Early morning nap

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Captured this peaceful moment the other day at Nickerson beach. This was the largest gathering of Black Skimmers and chicks I've seen. It was a remarkable sight to see so many families gathered in the early morning. At any given time all the adults would launch into the air, circle around and land again finding their young. I lost track of how long I was stretched out with my camera mounted on a skid pod. At least an hour or so. C&C welcome.

D4S, Nikon 500mm + 1.4 TC, 1/1250, f 11, ISO 1000, Skid pod.

Geoffrey

[annmpacheco]

wonderful capture Geoffrey, I like the position of the chick up against the parent , along with the scrape of "home" that shows just the top with detail, nice job.

[Arthur Morris]

A nice loving pose. The image looks light overall to me, and the orange looks especially washed out. The chicks shut eye and the bird on the frame edge do not help the image.

It was great meeting you and Bill Dix. We were certainly blessed to have been there on a perfect morning.

a

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks Ann and Artie. Artie, this image was captured when the sunrise was higher, but I think you are correct in your assessments which I addressed, with one exception. I guess I could have said the chicks felt comforted and relaxed enough to get a bit of shut-eye when their parent returned. I do have frames in the same sequence with the chicks eye open, but felt this frame conveyed more. Here is the repost.

It was great meeting you too Artie. We most definitely couldn't have asked for a better morning.

Geoffrey

164224

[Bill Dix]

Good one, Geoffrey. Generally an open eye is preferred, of course; but here you've captured the sense of your title. Repost is an improvement. There's a little too much oof foreground for my taste, but cropping it out would make for very strange proportions.

[Arthur Morris]

The repost is a huge improvement. Well done.

a

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks Bill, and thanks Artie for the compliment on my repost.


Geoffrey