Maestro

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Everyone,
I managed to capture this little fellow as he was coming in to land - it seemed as though he were conducting the unseen forces that were amassed below him :D
1D 3 300 f/2.8 + 1.4
ISO 320
f/4 1/6400
Exp comp + 1/3
HH Minimal PP, cropped for composition.
The light was harsh and I could possibly have lowered the ISO, but was very aware of needing every bit of shutter speed to capture a sharp image of these flying bullets...;)
Look forward to your C & C's.
Best regards to all,
Nicki

[denise ippolito]

Nicki, I really like the pose and the composition. Nice job w/ the harsh light. These guys are so cute -I can't wait to photograph them again. Is there a slight blue cast or is that my crappy laptop?:)

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Hi Nicki. You gotta love these birds and your action and the slight bit of grass showing at the bottom make for a beautiful composition. Great timing !!! Love this one and I am jealous :)

[Chris Kotze]

Super flight angle and lovely colours and detail. Well exposed :)

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Denise, Judy Lynn and Chris, thanks so much for your very kind words :)
Denise, I was hoping that it was my crappy laptop...I thought that I had removed a slight blue cast, but obviously not...:o
My last few posts have all looked slightly blue, whilst the prints that I have made at home do not. Any suggestions? Would the resizing and subsequent compression cause this?

[Nico Steenberg]

Super pose and sharpness ! Like the comp and exposure spot on. Well done on this !

[stuart wanuck]

fasty birds good capture

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Nicki, this is really one species I would like to see and capture, as I find their colours and detail amazing. Apart from conducting, he looks like he's parachuting down. With regards to the blue cast, the whites actually had too much yellow, and the blue cast was on the wings. Hope you dont mind, here is my version.

[Fabs Forns]

Good pose and congrats on getting the F-16 of the avian worked in a frozen stance. Light could be very treacherous at those latitudes, at least you didn't have brazing sunshine. I like ht e bier of vegetation suggesting his landing spot.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Nicki, this is a fantastic freeze. Loved the pose and the diagonal comp. Tough conditions handled very well. I am liking those grasses below wishing more. A vertical 8X10 format with some more vegetation there will be better IMO.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Thanks so much everyone for your very kind and helpful comments and Stuart, thank you for taking the time to do a repost - a big improvement :)
I'm sure that I should know this by now, but how do you tell what the different colour values are and then how do you adjust them? :confused:
Fabs, the light was so challenging - at times we did have blazing sunshine, but it was coming and going. Kaustubh, I will check the raw file to see if I have any more vegetation :)

[Gal Shon]

You did very well with the light.
Pose and greens make it a very enjoyable image.

[Jay Tan]

Beautiful pose. As what the rest have said, the greens add added interest and really gives the image a more environmental feel. The repost by Stuart is great!

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Thank you Gal and Jay - much appreciated...

[Art Kornienko]

Awesome pose and great job with tough light. I like the angle of the birds head.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Thank you Art!

[Per-Gunnar Ostby]

Fantastic Nicki! I am assuming that this was at Skomer and I know how difficult it is to get these guys landing - I am definitely jealous of this shot