Royal Spoonbill (Platalea regia)

[Jan Wegener]

Went out to my local lake yesterday morning. I just wanted to photograph ducks in flight, but then I came across three spoonbills feeding in the shallow areas. So I dumped my 400 in a bush and ran back to the car to get my 600.
When I got back the spoonbills were still there and allowed me a close approach

1D Mark IV
600 L IS
1.4x TC III
ISo 800
1/2000
F8

[Randy Stout]

Jan:

Excellent timing, good head angle on bird and fish, nice low shooting angle,sharp, well exposed,nice water.

Might give it a tiny sliver more room on the left, but very nice as is.

Cheers

Randy

[jack williamson]

The blacks look awesome and the fish is very sharp, the neck area looks a little bright to me. Fine shooting angle.

[Robert vanMierop]

I like the dark parts of the bird and agree that the head and neck are a little hot. What a nice looking bird. (Is your 400 still in the bush?)

[Dave Leroy]

Great looking action shot. Really like on nice and sharp the prey and water drops are. Even though the exposure in the bright light looks fine I would prefer a bit toned down also. Perhaps a bit of room on left and bottom?

[vishaljadhav]

Lovely image, the choice of lens was surely nice to get the frame better
i love the way the water is frozen and the fish in mid air, amazing

[PhilCook]

Terrific shot Jan, brilliant timing especially seeing the eyes of the fish as well, perfectly sharp and detailed.....great head turn and beautiful blue water...some patches of the whites may be verging on being hot

[Jonathan Ashton]

I bet you were glad you went back for the big lens - super shot I like everything though I suspect it may look slightly better as a 3:2 crop with the bird just slightly more to the right.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful shot. Lovely light, eye contact and low angle here.

[Arthur Morris]

I love everything about this one from the subject to imaging sensor juxtaposition to the perfect head angle to the open bill (with a smile yet!) to the curl of the fish to the killer water droplets.