Tern diving for fish

[Tin Man Lee]

Lucky to live just 90 mins away from Bolsa Chica. I stopped by for an hour to photograph the terns last Sat at 6pm. There were about 10 other photographers near the little dam area on the south side. I guess I was the only one handholding the 500...

1D IV, 500 f4, ISO 500, f7.1, 1/3200s, handheld

LR3 and CS5.

The tern just got the fish, but was dropped, and right before the fish hit the water, the tern dived down to catch it.

I like the action. The background wasn't a green background that I wanted but I will take it.

And after the tern caught the fish, another tern dived down trying to steal that fish. I was able to also get that shot but the wing was clipped on the second tern.. too bad.. but man, what a treat to witness those crazy actions.

[Geir Jensen]

An amazing image, and a great comp.
Thank you for sharing it with us

[Jim Neiger]

Fantastic image, Tin Man! If you remember what I said to you at the end of the Osprey Heaven Workshop, you can now see that it is starting to come true. :bg3:

[Tin Man Lee]

Thank you all!
Yes indeed, thank you very much for all the great teaching, Master!
Now I am a lot less scared of varying backgrounds...

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Light, sharpness, pose, action - everything top notch.
Outstanding image!

[Doug Brown]

Really cool action shot! Great timing! Exposure is perfect. Perhaps a little oversharpened though.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Loved the action captured here.. agree with doug Bhai..

[Daniel Cadieux]

Awesome pose and action, and nothing wrong with this blue BG. As previously stated the image is oversharpened for web pressentation though. Good stuff!

[Rudi van den Heever]

Ditto sharpening, but great action captured!:w3

[Wynand van Wyk]

Wow, amazing action captured here! Love the falling fish and superb detail. Great background too!

Superbly done!:S3:

[Troy Lim]

Really cool action shot! Great timing! Exposure is perfect. Perhaps a little oversharpened though.

Agree here.
Congrats, Tin Man! Great moment!

[Tin Man Lee]

Thanks all!
Doug, I just reduced the sharpening. How does it look now? I feel it quite hard to find a balance between over and under sharpen. i usually just run 2 rounds of unsharp mask on the subject with 0.2 radius and 100-150%, sometimes i add a highpass overlay of 0.2.
i am not sure if this is good enough.
96431

[stuart wanuck]

A wow image once in a lifetime shot

[Troy Lim]

Tin Man, I usually run high pass overlay at 2px but then drop the opacity to around 75%. Something to try.
Repost still looks too sharp IMO, as you can see the white line around the head!

[Karl Egressy]

Amazing image, Tin.

[Tin Man Lee]

Troy, after a closer look, I see what you mean. Let me play with the opacity and try again tonight. Thanks my friend!

[gail bisson]

Hi Tin Man,
This shot is simply superb!I love everything about it- the action, the midair fish,the bg, the water droplets, the wing position.you can take this shot to the wizard!!:bg3:
Regards,
Gail

[Tin Man Lee]

Thanks a lot Gail! Look forward to seeing more of your photos too!

[Ofer Levy]

Repost looks much better! Doesn't look oversharpened to me. Here is a repost with some more room at the bottom, top and left. Also converted to sRGB, WDYT?

[Tom Redd]

Wow, Tin, very beautiful. Tin's and Ofer's reposts both improve over the OP. the beak and head appeared oversharpened to me. Great image for sure.

[christopher galeski]

well captured,bg nice,the falling fish magic,repost and ofers' repost better on the sharpening.thanks.

[Tin Man Lee]

Great thanks, Ofer! Really appreciate your editing. The color looks better and the extra space adds breathing room to the photo. I will remember to convert to sRGB from now on.

I will look more into the eye and beak sharpening.

I learn something new every time I post something, thank you all!

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Great timing for you here. I agree about all said and think the reposts as far as the sharpening are a great improvement. I wasn't bothered by the crop but might be agreeing with that after a few looks at the repost there . I really like the water drops and action you caught.