Best Bird Dive Shots

Was going through some files and came across this diving Male Common Eider in Breeding Plumage. I think it's pretty cool how you can see the head underwater and was hoping my fellow NPNers can put this dive shot to shame with some of their own!

- Luke

Don't know if this qualifies Luke, & it will definitely not put your shot to "shame" as you say.
I liked it because it picked up the skies color and clouds..May not be technically "diving"..
Is their a pre-dive category?

Luke - here's a Canvasback, going down to root in the bottom muck again.

And a PB Grebe, going down in a a different kind of dive.

How about some Brown Pelicans in a dive?

Or a Red-breasted Merganser diving into a wave on the Gulf.

Ron, I love that sinking dive of the Pied-billed, I have yet to capture that one quite the way I want it.

Last one, I promise. We're socked in with gray skies and can't go shooting so this is the next best thing I guess.

An Eared Grebe, going down one more time.

Wow! This is better than I thought.... I'm torn between the Eared Grebe and the Canvas back - two totally unique shots.

Ron:
Don't stop now. It will give me an excuse to post several.
I am constantly trying to get good diving shots, but so many things can go wrong and I rarely get one good enough to post. Thanks to Luke, I can put a couple here. This one is from an Arctic Tern series. I've posted a couple of shots from this location in Iceland. This is a big crop.

This is the "climb" after the dive. I wish I had been in a better position so that the head and body were in good light and that I had used a faster shutter speed. Some day .....

Awesome shots David! I really love your Tern experience... I'll have to get myself up there one day. One of the biggest problems w/"dive" shots is that darned n. membrane is almost always going to make an appearance...

- Luke

Last one:
This may not be considered a dive. Also, I posted a version of this Red-breasted Merganser surfacing earlier.

I remember seeing this last year before I joined NPN and upon seeing these birds surfacing last winter LONGED for a shot that came anywhere close... well, with my new equipment I have a SLIM chance of getting something that can compare to this image which literally has been in my mind for a year - thanks for the lasting impression.

- Luke

Howard: I like the pre-dive with the water picking up the color of sky and clouds and the elevated foot.
Ron: I like seeing the body of the grebe submerged with only tail and head showing and the almost mirrow image of the Eared Grebe, with only body showing and head and feet submerged.
Lia: Neat capture of the group of pelicans in simultaneous dive formation and great timing on the merganser diving into the wave.

Here one I like and recently posted.

Found another one... darn that N. membrane!!!

- Luke

Wow. These are cool. I don't have any to add but I really like all of the images in this topic. Well done you all.

Northern Gannets are serious about diving, this one is diving near a bouy on the Gulf in FL.

A great thread. It's really fun to be snorkeling and have plunge divers like boobies and gulls dropping down in front of you. It happened repeatedly in the Galapagos, but my underwater camera reflexes weren't up to the task of photographing it...

I have a version of this somewhere where I blurred the background but can't find it quickly enough. It's a vertical dive, I didn't turn the image! And I only got one frame.

Captured this Red Breasted Merganser in a dive, and he actually came up with a good sized fish, which was promptly swallowed. Great photos from all!!

cool thread!

Sandy r

Love this thread! Now, if I could only master uploading to this site, I could contribute some...maybe after Xmas while stuck in the Colorado Rockies snow...

Rebecca Saltonstall

I was playing with the Flood filter from Flaming Pear and wondered what that would look like... Sorry, I cheated! But it's fun...

I like it Bill!

Here is my contribution.

And my final contribution. This is an interesting thread.

Mark you are good at headless egret shots!! Cool. I'm adding two more, not actually diving but wet from splashing about.

and a wet wood duck, last two were shot today.

Got this one the other day. . . Long-Tailed Duck (obviously)