Theft

[Stu Bowie]

This was taken in Cape Town during my december holidays. A fairly large lagoon in a suburb of Cape Town, that is frequented by cormorants and gulls and Darters ( you guys call them Anhinga's ) The Darter had just surfaced with his catch, as they dive down under the water to catch the fish, then surface to eat them. These gulls were alerted to his catch, and promply dived out the sky and stole the fish from his beak. The frame before this, the fish is still in the beak of the Darter.

Canon 50D
100-400 L IS USM @ 400mm
1/1250
F/7.1
ISO 400

Exp Comp +0.33
Hand held

[Randy Stout]

Stuart:

Great moment captured, and I appreciate the back story.

By chance do you have another frame just a beat after this, that would show the front gull clear of the Darter?
It might be worse actually, if the gull is climbing.

The merge is my only real issue with the picture.

Thanks for sharing this great action!

Randy

[Juan Aragonés]

Interesting story and great timing. Too bad that the anhinga and the gull are overlapping. I echoe what Randy said :-)

[Indranil Sircar]

Great story and well captured. I also like the way you framed it.

[Steve Canuel]

Nice timing. I like the angle of the two gulls coming toward the camera and their opposing wing positions. Remove the darter and change the title to "Pursuit" :)

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Stuart,
Leave it as it is - I love the bewildered look on the Darter's face - or am I hallucinating...:eek:
Best,
Nicki

[Dave Barnes]

Moment well captured Stu. Interesting interaction captured.

[Kobus Tollig]

Great moment here. You did well. The exposure and detail looks good. Don't you think you can maybe crop a bit tighter.

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all so much for the great feedback. Much appreciated.