First Try was Perfect...

As my San Diego IPT group was photographing the tree patterns in the sand I glanced behind and saw that a nice group of Sanderlings had landed behind us at the edge of the surf. I quickly went to Tv Mode at +2 stops and dialed the shutter speed down I didn't know how much at the time.... I wound up taking more care with the shutter speed as I followed the flock to and fro along the beachfront. This one was made at IS) 400 (forgot to lower it....). 1/6 sec. at f/16. In any case, the out of camera image was pretty darned good and the closest to my vision. I did not even have to rotate it at all. I did eliminate two birds on the left hand frame edge and juice up the color of the sky just a bit.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

Very nice capture! Love the colors in the sky, the incoming wave and the layout of the elements. Beautifully blurred! Oh yeah... I like the birds too :S3:

Very soothing colors and patterns, Artie. It has a graphic look and I like the blur, repetitive sections, the space and variety. It's amazing how you can identify over 80 birds in a small section of the image and they were all facing the same way. :S3:

Thanks both :) Steve, the flocks will almost always move as one, often in response to the wind direction.

It's a very peaceful look Artie. I like the colors and all the lines in the image. My favorite part is the bottom area of water.

Thanks Denise. When I looked to see what you were talking about, I noticed that this is a rare six layer image :)

Artie, I love the layers with all of the lines being different. And, of course, the birds and soft colors are a plus:S3:

Artie,

This is a beautiful and peaceful image. I love the simplicity of the many layers, the pastel colors and how the slow shutter speed blurred the waves and bird movement. The only area I might experiment with by burning in is the right hand section of sky which appears a bit brighter than the rest.

Richard

I agree, that has a very peaceful feel, and also a nice composition with the bands of sand, birds, water, waves and sky. Great job getting just the right amount of blur and seeing the shot. What I like about it most, is that the lines and design are so clean, that it looks like you could have used some special effect application, but you did it mostly within the camera.

Thanks again gang. I love this one too. I must have been panning perfectly with the birds to get them relatively sharp at 1/6 sec. I'll pick another one from the series and post it here soon.

Excellent, wonderful graphic image with a horizontal serenity. The color and their gradients are sublime, and the uniformity of the birds a definite asset. regards~Bill

Artie, I don't have anything anything to add to what's already been said. It's a beautiful blur. :S3:

Artie, I love this. So peaceful and a wonderful moment captured. Good eye to see the situation and a perfect capture. Lovely.

Thanks guys. Kerry, good to see you back :)

The many layers you captured are what really strikes me most about this image....I count 7. :S3:

I'm really glad you posted this for all of BPN. I was there and never saw this beautiful symmetry of lines. Your bulletin heading is worth tatooing on eyelids: "Good photographers never keep their eyes on the subject no matter how wonderful." Not just to see the birds elsewhere, but those birds in relation to their surroundings.

Thanks Alan. I do remember squaring up the top of the viewfinder box with the horizon....

And I used a focusing sensor along the bottom row. None of it happened by accident :)