Black skimmer in colony

[Grace Scalzo]

From Nickerson Beach, Long Island, this morning. Had some decent weather before MORE rain.

1/1250, f5.6, ISO400 (AV mode + 2/3)
Canon 50D, 500 f4 + 1.4tc, flat in sand. :)

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I'm glad you had good weather in the morning, I didn't even get that. I like the idea and wish the head of the bird at the top were not clipped. It might work as vertical crop, too. Did you see any chicks?

[Paul Kusmin]

Very nice!
The head on top being clipped and also the tail of the bird on left bother me a wee bit.
Looks like you were able to get close, good low angle.

[Doug Brown]

Love the low angle and eye contact. The OOF birds in the BG work nicely. Regarding the fact that you clipped the birds; if you're going to clip, make it look deliberate instead of accidental. I like Axel's idea of a vertical crop.

[Fabs Forns]

Very nice catch, Grace. To my taste, the OOF birds work except for the red bill that takes attention away from the main subject. Cropping at the top just enough to eliminate the reds, scrolling in the monitor that looks very good.

[Grace Scalzo]

Thanks everyone! THis is a new idea that I had while looking at the very full colony....you may see more as I visit there this summer and work with your helpful ideas. What I like is the almost child-like color, very big and bold kind of unsophisticated looking. I think that a 300 f2.8 which would allow me to open up more and really blur out the bg might be a good idea. You?

[Fabs Forns]

Grace, the degree of blur looks fine to me, it is the bright red that I find distracting.
It will be great to see what you come up with!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Grace,
Handled very well and a very cool concept. Not the easiest thing to accomplish at Nickerson with all the birds. I don't mind the OOF or the red in the BG.....shows the other bird nicely for my tastes. You may have to wait a long time to get only 2 birds in the frame but think may be worth the effort so I will definitely be exploring that idea next time out. Looking forward to your next attempt!

[DustinFinn]

I think this works nicely as is, the out of focus birds frame the in focus, subject bird very nicely.

The fact that there's a lot of talk about clipping OOF birds in the background is frustrating for me, because they are out of focus and not the primary focus and certainly there to talk about how the colony is on top of one another... loosening the shot, or zooming out with your feet, will allow your in focus subject to become too small in the frame, then everyone would comment on how the subject bird is too small in the frame...

It's all a very interesting conversation - please don't get me wrong, I would agree with the "If you're gonna clip, then clip deliberately" but the birds in the background are supporter to the story, not the main character.

Just my thoughts, please PM me if you have a better explanation of why the birds shouldn't be clipped in the background - I dont want to have a thread taken over just because I don't " get it ".