warp-speed red-billed tropicbird

Well, not really warp-speed, but very fast. Appearing at Matinicus Rock (Gulf of Maine) on July 12, this bird was WAY out of its normal West Indies range. It zoomed over our boat, a challenge for looking through the viewfinder of a hand-held 1DM3 with 500 lens. I wanted to capture its jizz - an envelope of its impressive speed, sleek lines and long streaming tail, against some light cirrus clouds overhead. Used several Color EFex filters in PS to finally get what I wanted. Hope you like it.

C&C appreciated.

Keith, I think what you did to the bird is really cool - you wanted to show its speed and you did just that. I think the BG would be less distracting if you didn't have the smudgy areas in the upper left corner and the bottom right side. I like the circular pattern in the BG - try to get the entire BG to move in that same pattern and see what you think. OR...you might even try to go into liquify in CS3 and move the entire BG in a wavy horizontal pattern to mimic the movement of the bird.

Thanks, Julie, and I agree that the dark patches in upper left, lower right detract. I tried to replicate the steps I had done before without success. Couldn't seem to get the wavy pattern going with Liquify as you suggested. So I fiddled with it awhile, then took another image of the red-billed tropicbird, again applied some more Nik Color Efex filters, with the resulting electric blue image, con-trail streamers coming off the wing tips to diverge with the tail streamer. It's certainly cleaner than the original post, but I don't know if I like it as well or not. What do you think?

Actually, Keith, I like this more! Now the bird is really a standout and the blues are so deep and rich that I can just see this version of the bird flying in this version of the sky. It's all totally electrifying!

Thanks, Julie. Maybe I should re-post this one in a new thread, maybe tomorrow night. What do you think?

Oh, I think everyone will see it here. (I think they rather frown on reposting the same image because of server space.) No worry...I'm sure everyone is in the habit of scrolling down to see what happens to an image as it changes!

Again...very nice work here and very creative...I get so inspired being in this forum with all of you!

Vote for the second !! Love it Ketih Might consider having the lighter white bg trailing to the right and having more room on the left. Big Time Appealing !!!

Thanks for the suggestions, Alfred, which I've implemented in the re-re-post. Between Jules, you and me - we may get this thing fixed yet! I like it even better with more room on the left and extending the tail and streamers.

Hi Keith,
The second repost really rocks...congrats...:cool:

I love hte Kite-Bird ad lot. The other one was pretty too, but the second one WOW!!!

Nicelyt reworked. Now it really pops!