Common Fairy-Tern

[Ilija Dukovski]

Vacationing at Waikiki, Hawaii was a chance to get back to bird-photography for me.
These Fairy-Terns are common at the beach and in the streets of Waikiki.

Nikon D700, ISO800, 300mm+TC1.4, f5.6, 1/1000s

Cheers,

[Daniel Cadieux]

Awesome translucence to the flared wing and tail feathers. Perhaps a bit more sharpening to the face area for web presentation would work well. Pretty cool bird.

[Adhika Lie]

The bird looks a little soft to me, but the backlit wing and tail feathers are really really pretty!

[Jonathan Ashton]

A very pleasant shot but I wonder if it is pin sharp? Shots like this I would go for a minimum of 1/1600 sec.

[John Mack]

Like the composition and the high key look, agree about the sharpness.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Thank you everyone. Yes, I know it is not the sharpest ever. You'll notice that the tail is sharper than the wings, so this is motion blur, can't do much about it. I guess I can sharpen the face bit more.

Thank you.

[Arthur Morris]

Good stuff above. But if the tail is sharper than the wings (and the head as well) it might indicate that the focus was well past the bird's head. I love the look and feel of the image and the soft light but the fact that the bill is sort of lost in the dark bar on the far wings bugs me.

with love, artie

[Ilija Dukovski]

... if the tail is sharper than the wings (and the head as well) it might indicate that the focus was well past the bird's head.
Thank you for the comment. I think you are probably right, I looked at the original, the sharpest point is the tail but nut much sharper.



I love the look and feel of the image and the soft light but the fact that the bill is sort of lost in the dark bar on the far wings bugs me.


Hm, yes, I guess I can make the wing lighter and the bill darker.

Thank you,

[Arthur Morris]

Ilija,

You can try but the improvement would be small. Just bad luck ...

artie

[Ilija Dukovski]

Ilija,

You can try but the improvement would be small. Just bad luck ...

artie

Yup, I'll post another one today.