Black Skimmers

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Captured this image after watching group after group suddenly take off from the nesting areas in the dunes at Nickerson Beach recently, then circle back and land at the same spot. The sun was setting and the sky was producing many pastel shades, especially a beautiful pinkish color which I had hoped to get in one of these group images. C&C welcome.

D4S, 1/2500s, f 7.1, ISO 1000, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley Gimbal head.

Geoffrey

[dankearl]

i like this a lot. I would lighten up the BG.

[Bill Dix]

Nicely done, Geoffrey. I was concentrating on waiting for them to come back and land again, while you thought of the bigger picture. Lovely light, the birds composed themselves well; and it's tough to get good head angles on 17 out of 18 birds, but you've done it. Its tempting to remove that one overlapping pair.

[Isaac Grant]

I like the birds all facing the same direction and the spacing of the birds. Pretty good head angles as well as they proved to be quite the cooperative bunch. On the whole I find the image a bit dark and lacking detail. Sky on my screen is just a dull grayish color with a hint of pink. I would lighten the sky and add some color to it as well to see if that makes for a more dynamic image. I have been to Nickerson many times and always smile when the birds all pick up like this. I think this type of image is better with a glowing orange sunrise or sunset as a background.

[William Dickson]

Pretty neat Geoffrey. Love the flight pose on all birds. Its usually quite difficult to get something like this, so well done.

Will

[keith mitchell]

Geoffrey you have caught it perfectly for me,the whole thing blends together nicely,can't think of anything that I would like to change.

Keith.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks everyone. This was a great two days we had photographing Black Skimmers (and their chicks), Terns, Oystercatchers, and several other types of shore birds.

Geoffrey