For My Love

[Don Lacy]

Royal Tern coming in to the the colony with a nice Menhaden bait fish to offer a willing partner. Since I am a lousy BIF photographer I am happy whenever I get a decent image

1D MKIII, 500 f/4, 1/4000 at f/5.6, Manual Mode, Evaluative Metered, cropped

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Don, great flying pose, and well eposed too. You have brought out the eye nicely, and good to see the catch with the head showing this side. I do find the white surf line interesting the tern a little distracting, as my eye keeps going there. I would still take this any day.

[David Salem]

Nice flight shot. The fish facing us is a big bonus. Wing position, HA and catch light are great and the head is nice and sharp. Exposure looks good too but I think the light angle may have been a bit high. Great Job.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent flight pose.Love the details in whites,wing position and the fish.

Regards,
Satish.

[Randy Stout]

Don:

Excellent pose, fish. Nicely framed.

I have almost the impression of a gauzy effect on the raised wing, just slightly diffused. May be an optical illusion from the surf behind the wing. Did you need to do any masking of the bird from the BG, or noise reduction? How big of crop?

I think you did a very good job on this BIF, just keep working at it!

Cheers

Randy

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Gorgeous pose, wing position and catch adds so nicely. I am also thinking light angle could have been better but would also take this shot anyday.

[Don Lacy]

Hi Randy, No masking no NR and a medium crop about 70% of original image is posted. Thanks for your comments I believe what you are seeing is either an optical illusion or the wings are at the edge of DOF for the aperture I used making them slightly softer.

[Bill Dix]

Good BIF, with nice wing position and fish turned the right way. White surf line is a little distracting, I agree. Don't know if it would be possible to darken the BG a little without making the bird look pasted on.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice flight shot, Don. The orientation of the fish is good showing the head. Love the background as well although I wish the lighter colour strip would be either above or beloww the bird.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the flight angle, catch, wing postion, exposure and composition. Well done Don.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Very nice Don, good wing position and the fish prey with its head towards us is always a good bonus. I see what Randy means about the wing, seems like some random illusion. Although very minor, there is a highlight between the eye and the bill that bugs me a bit...easy fix with the patch or clone tools. I do not want to highjack your wonderful photo, so here is simply a link to a thread I posted earlier this year that shows a not-so-happy ending to for eager offerer!

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ht=royal+terns

[Sanjeevprakash]

Beautiful Flight pose,Don.The Fish in the beak is a bonus.Well done.TFS

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Nice Don and getting the fish face facing us is a plus.