Wood Working II

[Mike McCarthy]

Another wood stork shot from the boat trip out to a wood stork rookery on the intracoastal waterways near Sarasota, FL. As in the previous shot (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=8643)I posted....this one also has the bird's feet just touching the folage. I'd had prefered there was some seperation between but not to be. I could PS it ...but kind of felt like that was taking the cloning a bit far.

It was extremely windy this morning and the storks would fly low along the water coming from behind the island and then at the last second pull up for their landing. Not many of the birds cleared the top of the trees. Many flat...fast...low incoming flights. It was difficult to anticipate where the birds would rise above the island. Kind of like one of those carnival shooting games where the targets pop up and down in a split second. Made for some challenging shooting.

Thanks for looking.

http://www.pbase.com/blindmustangpilot/image/94948547/original.jpg

Canon 20D * EF 400mm f/5.6 * HH from boat
ISO 400 * 1/1600 * f/6.3

[Robert Amoruso]

Hi Mike,

I like the diagonal in the Mangrove and the bird is obviously having a fun time landing. Too bad you didn't get a full wing braking image but sometimes the wind conditions are such that does not happen. Light looks real nice.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Cool capture Mike and I like the action you captured in this image. Excellent exposure and composition too.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Nice 'running' pose. Adding to the other comments, more eye contact would have been great.

[Maxis Gamez]

Interesting pose but I agree with all comment

[Mike McCarthy]

Thanks to those that took the time to look and comment.