Olive Sparrow ACtion shot- take off

[Steve Bein]

1/10th of a second from crouched in the water bathing to taking off. My camera does 10 shots a second and the first has the bird bathing and down in the water, the second is this, the third has only feet. The reflexes of the birds is amazing. It might have been a response to my shutter, but, who knows. Anyway the capture is pretty interesting for me. . Luck of the draw on an Alan Murphy workshop.
1D MK IV
500mm f4 IS
Subject dist: 5.88m
1/3200 sec, f/4.5
ISO: 1000
Flash: Off .

[Leo Berzins]

Great action captured here Steve.
A bit more room above and right would have been nice, but still a beautiful image as is.
Seems everyone gets 'lucky' on Alan's workshops.:S3:

[Doug Brown]

Amazingly fast birds. You did well to get this one at the moment of blast off. I like Leo's idea for the crop (not as much reflection and a bit more room on the top and right). It would have been nice if it had been taking off towards you. Seems like 1/3200 wasn't quite fast enough to freeze the action (somewhat surprising); I might have pushed my ISO a bit higher. I'm not crazy about the vertical gray line above the bird's neck.

[Randy Stout]

Steve:

Tremendous action here! Nicely exposed. Agree with Leo and Doug about the crop.

Nice shooting angle too.

Cheers'

Randy

[Steve Bein]

Thanks for the comments. This is a pure nature shot, no crops, no extra room. The dark above bothered me also, but I left it since I plan on entering it in a PSA nature forum and no removals or additions are allowed to remain within the rules, I left it as is.
IT was an amazing time. As far as "Luck" with Alan Murphy, it is his skill and hard work which make the opportunities. Also, he teaches how he does it, so you take more than images from his workshop. I appreciate what he did in adding to my knowledge and the fun of the time there.