What Can You Possibly Do When You Get Up at 2:07am?

[Arthur Morris]

You can get some work done and then head out to the beach.... This image was created at 5:32am with the hand held Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens , the Canon Extender EF 2X III (at 400mm), and the Canon EOS-1D X ISO 1650. Evaluative metering +2 stops: 1/15 sec. at f/6.3 in Tv Mode.

Central Sensor Surround/AI Servo Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial.

To see another blur created that same morning and possibly learn a bit, see the blog post here.

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

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Artie, I love this! I love the sense of movement of the skimmers and the soft bands of colors of the sand, water and grasses. I think you could take a sliver off the bottom and eliminate most of the darkest patch of grass on the left corner but it's lovely the way it is.

[Kerry Perkins]

I like the subtle colors of the layers in the background and the furious flapping of the blurred wings. Very nice!

[Diane Miller]

This is wonderful! I'd crop from the bottom to just let the top row of grass end but eliminate most of the white.

[gary ellwein]

Love the soft bands of color which contrast nicely with the chaos of the skimmers.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all. I disagree with the suggestions to crop a bit from below and the left. Why? For me, the darker areas lower left help--along with the shape of the flock in flight-- to create a right-pointing triangular look that gives the image energy.