The Rush

[Doug Brown]

I've been waiting a long time to get a shot like this of two rushing Western Grebes, so I guess this makes it my lucky day! Dave Salem and Glenn Conlan took me and my wife to their secret Grebe spot this morning to have a look. It's early in the season, so we figured that there wouldn't be much activity. When we arrived at the lake there were quite a few Grebes on the water but very little rushing going on; the rushes that we did witness were quite far away. After several hours of this, Dave noticed a fairly close pair of Grebes starting to do a courtship interaction. We trained our cameras on the birds and within a few seconds the rush was on. The pair of birds sprinted past us on a perfect trajectory through the prettiest water at a perfect angle to the sun. What an awesome experience! It was our only decent rush of the morning but we could have cared less!

Canon 1Dx2, 600mm + 1.4x, f/7.1, 1/4000, ISO 640, manual exposure, hand held

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[arash_hazeghi]

A frame that's high on my list too executed flawlessly love the pose and details

[Doug Brown]

A frame that's high on my list too executed flawlessly love the pose and details

Thanks Arash! I have no doubt that I'll be seeing your version of this frame sometime soon! I got quite a few frames in this sequence thanks to my 1Dx2's 14 fps, but I especially like this one because it's early in the rush and the birds heads are low. Also I like that you can see the striding feet of the bird on the right side of the image.

[Alex Becker]

This is awesome action. In particular, I like how the red eyes pops out against the similar sized blue water drops, really cool contrast.

[Ian McLachlan]

Magic stuff. The contrasting colours and the light could hardly be better. Are the blue drops reflections from the sky? I hope that Glenn and David will post as it sounds as though there were 3 different cameras there..Interesting to see any major differences between them.

[David Salem]

What a great looking frame of this behavior Doug!! I'm glad we got lucky with a great rush right in front of us, and in perfect light.
Love the low angled pose and the great water color. Couldn't ask for much more than this!!

[Arun Haridasan]

Excellent Action shot....congrats Doug

[Kirk Benson]

You sure made the most of a great opportunity Doug. Killer good capture... love the symmetry, and the paddling feet of the RH Grebe. Excellent work.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Magnificent Doug - great action and details super timing too.
I keep looking at the splashed water - is there a blue cast??

[Roger Smith]

Rushing Grebe photos are a popular pursuit here in San Diego as well, but I haven't seen an example as well executed as this one. Fantastic.

[Isaac Grant]

Beautiful details and pose here. Its all been said. Sure is great when it all works out.

I have a composition question. Has this been cropped? Do you have room to show more of the splash and a bit more room for the birds to run into? If so why did you choose to crop like this? This is beautiful as is, but I wonder if you pulled back a bit how that would change the shot. Looking forward to hearing and learning from your thought process on this one.

[Robert Kimbrell]

A beautiful frame Doug. Love the action and the color of the water. I must have ben a thrill to see this.

[Doug Brown]

Beautiful details and pose here. Its all been said. Sure is great when it all works out.

I have a composition question. Has this been cropped? Do you have room to show more of the splash and a bit more room for the birds to run into? If so why did you choose to crop like this? This is beautiful as is, but I wonder if you pulled back a bit how that would change the shot. Looking forward to hearing and learning from your thought process on this one.

Good question Isaac. I do have more room around the birds, and I originally cropped the image to include more of the splash and more room on the right of the frame. But I decided to go with a tighter crop to focus more attention on the birds. Here's the original crop. I'd be curious which one you prefer and why.

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[Isaac Grant]

It's Isaac not Robert :w3. I prefer this one for sure. To me it shows more of the splash that tells the story of the movement. And it does not cut off the main part of the splash but frames it perfectly. Allows me to see the depth of the splash and feel the speed of their display. It also gives them a little more room to run into. Just feels better to me. Actually it is amazing that this is the full frame shot cause it is perfect in my book. The birds in unison, perfect exposure, excellent details, and the feel of the speed and intensity of the situation. Speaks to the skill of the photographer and the beauty of 14 fps.

[Bill Dix]

Doug, add my congratulations for getting the shot you've been hoping for. I can only dream. And to Dave for putting you onto the birds. Ditto all of the positive comments above. I can see Isaac's point about the crop, and I like both, but I believe concentrating on the birds make the OP the better shot in my book.

[Doug Brown]

Magnificent Doug - great action and details super timing too.
I keep looking at the splashed water - is there a blue cast??

I don't believe there's a color cast Jonathan. I think the water is just picking up the color of the sky.

[annmpacheco]

Little late to the rushing FANtastic grebe image of yours Doug, its splendid, congrats.

[Glenn Conlan]

I was a little worried that day that you and your wife were not going to go home with any keepers. As I have always said many times too my friends "The luck of Salem" came thru. We all got the shot but Dave and I were elated that you went home with a ideal Rush. Well done

[gail bisson]

Love the repost.
The splash adds a real sense of movement and motion.
Lovely and this image is on my bucket list!
Gail

[Doug Brown]

Thanks for the comments everyone!