I might have titled this "Do as I say, not as I do." A week or two ago on this forum I offered advice to Rob on an image taken under almost identical circumstances (same spot, same bird perhaps): "Remove the TC". When lying on the rocks watching this guy, I failed to follow my own advice. When he flapped, he filled the frame from wing-tip to wing-tip, and I cut off his feet. I had to add canvas three sides, and borrow feet from the previous frame. Even with that effort this one doesn't quite make it for me. I wished for a head turn to his right to get the light on his face. And I was unable to move to my left to avoid the OOF rock, because of a crevice in the jetty. And while I'm into self-critique, some fill flash might have been nice. Still, I was pleased to get him flapping.
D7000, 500f4 + 1.4, ISO 640, 1/3200s @ f/7.1 manual.
I liked this image the first time I saw it, and still do. I agree with your self critique to some degree. Under the circumstances you pulled off the image well. Very nice post production work. I would post any or all three of the other Harlequin images as a series IMO.
It's nicley captured Bill and I like the angelic pose, layers on the open wings and the flying water droplets. It goes to show that it is no picnic shooting on a jetty! I did remove my tc last weekend as you and artie recommended and even though it was overcast all day, I did get much better framing with my 300mm tele. And shooting at f/4 in the low light helped as well as reducing my ISO to 200.
Harlequin wing flap
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