I swear...it was THIS BIG!

Taken on quite a foggy morning at Estero lagoon in Feb. It slowly came in from quite a ways back and I just followed it in my viewfinder and "bumped" the autofocus periodically until it was close enough to where I wanted. Man, the push-pull zoom design is great for this type of situation. As I knew it was going to stop and land just in front of us I did not press the shutter button until it put on the "mid-air" brakes. This is the first of a 3 frame burst (the other two being OOF). I'm undecided about the "habitat" top of the frame, but the image looks quite sterile with it not there.

Canon 40D + 100-400L @200mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/320s., f/7.1, ISO 640, +2 EC (metered off water and histogram checked), handheld, very slight trim bottom and right for composition.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...an_8986-01.jpg

Hi Daniel,

Excellent flight image. I would remove the distraction in the top right corner!!

Love the pose, details, wing tip blur and the environment at the top! Congrats!!

Great pose - looks like it is going to land in your lap.

Dan nice capture with just a hint of wing tip blurr. I'd also remove the top right OOF item.

Yep, clone out the top right corner. Great exposure and patience waiting for that exact right moment!

Daniel:

Nicely captured. I remember that morning. I wonder if you could bring up just enough detail and a hint of the color in the water, to eliminate the sense that the habitat in the URC is just floating in mid air!

Just a thought to improve a nice picture.

Cheers

Randy

Daniel, Nice!! Love the landing pose and details look great-Well done!

Daniel:

Here is a quick pass at what I meant. It all depends on your vision for the picture, but for me, the changes help establish the environment, give it a bit more sense of location.

Cheers

Randy

Cool pose and I like the exposure in Randy's repost better. Another vote for removing the darker area in the upper right.

My vote for removing the dark area and also for the repost, specially because in the repost the bird pops out much more :) Congratulations!

A superb headon shot Daniel. You have captured the outspread wings at their best, and I like Randy's repost of the BG. Still, very well captured.

Outstanding head-on shot Daniel. I love that wingspread. No nits.

Your title sounds like a fish story to me, Daniel. :) I like the pose you captured and I'm a big fan of the repost. I have mixed feelings about the habitat in the URC. On the one hand, it gives the image a sense of place, but on the other side, it draws my eye away from the bird.

Randy, nice repost. I may just rework this image...but I think somewhere between the two would work best. My version resembles more of what I remember the conditions being that morning - but your explanation of your repost makes sense. Thanks!

Thanks Daniel.

I often have to think about an image, is my recollection of it adding a context to it, that might not be apparent or obvious to another person just seeing the image in isolation. In this case, I just thought, that the added information from the repost helped me place the image better in my mind. It added some context that helped me get it.

Cheers

Randy