Common Tern feeding Juvie

Canon 1DX
f 600mm and 2x III
ISO 1600
SS 1/1000 F 8.0. In water, on belly with lowered tripod and scratching myself like heck because the "no-see-ums" were eating me alive!!
Took this while visiting with Grace Scalzo last week. Melissa and Emily were guests as well.
I just got my 2x and am trying to ride the learning curve with it. Slightly slower AF and need for smaller F stop make flight shots a lot harder.
For this shot I just focused on the juvie and started firing away when I saw the juvie getting excited because Mom was flying in with a bug.- AKA spray and pray!
Taken at 7:05 PM
Small crop of 25% and added a sliver of canvas on the top.
PP :Crop, added canvas on top, NR on BG and NR on adults' wing ( very very light on wing), lightened the adults eye with dodge tool and Detail Extractor on birds at 4% and 8% on adults' eye, USM on JPEG at 40%.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks.

Gail:

I think the juvi is stamping his foot to get fed! Nice story telling, really like the curved tips of the primaries and the flared tail feathers. Nice gradient in the bg.

I might try a version with a sliver more room on the left.

Cheers

Randy

Awesome shot. Great behavior and interaction. Very good image quality. I like the low angle and the wing pose of the adult.

Markus

I love the shot. What a great moment to capture, BG is beautiful. I feel like the adult could use a little more sharpening. I also like Randy's idea for a crop, perhaps a little less square of a crop.

Great action and great story. The parent's wing position is quite lovely. And the young bird is, of course, caught at a perfect moment. I'm thinking that you may have been a bit too low for my taste. Although the low angle achieves that intimate feeling, getting a little higher would have provided a bit more definition in the ground and get a better sense of place/environment. Either way, a wonderful image. Congrats.

Exposure is great, love the soft tonings in backdrop, the adults wings look wonderful especially the way the tips are curving, only thing I find a tad odd is the lack of any detail in the sand

I am fine with the low angle and the image design. Perfect timing but bummer on the wind direction.... The eye of the juvie looks a bit funky; did you use flash???

nice pose and display of behavior

Hi Gail, spray and pray always works when there's possible interaction, and you certainly nailed it here. I like the raised foot and 'begging' pose of the juvie, and interesting curls to the primaries of the adult. Yes to a cool graduated BG.

What are " no-see-ums" :w3

My type of low angle!! Awesome interaction, and I love the adult's wings. I can forgive it flying angled away here, but I can just imagine had it been parallel to the sensor! The young one's raised foot adds a lot of interest.

Hi Gail, good looking shot of this feeding interaction and i like the juvies pose as he begs for food. The techs look great and the detail is nice and sharp. Sure wish the adult was angled a bit more towards us.
Normally I love the low angles that you shot at but this one needs more sand showing for me as the OOF sand looks a bit odd. Nice work.

The composition is nice, great looking details
the juvenile with its open beak and raised foot is special

Great timing, great action.

Excellent shot the timing is spot on as is the exposure. Purely as a personal choice I would have mad the subjects just a little smaller in the frame ensuring a little more space on the left.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Arthur Morris

I am fine with the low angle and the image design. Perfect timing but bummer on the wind direction.... The eye of the juvie looks a bit funky; did you use flash???

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Hi Art,
No flash used.
Gail

another stunner Gail. You are just a factory for these great shots! prolific!

The spray & pray technique definitely worked for you, Gail. This is a very fine image, and not an easy one to capture while on your belly with a 2x.