The teenager- common tern testing his wings

[gail bisson]

I have been following a pair of common terns this summer and was never able to photograph the chicks as they were hidden in the grass...until today!! The parents brought them down to the waters edge and were very tolerant of me being so close. I think they are finally used to me.
I love the remaining scraggly down on the chick. They were practising flying and could fly for about 10 to 15 seconds. This pose is just a wing stretch.
Canon f4 500
ISO 400
f 7.1
SS 1/1000
Cropped to vertical full frame. Had to increase exposure by .45 in PP
On lowered tripod, lying in the water, cloudy morning ( but of course cleared at 10:00am...!)
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks

[Chris Martinez]

Awesome wing extension. The definition in the (wing)feathers fantastic!
I think the composition is well suited.

[Ofer Levy]

Awesome pose, good sharpness detail. Feels a bit too tight left and bottom.

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

A fun pose indeed, well timed, and yes I enjoy seeing the transition from fuzz to feathers.

I agree with Ofer about it being tight. Add a bit to the left and below. Perhaps you were concerned about it being too square of a crop, but the diagonal from the wings is so strong that I don't think a squarish crop will be an issue, at least not for me!

How old would guess the chicks are at this point?

Cheers

Randy

[Grace Scalzo]

Made me smile! I too love that downy look. I wish for more detail in the whites....sometimes when I increase overall exposure this happens, so mostly I adjust selectively, or use Nik tonal contrast. Maybe even a bit of "detail extraction" could be done. Agree with the guys on the comp. Certainly an image worth working on.

[Grace Scalzo]

PS- A second look made me think that the flat light might be what is causing the whites to look a bit flat.

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Love the full wing stretch pose, the sharpness and details, the low angle. Must have been an awesome experience.

[Bill Dix]

Terrific pose, Gail, and I love the fuzzy look. I agree it's just a bit tight, but if this is full-height, then I think you did it well. Whites look pretty good on my screen.

[Morkel Erasmus]

lovely pose and soft light here Gail
dig the BG colours too
to me the wings seem sharper than the head - is that because of the "fluff" on the head? perhaps a slight tweak in sharpening needed?

[Marina Scarr]

Killer pose on this one and love seeing all the fuzz. The BG is very pleasing. Like comp as is but would probably be a little stronger of an image with a little more space as mentioned above. I'm with Grace for more details in the whites. Just brought it into PS and it was easily done with Nik software. I consider the exposure slider to be a last resort. Glad your patience paid off and you finally got a shot at the young ones.

[arash_hazeghi]

awesome pose and exposure. like it a lot

[gail bisson]

Thanks all for your helpful comments.
I do have more room left but none on the bottom. As Randy said, I was avoiding a squarish crop.
Marina,
I agree re:exposure slider. I very rarely use it but I screwed up with the exposure as I was concerned about blowing out the white underwing. I did use Detail extractor at 4% on the wings but not on the head because I wanted to maintain the fuzziness.
Gail

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Gail, love the 'head down' pose, and well timed to capture the extended wings. I like the fuzziness around the head, lower body and tail, and yes, that BG looks sweet.

[Arthur Morris]

Love the bird, the double overhead wing stretch pose, and the sweet background. It is all around too tight in the frame for my tastes and the WHITEs look very bright overall and lack detail in spots. Nice mud bank. Lastly, the face and head could use some additional sharpening.

[dankearl]

Not too tight for me. The whites do look a bit bright. Very interesting pose, I think is very nice.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, details, wing position and BG. A little tight for me as well but still a beauty. Well done Gail.

[Maya Raut]

Terrific capture Gail. Lovely exposure, sharpness, details and pose.

- Maya

[Robert Holguin]

Teriffic shot. I really like the pose, exposed very well, wonderful background, and great shooting angle.
Well done.

[David Salem]

Hi Gail,

Sure is fun knowing that parents have babies and then finally seeing them. Nice pic. A little hot on my monitor but not bad. Great wings up pose and clean detail. Like the down on the head also. Nice job

David

[Manjeet & Yograj Jadeja]

beautiful pose and composition