shutter speed on this one (assume that was intentional).