"don't poke me!"

[annmpacheco]

It is always an exciting quest to catch some action and certainly some species have a higher probability of such an outbreak; this image of two black skimmers gave me good views of their positions for the mere 1/3200 of a flash.I really like the wee bit of black on the tail feather tips...

D5
850mm

ISO 1600
6.3
1/3200

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Wonderful capture of this skirmish, Ann. Love light and the wing and tail positions of both birds. I can hear them squawking at each other. Beautiful blacks and whites, excellent detail, richness of the orange in the beaks and feet. Well done.

Geoffrey




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

[Colin Driscoll]

Nailed it! Great light, something I rarely encounter here in OZ. Terrific frame!

[Aditya Sridhar]

Beautiful action shot Ann! Love the high-key look. Details are great throughout. I'd remove some canvas off the RHS and add some to the bottom of the frame as well as the LHS to balance the image. Other than that, no complaints from me!

[Matt Sutherland]

Great capture! Colors, exposure, sharpness all good. I second the cropping suggestion by Aditya... little off the right, add to bottom and left side. Really good!

[gail bisson]

What terrific action you captured here!
Love the sharpness and the IQ.
Agree 100% with above crop suggestions.
The visible eye looks great.
Gail

[dankearl]

A terrific frame... nothing to add, outstanding pin sharp action.

[John Mack]

Great action and the high key treatment works very well.

[Bill Dix]

Great Skimmer skirmish. It's not easy to catch the moment that they are close together and facing more or less in your direction; sharp and well exposed. Ditto the crop suggestions.

[Doug Brown]

Agree with the excellent suggestions above. Love the action you captured here!

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Very nice Image. I agree with other suggestions mentioned.

TFS

[Tim Foltz]

Ann, nice action shot of skimmers that unfortunately I haven't witnessed is a few years. The filtered light was a blessing in this instance.

-Tim

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yep, a bit more room for the comp would not hurt at all. Apart form that, wonderful image! Fun interaction, and appealing high-key treatment.

[Arthur Morris]

Yes to a beautiful, well-executed image. Two things keep it from being a contest winner in my book:

1-the head of the upper bird is turned away from us. It would have been better it the upper bird was visually engaging the attacking bird.

2-with luck, the wings of the attacking bird would have been fully spread ...

It is still quite excellent.

with love, artie