That's how I would describe a Northern Gannet landing in the colony. They have to return to the exact location of their nest without being attacked by any of the neighbours, and they have to do all this as they transition from flying to being stationary on the ground.
One of my favourite targets at a gannet colony is incoming birds and I spend a lot of time trying to capture complete landings and then later choose a pose from one of these for processing. I like this one.
I cropped a little, straightened the horizon and sharpened. I think the image a is little unbalanced but I'd love to know what you think.
Date: 9 July, 2012, Time: 1635h
Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM, @ 200 mm
Program: Manual
ISO 400, 1/1250s, f/5.6
Exp. comp.: 0.0
Flash: on, Flash exp. comp.: 0.0
Well done. Looks familiar :). Love the soft light, the spread tail, and the landing pose. A fraction of a second before would have left the bird totally in the clear without the merge of the one tail feather with the head of one of the birds on the ground. I do like crop and the way the birds in the colony frame the landing bird.
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Perfect timing and exposure is very good, gotta love that spread of the tail feathers, I have to say though the oof bird in the sky doesn't work for me...but I'm just one.
Thanks for all the comments. I removed the OOF bird here just to see the effect. Also removed a little bit of a bird from the left edge (that no one saw!).
Great image John! I like the incoming pose, colony and the OP works for me minus the bird on the left. With the OOF bird in the BG reminds me of planes lined up for landing, which adds to your story of a busy place.
I love this. Such a great, almost wacky pose, that is unusual and well captured. Love the sense that he's landing in the middle of that crowd. Great exposure and details.
Controlled chaos
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