Retirement Day!

I retire today after 33 years in family practice!
Excited and scared! No more pay cheques ,so does that mean less camera gear!!:bg3:
Anyway, here is a favorite image from Iceland of an arctic tern. Taken at 10:00PM
Canon 1DX 600mm and 1.4x
ISO 800 SS 1/1600 f5.6
Minimal PP: Full frame cropped to pano, usual LR sliders of clarity +9 and saturation +5. No change to exposure. Then off to CS5 for minor levels adjusyment and I smoothed out an irregular line in the BG above the head, USM to JPEG
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

First off a huge congratulations on the lifetime achievement of retirement!! Have fun!!

Secondly, this Tern frame looks gorgeous! Beautifully exposed and a great wing position and HA. The light has covered the bird perfectly and the BG is so smooth and lightly varied that you couldn't have ask for better.. Congrats again

Congratulations Gail! I'm envious of your new-found free time! Gorgeous first retirement frame, with some really sweet light and a nice green BG. Love the cocked head and great eye contact!

Hi Gail - Congrats on your retirement! Sweet frame with gorgeous light and bg. I am seeing a slight blue cast to the back and tail feathers but it may be natural.

TFS,
Rachel

Congratulations!!!! You will not regret if for a minute. Time for more gear and more trips, not less. Love the frame, perfectly exposed with great wing position and head turn.

Gail retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be oh no, its MUCH BETTER THAN THAT!! :5 Congratulations if you enjoy it as much as I do, there will never be a dull moment. (I must admit pouring over medical journals was not exactly my idea of a good read!)
The image is super the exposure pose and details are great. Regards equipment and looking above, I am sure you won't actually need any more for quite some time, it's really just a matter of temptation:w3

First of all, huge congratulations on your long-awaited retirement! Somehow I think you'll still be on some pretty amazing trips with good equipment, and I look forward to photographing with you again during your next trip down here.

This is a super frame, and I can understand why it's one of your favs. The light and BG are just right, and just love the whites and that fanned tail. It's hard for me to believe that you were capturing this at 10pm.

Yippee, yahoo, terrific, congratulations, more trips, more birds, more gear, more chocolate... Heartfelt congrats my friend. Now the tern, love the way it is looking at you, that face is lit up beautifully. The wings have so much detail and shades of whites,grays, and highlights, this i love. Just a wee bit of motion blur, and a dreamy BG. A wonderful image to kick off your first day of retirement!!!

I think your image is about as perfect as possible. Lovely wing and head position with a fanned tail. Perfect background... thank you for sharing.

Enjoy Gail, retirement is wonderful...

Enjoy your retirement Gail. You deserve it :S3:. Lovely flight pose on the tern and it blends real good with the BG. I love the HA and position of the wings. When I retired, I thought, what am I going to do everyday. Believe me, you will find things to do. :S3: Now you won't have to change quickly from your working clothes into your photography clothes.

Take it easy.

Will

Congratulations! Gail. You're going to love everyday feeling as if it's Saturday.

Like the wing, tail and head position of this wonderful capture. Nice eye detail and smooth BG.

Geoffrey

Congratulations Gail! Just what the doctor ordered eh! I only have about 15 years to go :-)

I love the wing position, light, background, comp. If mine I'd likely remove the white spot closest to the eye, even if it was there naturally, just to make for a cleaner cap. Super nice image! Enjoy your new found extra time!!

Gail,

I'm going to buck the trend here and state I'm not happy about your retirement. All that's going to happen now is you're going to produce even more high quality shots that make me even more envious of your portfolio :t3

Regarding the shot, lovely details and a nice wide wing pose and the light and BG are to die for.

Mike

Thanks to all for your well wishes!
Mike- you are hilarious! I laughed out loud when I read your comment.
Daniel- I thought about cloning out that white spot as well. If I was to print this I probably would do that.
Gail

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike Poole

Gail,

I'm going to buck the trend here and state I'm not happy about your retirement. All that's going to happen now is you're going to produce even more high quality shots that make me even more envious of your portfolio :t3


Mike

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Now that is funny....and probably true too for many of us!:bg3:

WOW...I forgot how good your stuff was. Amazing BG and I love the front on pose. What an image!