Superb Fairy-wren - exploding bird?

This is another high-speed action shot taken at my bird bath on 6 March 2014. It shows two female Superb Fairy-wrens, one of which is bathing so vigorously she appears to be exploding. To capture the action I have used three synchronized flash units at reduced power to produce a very short flash pulse (about 1/5000 sec). The background is an old potato sack. The scene was in dappled sunlight which has produced some water droplet highlights and recorded them as dramatic streaks during the time the camera shutter was open (1/200 sec).

Canon 5DIII + 300 mm f/2.8L II + 1.4x III extender, three 600EX-RT flashes, RS-80N3 remote shutter release, Gitzo 3532LS, Kirkphoto King Cobra gimbal.

Pre-set manual focus, manual camera settings, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO 200, 1/8 flash power all units.

Processed in DPP4: crop, adjust gamma, shad/h'lights, sharpen, RAW-TIFF. PS Elements: remove flash highlight from eye, brighten iris, surface blur background to reduce file size, downsize, sharpen birds, TIFF-JPEG.

Thanks for looking, critical feedback welcome.

Ian

A fun image and the 2 drops that form the sign of the cross on the right hand side are kind of neat.
I would tone down the water droplets behind the tail.
I can't decide if the water drop above the eye is distracting or adds an unusual element to the image.
I like this image,
Gail

Another amazing image Ian. Just love the splashes, the birds, are perfectly sharp and the lighting is spot on. Well done

Hi Ian, I like the overall action captured here, - the bathing wren looks like a soaked ball of fluff. The flying droplets add a lot, and I also like the erect tail of the onlooking wren. Great idea for your BG.

I like it. Interesting image with all the "crazy" action going on. Took me a while to figure out the fluff in front of the wren...the other one:). Thanks for sharing.

How cool...and likely refreshing for the subjects too! Great effect you got with your strobe setup here, loving all the action. I do wish for less specular highlights behind and above the left wren. I'm really enjoying what you are doing with these, super nice and well thought out.

Great dynamic image with a great amount of splash, Ian.

Ian this is right up my street, love it!

Cheers Keith.

Beautiful shot, Ian! Excellent use of flash to capture this high speed action! Love the exposure, sharpness, details and flying droplets! Well done!

Thanks everyone for your generous feedback and helpful comments on this image. Kind regards, Ian.