The Royal Bath

[Bill Dix]

I was knee-deep in San Carlos Bay just before sunset, trying to get a good sun angle on this Royal Tern bathing on a sandbar, when my cell phone rang. It was my wife asking if I knew the tide was rising. Yes, it's near peak, I assured her. Watching me from the nearby beach, when her feet started getting wet I guess it looked from her perspective as if I might get washed out to sea. Getting my feet wet not only afforded me some nice shots of this tern, but also rewarded me with the Reddish Egret encounter shown in an earlier post.

D500, 500f4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 800, 1/3200s @ f/7.1 manual. Gitzo and Mongoose. Cloned out a bit of a Ring-billed Gull behind the tern.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Just beautiful light, Bill. Like the wing position and the water droplets cast into the air. The image I'm attaching is from the perspective Joanne and I observed from the beach.

Geoffrey

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http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu (http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu)

[Bill Dix]

I guess I wasn't knee-deep after all. :S3:

[Alex Becker]

Great shot -- love the light, fully stretched wings, catchlight and the water drops flying off. I could perhaps see a version with a slight CCW rotation but no real nits from me. Thanks for sharing and got a laugh out of the story / pic behind the shot

[Tomasz Zawadzki]

Very good shot. Light is great, story behind the shot is too :). I would like to have a bit more on top, less on the bottom. But hard to tell if it would be better.

[David Salem]

Well you got the sun angle lined up perfectly which in turn has given the image a beautiful color and great coverage. Nice wings up pose and sweet details. Way to get out there Bill!! Well done

[Daniel Cadieux]

Perfectly outstretched wings - I love it! Great light, and awesome job moving around to line up with it. I realize the slight slope may have been natural, but I'd be tempted to apply some CCW rotation.

Geoffrey: nice action shot of Bill, thanks for sharing it!

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all. Here's a repost with a slight rotation.

Daniel, I'm guessing in this situation you would have been prone, with just your eyes above water level.:c3: