Took this yesterday morning at Nickerson where I escaped for a couple precious hours while paying a visit to family to nearby CT. The water was rough and very few of the abundant skimmers flew over to the ocean, but I caught this one skim for a moment just before the wave broke; it then took a quick bath. Lighting had gotten a bit harsh (tho only 8:30 a.m.!) but I still liked the action captured.
I find myself torn about the comp with skimmers. When you have the skim line, it seems best to have them to the right side of frame, to showcase that. But when there is no skim line, I think best to have the bird with room to fly into. But then you have THIS case, where there is no skim line, but the bird's head is angled down and back, which makes me want to put it to the right. What do others think? If need be, I can post the other way too. I did crop, and have equal room on both sides as I was using the central sensor.
Sharpening, NR, whites recovery, cloned out a few spec highlights in surf.
Thanks so much in advance for any comments and critiques.
Melissa, this is spectacular action, both with the skimmer and the crashing wave! I think the crop you have chosen is perfectly fine. As you mentioned, the skimmer's head is turned back and that is where my eye goes. The small splash and water droplets leading back also make this a good crop. Plus you still have enough room in front to not feel crowded. The red parts of the skimmer are always a great splash of color and those tiny claws are amazing. I like how the wave is positioned so it does not intersect with the white parts of the bird. I also like that it fills the top part of the bkgd and another color line is not introduced.
Wonderful pixel by pixel description of the image by Nancy Bell is as great as story narrated by you.Magnificent creation.
Marvelous acrobatic pose of Skimmer with back head turn captured.I like the beautiful composition.
Love the wing position,water flash around the beak,trailed water droplets and reflection of red beak.
Excellent capture. I liked the composition with crashing wave as BG. I also liked tiny claws, sharpness and details. I would consider to apply some cw rotation. Here is result (Added little exposure). Hope you like this.
Amazing timing Melissa, and Maya's tweak works a tad better I think, the sharpness certainly shows well with those finely detailed feet, wonderful image !
Great capture Melissa.
Great acrobatic pose and wonderful details-especially the feet.
Agree with Maya's rotation.
I am not strong with composition but I like your comp and could also see this with bird more centered.
Gail
This is great action captured and I like the crashing wave behind. The repost with rotation works better for me as I also felt it was needed. I'd like to see this one a little tighter as well.
Your original post is excellent. Everything works there imo.
Moving water can do all kinds of strange things in regards to
our perception of "level". I find the bird's body perfectly aligned
to my perception of level in the OP, but tipped too far forward
in the #4 pane. I also prefer the wider angle of view in the OP.
Skimmer Skims Before Wave Break at Nickerson
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