Royal Tern Takeoff

[Henry Domke]

Watching a Tern bathing in the waves along the beach on Sanibel Island this morning reminded me of the way my parakeet used to take baths. It would dunk it's body into the water and then fluff all it's feathers.

Then suddenly the bird took flight and I got this picture.

Do you think that f/10 helped this shot? I know that many people would have used the lens wide open.

I'm impressed with the 1DX camera that I am borrowing from CPS. The key difference compared to my 5D3 is that it captures focus more quickly; even with the teleconverter it feels instantaneous. I'm getting shots like this that I'm sure I would have missed with other camera bodies. Plus, I never really appreciated the value of a high frame rate before. Without 12 fps I'm not sure I would have gotten this picture.

Looks like I'll be adding the 1DX to my Christmas wish list...

1DX 600II + 1.4X III f/10 1/3200sec ISO 2500. handheld
Processed with Lightrooom 5 and Photoshop CC

[arash_hazeghi]

nice dynamic pose, sharp details, good colors. you don't need f/10 here, wide open will give you excellent results. The 1DX is sure a big step over 5D3 if you shoot action/flight. I hope you can get one soon.

The highlights in the BG are a bit distracting and I wish the sun was behind you.

TFS

[Miguel Palaviccini]

I think you did a nice job on the exposure considering the light direction. If it were mine, I would clone out the one bright highlight behind the tail. I agree with Arash that the overall highlights are a bit distracting (maybe opening up all the way would have helped?), but not much you can do.

[christopher galeski]

nice flight pose,agree on comments above,TFS.

[Arthur Morris]

Sharp. a nice pose and I like the backlight coming through the wings and the nice view of the trailing feet. Photographing into the sun always presents problems. Here the bird's forehead is toasted or at the very least detail-less. The breaking wave right behind the subject was bad luck. It would have been great if the breaking wave had been at the top of the frame without merging with the subject.

[Henry Domke]

...you don't need f/10 here, wide open will give you excellent results...

Arash, I'd like to explore this idea further. To do that I've posted a new thread "Optimal Aperture for Birds in Flight - Time to reconsider Shooting wide open?" on the General Photography discussion forum.