Forster's Ternover

[Bill Dix]

I love watching the aerobatics of terns, and this guy was especially agile. Instead of going from his hover into a straight dive, he would roll over and do a backwards dive, or whatever they call this move in the Tern Olympics. He'd hit the water just a foot or two from the grassy bank, which obscured his final point of entry from my vantage. He did it a number of times, as if practicing a new move, and managed to get a few little fish in the bargain. Captured yesterday morning at the Ocean City Rookery.

D7200, 500f4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 640, 1/3200s @ f/8 manual. Cropped from horizontal; added canvas at bottom and did a bit of bottom wingtip repair.

[Randy Stout]

Bill:

Outstanding pose, with widespread wings, good head angle, and those tiny red feet!

Good control of your exposure, effective framing

Sounds like a fun morning was had by both of you.

Cheers

Randy

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Interesting dive postures this tern was displaying. Wonderful capture of this particular dive maneuver, Bill. Very nice control of the whites.


Geoffrey

[Lorant Voros]

Super pose and sweet exposure, nice feather detail and love the little feet too. I wish to see the eye more. Well done.

[MiroslavMaric]

Like the pose and frame. Sharp, good light and details of white feather. Well done. TFS.

[arash_hazeghi]

love the dynamic pose! nice light. The whites look grey on my screen and I'd add a catchlight. almost every tern image needs a catchlight to make the eye more visible

TFS

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Arash. I had toned down the brightness of the whites a bit. Here I've gone back and brightened them. And added a small catchlight. Better.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Repost is much better. The best part is the two little feet. Sounds like you had fun....and I see what you did there (title)!

[David Salem]

Yes, better. I really like the roll over pose and the feet showing well. The added catch light gave it some more life and the toned down whites look better. Well done

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Daniel and David.