'Soaring' - Artic Tern + Square Crop

Photograph of an Artic Tern soaring over my head on the Island of Staple,part of the Farnes.I took this laying on my back with my wide-angle lens,the slightly moody sky works nice as the BG and in B+W I felt.
All Comments And Advice Welcome

Tech;
Nikon D300
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 G AFS ED
F2.8,1/8000 @31mm
iso 400,-0.3ev
Matrix
PP-Lightroom 2,Full Frame,No Crop

Thanks For Looking

nice image Craig. I like the light through the wing weathers. If I was going to pick anything I might be tempted to lose the light area of sky at roughly top right as I find it distracting but could just be a personal choice thing.

nice job.

That works for me... on this occasion I think a square crop for presentation here might look good too...

It does work Phil you are right

Hi Craig - I remember the day well !

I prefer the square crop

Chrs


Graham

Sorry Craig, this doesn't work for me, it needed a burst of fill flash to fill out the shadows/counter act the bright sky - without the fill it has resulted in a half way house mix of silhouette and normal shot trying to balance the available light

Hi Craig,

As i understand what Mike means i still think that this is a wonderful image as the shadows and light through the feathers leave enough detail and i personally prefer the top image for the space around the bird.

Well done thinking outside of the box!

Greetings,

Jeroen Stel

Hi Craig

The square crop for me. I see where Mike is coming from but the effect could easily be reduced by lightening the shadows.

The conversion to B&W simplifies the image and really brings out the wonderful anatomical structure of a really appealing species.

Cheers,
Chris

Hi Craig, perhaps this is one of your best B&W to date IMHO. Good detail and tone within the image and as stated, a hint of fill-in would have worked a treat, perhaps next time Personally I am not a great lover of the square crop and prefer the original format giving the bird room to 'breathe', but that is an opinion. I might have also been tempted to remove the 'white clouds' in the BG and had just an overall mid grey, as I find it slightly distracting.

Cheers
Steve

Square crop works well for me too. How could I forget this day I got pecked silly by this lot.

Love the concept, its refreshing to see a bird in flight taken wide angle. Prefer the square crop.

Tony

Hi Craig

Very nice the more central crop works better for me with this image!

David

Hello Craig.

I think this as worked really well. I love the detail in the wings and the tighter crop works better for me.

Thank you all for your kind and helpful comments,it was a wonderful experience with this bird flying just feet above me as I lay flat on my back and tracking the birds the best I could, I'd watch these birds dive bomb people and I lay down out of site alongside the boardwalks and waited while I could hear the screams of people being pecked and bombed,at the end I was covered in white- wash looking poo

Hi Craig

like the approach

Paul

Second post for me - I'm sure I'm seeing more detail in it too. I think the lighting works.

Nits already covered but the idea still works for me and I think in this particular image the 2nd post suits it best. I agree about the light clouds and find the bright spots a little distracting.

Kind regards,

Brett

Hello Craig, I like them both, but of course my favourite is the second.
I hope you kept your mouth closed when being bombarded. Always keep an empty bag handy, makes a good fertilizer for the garden.