Great crested grebe - weed dance

[Jonathan Ashton]

Camera Model Canon EOS-1D X
Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
Tv(Shutter Speed) 1/2000
Av(Aperture Value) 13
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation -1/3
ISO Speed 2500
Auto ISO Speed ON
Lens EF500mm f/4L IS USM +2x
Focal Length 1000.0mm

What a great day I had - brown hares in the morning and courting grebes in the afternoon.

[Glennie Passier]

Terrific Jonathon! I love the action. I've never seen this before. What fun it must have been to witness. Well seen and well captured. The only thing I might consider is toning down the bigger, brighter OOF on the LHS.

TFS!

[Arthur Morris]

Great birds. Great action. Shoreline in the wrong place :( a

[Marina Scarr]

What amazing behavior you captured here. Love the hand off and the water spray. I know we can't control nature, but I sure wish for a smoother BG here but this pair still stand out quite well!

[Kirk Benson]

Super cool action and these GCG's are just beautiful. Nice capture Jonathan.

Kirk

[Tony Whitehead]

Well done to catch this action, Jonathan. Selectively reducing tonal contrast on the BG may be an option and I wonder about decentering the birds to the left of the frame if possible. Quick and nasty laptop trackpad edit to give an idea of reduced tonal contrast on BG

[keith mitchell]

Jonathan little nits covered,think it's great the way you have captured this.

Keith.

[David Cowling]

Nice one Jonathan. Good capture of the action. Have you thought about a vertical crop? I just thought it might concentrate the action even more although it might be a bit tight as a 3x2.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Jon, lovely behaviour captured here, good low shooting angle, and well exposed on both. The flying water from the action adds to the image. I like what Tony achieved on the BG.

[William Dickson]

Hey Jon, great capture, love the dancing pose and the exposure is good. I have been trying to get this shot for a couple of weeks now, so I know how difficult it is, as these Grebes are very aware of human presence just now, so well done.

Will

[David Salem]

Very cool Jon! I have been chasing our Grebes around the last few weeks as they are starting their courtship behaviors and their rushing dance. Do the Great Crested rush also? The shot looks great but I wish you were a bit to the right to have them lined up better, but what can you do. The RP helped with the BG. Well done capturing this display.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks fro your comments and modification much appreciated. I have been back again and got more shots of the weed dance but again the background is less than ideal. The last time I took some camo netting and took images from a standing position, I think this will help with the background.
David these grebes have quite a few different dances and they do indeed rush towards one another but I have never seen a display quite like the one you have captured. Fingers crossed I will keep going back and hopefully I will get a clear shot in the centre of the pond..and in good light!