Royal Tern

Took this last summer at a local beach estuary. Posted a wings down pose from this sequence a while back. The Royal Terns come in to the estuary after hunting in the open ocean for sardines and anchovies.
They are feeding babies and and fly by this location in the late afternoon, calling to their mates with their fish offering, and doing courtship and bonding displays. Always love seeing the bigger Royals.
Trying a 16x9 comp. Thought it helped with the sense of speed. Is it too much negative space in front? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

1DMKIV---700mm---f5.6---1/3200---ISO640---HH@ 6:20pm---35% crop

Thanks as always for looking and for your input. Appreciated

David

this is just awesome, love the pose, light details and the eye contact. not to mention the fish

there are some sharpening halos, I would reduce sharpening radius

killer shot

Stunning David, l like the tight crop and fish. Great to get the upright wings, superb.

To answer your question, I do not thnk there is too much space in front...but I feel there is not enough above. Not much more needed, perhaps double the current space between wing-tip and edge (all IMO of course). Light looks a tad strong, but the techs are spot-on, pose very dynamic, and catch is a nice bonus (too bad they don't always cooperate and fly with the prey's head on the photographers' side!)

Magnificent flight pose you have captured, David. Love full wing up pose ,nice colors,details and composition.
Love the way bird pops up against blue sky.

Regards,
Satish.

nice image,good flight pose,fish in beak a bonus.

I also think a bit more above would be nice and I might tone down the Blue BG,
but this is another exceptional flight image from you.
A big fish for this guy!

Great capture, well done! The sharpness is good and the fish in its beak is a nice plus. I would clone out the white dots under the bird though, they distract a bit and don't contribute to the image.

Laurent

Thanks everyone for the comments. I will try adding a bit to the top and toning down the BG as suggested. Laurent, the white spots are falling scales, maybe not close enough to the fish to be kept in.

A fine shot, I suspect the light was a little harsh but you handled the exposure very well indeed. Love the pose, regarding the crop it appeals to me but I suspect a 3:2 may look a little more pleasing to my eye.

Hi David, well exposed, and I do like the shape of the raised wings. Thats a fair size sardine, and great that we can see the tongue inside the bill.

I thought the scales were water droplets. :w3 I would leave them.

The space in front is fine, but as Dan suggested, adding a touch to the top wont harm anything.

Great image here
i love the pose and the composition, the fish is having great details too
superb one

Wonderful shot. I think the comp works very well. Love the sardine in it's mouth. Just need a cracker to go with it! :w3

Good use of space in front, but I would add a bit more on top. Sharp including fish and I like the eye contact with photographer, looks great David.

My only thought with processing would be I wonder if you used the adjust shadows/highlights slider to tone down brights and as a consequence the whites are verging on grey a little and a little coarse detail underwing

Terrific wing position and love the visible tongue. Tack sharp as well and you have dealt with the harsh light effectively.
I find the under wing detail is off a bit. It almost looks "smoothed out" to me. Perhaps it is due to wet wings? Please set me straight if I am wrong!
I like the comp as is with a touch more up top.
The blood on the fish is compelling. How I wish its head was facing us ( god, I am picky today!)but I am still enjoying this,
Gail

Thanks everyone for the comments.
Phil, Im sure I did use the highlights slider to bring them down a bit and I do see the slight grey tone to it.
Gail, I didnt do anything to the under wing. It could be the wet wings but I see this in some of my Tern shots. The wing looks like you said, smoothed out and sometimes looks like one solid area. depends on the angle I think.
Thanks again

Hi David,
Excellent image of this speedstars..its really difficult to get these freeze in camera. Where exactly this photo is taken? I leaves in Long Beach. if you can let me know some good birding and photography spots, that would be really great.