Crunch Time ! + B&W

Sparrow hawk taking Sand martin chick.
Now I could say this is art !
I wanted the blur to convey the drama of the moment !

But its not true. I was half asleep and when I tried to pan round and down when I saw what was about to happen, the ball and socket head was screwed too tight. So I think the camera was actually moving when I took the shot.
Never mind.
JohnR

John , that’s got as much drama as any picture I’ve seen on here since I’ve been looking, a year or two, its one of those moments that either you get or you miss, as on old angling mate of mine used to say “what’s hit is history ,what’s missed is mystery” the dividing line is that fine . Sure there are things in any shot that can be improved but they simply aren’t available at that moment that you press the button. This picture is what it is and its so good , the faults, if that’s what they are, in some way add to the shot , if it had been taken at say 2000th of a second it would have lost so much , luck as always has played its part the sharpest part of the picture is the eye and the look in that eye says it all, wonderful .By the way the colours are off again !, but please don’t take offence it’s a time of day phenomenon, shot I work on at night never look as good in the morning, I guess its an age thing.

Bob.

However it happened, I love it!

Brilliant capture, but your processing is somewhat confusing

I try to look at why there is a colour cast and always find your white and black points are heavily clipped - same as the last post which attracted so much comment - are you using an auto colour routine when processing?

Mike
The colour cast is maybe as you see it on your monitor.. I dont use any colour routine at all. They are as they come generally. I use the eye dropper on this (and others occasionally). on the whites,and there was no real problem. With an action shot like this, a colour problem is the least of my worries. Its a very basic record shot. If my black and white points are clipped then thats my style. We dont all want to be the same do we ? I don't really know what that means any way. Funny how all the colour comments have been with the same bird in the same location. No concern for what time of day or weather conditions or anything. I think my problem is thatv i look at my stuff as interesting records of nature as it happens and not camera club entries - if that makes sense, ?
Thanks for your interest and comments.
John

John, I'm really not sure whats going on here, are you just trying to spark a reaction? If I didn't know who posted this shot I would have thought the head had been cut and pasted from another image, but I can't believe you would do that. I really don't understand how the head only can appear so red

Certainly an interesting record though.

Lewis.

I really like this, but I agree with the comments about the colour on the face. Have you tried black and white?

Hi all
There is one thing I.ve just realised . The camera is usually set on Sunlight white balance as the light comes generally from the front or the right hand side, which catches the top of the bank.. when the bird landed it of course is in full shade. I may have altered the white balance slider in PSP to the yellower side to remove some of the blue. I may have upped the saturation abit. The whole shot was a disaster. I can't remenber really as I was going to bin it. In fact I did and restored it. Here's a B&W
Cheers
JohnR

john this has to be one of the best shots i've seen on here....ever. not sure how you can say it's just a record shot. i imagine it would have considerable publishable value.

As long as you dont do this sort of thing behind the wheel then you will be alright John.
Very unusual but a rare image thats come good without you knowing too much about it.

Major