Arctic Terns on Ice

[Bill Dix]

Arctic Terns were high on my target list for Iceland, and I wasn't disappointed. They were everywhere. I particularly liked the imagery of them flying around on the icebergs -- this one from the glacial lagoon at Jokulsarlon. Light was low, but a bit more SS probably would have helped. Catchlights added.

D7200, 500f4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 2000, 1/1600s @ f9 manual, gitzo and mongoose.

[Adhika Lie]

A skill that I am still working on, Bill. I love the image design here. As if two images composite into one. The right to left progression is very pleasing and you've got the catch light which is extremely hard to get (at least from my experience).

[arash_hazeghi]

I am not sure about this frame Bill, I do like the waves in the BG and even the rock but the added catchlights look a bit fake to my eye, it looks like neither tern was in sharp focus here.

TFS

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Arash. A fair critique. The "waves" and "rock" are actually ice -- both part of the same large iceberg. I liked the setting, but it looks to my eye as if the AF may have drifted onto the "rock" (although View NX-i shows it just above the left hand bird). The catchlights are fake, but the birds looked lifeless without them. Perhaps there was a way to make them look more natural, even though there wouldn't really have been any in this dull light.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Excellent composition and image quality, Bill. Nice timing as these two launch from the iceberg, wing positions, and open beak and detailed feet left bird.
Like the volcanic ash covered ice foreground, and blues of BG ice.

Geoffrey

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good action and interesting perch. Thanks for the description of what we are seeing in the BG - puts things into perspective and I do like it. Yes, the catchlights do look like add-ons, especially that the one on the left bird is not on the eye itself.

[John Hackney]

Beautiful image, well captured. The only thing that bothers me are the catch lights.

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for your comments. I've taken a stab at the catchlights, inserting just a faint, fuzzy catchlight hopefully in the eye this time :e3.. Also, in the OP I had brightened and warmed up the birds. Here, I left them as shot, and tried to sharpen them up a bit. They seem to have a little more detail in the repost, although of course I can't get detail that wasn't there in the camera. I'd love to know what you think.