Happy Bird Day

[Arthur Morris]

First off, I would like to wish all of our members, friends, and mods a great Thanksgiving. Bosque has been amazing, the best in years with endless blast-off opps. This one is from my most momentous day at the refuge in 19 years.

This image was created with the hand held Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens, the Canon 1.4x EF III Teleconverter (at 180mm), and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital camera body ISO 50. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops off the white sky: 1/13 sec. at f/14 in Manual mode, with the Hoya 77mm Neutral Density (ND) 0.9 (3-stop) Pro 1 Digital Multi-Coated Glass Filter.

Central sensor/AI Servo Rear Focus/Suround AF active at the moment of exposure. Click here if you missed the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial.

For more info on my greatest day ever at BDA NWR, see Beyond Spectacular Part I.

For some flight photography lessons and the latest on the crane pool action, see Wings Up/Wings Down.

For some great news from Bosque see "Attempted Murder."

And to see how I have been faring with the 200-400 at the refuge click here.

As for the image, don't be shy: all comments welcome.

[Steve Kaluski]

One cool image Artie, looks like the start of a 'Mexican wave' coming in from the LHS, great, punchy, vibrant colours.

Enjoy 'Thanksgiving'.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Arthur, lovely amount of blur here and I do quite like the snow covered mountains in the distance.

Happy Thanksgiving

[Loi Nguyen]

Happy Thanksgiving to you too, Artie. Lovely image and yes i too love the snow covered mountains in the background. Which bird were those? Loi

[James Shadle]

Artie,
Perhaps my favorite Bosque "blur".
Great balance, complementary colors, dead on exposure, tons of birds photographed at the perfect shutter speed.

[vishaljadhav]

A lovely painiting Arthur Bhai , i am just looking at it on the big screen.
Sweet all aspects of it.

[Joe Murphy]

Very nicely done Artie, must be a great sight to see & photograph.

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Artie, Wonderful blur shot...very vibrant and artistic image.

[Arthur Morris]

Happy Thanksgiving to you too, Artie. Lovely image and yes i too love the snow covered mountains in the background. Which bird were those? Loi

Thanks all for your kind words. I love this one too. The birds are mostly Snow Geese along with a few of the smaller Ross's Geese.

[shane shacaluga]

I am not really a fan of blur's but this is the nicest blurred image I have seen.

TFS

[gail bisson]

You may have actually converted me with this image Artie.
I love this blur- and I NEVER like blurs.
I think the mountains in the background and that lovely curve of snow geese at the top mid-frame are what make this special.The blue and the yellows create a beautiful color palette.
This would look amazing as a huge print ( 5' x 8' big) in a loft space.
Why did you use a ND polarizer?
Gail

[Martin Dunn]

An engrossing image Artie, so much to take in and admire. (But you really need to work on your focussing you haven't managed to get even one goose in focus)

[Karl Egressy]

I'm with those whom are not fond of blurred images, but this is an exception. The best blurred image I have ever seen so far. It is a piece of art.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Add me to the not-too-fond-of-blurs camp, but oh man, this one is seriously beautiful. So much to view and enjoy here - I stared at this one for quite a while.

[Markus Jais]

Awesome. I think this is one of your best bosque shots. Fantastic action, wonderful light. This really is art!

Markus

[Marina Scarr]

I think I am in James' camp. This is the best Bosque blur I've seen to date.

Gail, the 3 stop ND filter allowed for slower shutter speeds.

[dankearl]

The mountains are killer……
Bird are nicely done as well…...

[Rachel Hollander]

Artie - I'm late to this one but also wanted to add, fantastic blur shot. I agree this should be blown up big and hanging on a wall. Seems it all came together for you nicely.

TFS,
Rachel