Little tern (Sternula albifrons)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hand held taken near Point of Air North Wales, they are fast little devils!
Olympus E-M1X
Focal Length : 600.0mm
Focal length in 35 mm film : 1202.0mm
Exposure mode : Manual exposure
ISO Sensitivity : 1000
Exposure compensation : +0.3 EV
Shutter : 1/3200 sec
Aperture : F8

ACR/PSCC

[kevin Hice]

Yes they are fast . Great wing position head angle. White bird against the blue sky really brings this out. TFS

[Dorian Anderson]

Whites look nicely exposed and really pop on the blue sky. Eye is nice and sharp, so that's good as well. Wish the bird was a bit lower so that the far wing appeared a bit higher; it's kinda overpowered by the fully extended front wing.

I really like how this frame shows the single black primary on each wing; that field mark is enough to identify this species in isolation.

[Kurt Bowman]

Nice wings up pose. Good job on the exposure. Nice work

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Jon ... nice job on the color and tonal front .
I am fine with the wings and the slightly upward angle , we cannot have everything at all times .

As posted the head and the body are softer than the upward wings .... did the AF lock on the wings ??

TFS Andreas

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Jon ... nice job on the color and tonal front .
I am fine with the wings and the slightly upward angle , we cannot have everything at all times .

As posted the head and the body are softer than the upward wings .... did the AF lock on the wings ??

TFS Andreas

Re AF quite possibly, I found it too tricky to get consistent results with single spot AF so I used 5x5 for many images - hence f8 for some images and less on others.

[Brian Sump]

Jon, wing pos doesn't bother me here. The Tern is a good bit above you but still works as presented.

Great flight angle and eye contact. The head and beak feel soft to me and there's a bit of a halo or fuzzy white section just in front of the brow.

Such a beautiful bird. I shot my first Leasts in Mexico a few weeks ago and just getting to process them. It was fun catching them in their breeding grounds just next to the highway.

[John Mack]

The pose is alright. Catchlight in the eye looks nice.