Cloudy Dark = Blur Time

I was at Bolsa Chica Lagoon in Huntington Beach, CA at 5:30 am this morning hoping for a clear sunrise. Instead it was dark and foggy and cloudy. There were close to a dozen folks standing around doing nothing. But I am a co-author of "A Guide to Pleasing Blurs" and I like having fun. So I hooked up my flash and went to work :) What else could I have done???

This image was created with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D MIV. ISO 3200. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops: 1/60 sec. at f/5.6 in Tv Mode (with ISO Safety Shift set). Flash at zero with the Better Beamer.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

Artie, I like the high key presentation and the amount of blur is pleasing. I like the way you framed this keeping the water wake behind the duck in the image -it's a great way to imply motion. Nice one!:)

I agree with Denise here Artie. I also like the water droplets coming of the bird.
Where the other togs looking at you with wonderment on their faces? I like how you make lemonade out of lemons.

Excellent professor I agree with the above :D

Hi Artie, like the bow wave and the wake! Just enough blur to give the sense of motion and the clean eye makes it even better.

Thanks all. Having the bird in the front of the frame was in part a result of old age and slow reflexes....

The others were too busy yakking to notice :)

I still have trouble to take sharp images so blurs are probably ten, twenty years down the track for me :o but this is nice. Like how it is rushing out of the frame. If you have some more room on the right IMHO it would work better, I feel it's a little tight there. :)

Nice amount of blur, I love how the eye turned out. It amazes me how folks will curse the weather conditions, such as this, and head for home. This is the time to shift gears and try something different - might just create something cool like this.

I like the blur, the composition with the bird going out of the frame, and the pano crop. The only thing that bugs me a little is the overall color cast. It seems somewhere between a warm balance and a cooler balance. That might be what you are looking for, but for me I would probably shift the grayish green color to more of a grayish blue. IMVHO

Excellent blur, Artie! Less than ideal weather is no reason to put the camera away. :) Very nice comp and motion, and I love the water coming off the bird. Well done.