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Thread: Black Skimmer with Needlefish

  1. #1
    BPN Member Bill Dix's Avatar
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    Default Black Skimmer with Needlefish

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    From Nickerson several days ago. Full-frame (unlike many of my shots that day, I managed not to clip a wing on this one).

    The fish is of the Needlefish family (Belonidae); perhaps the Garfish (Belone belone) which is common in the Atlantic and which can grow to over a meter in length. According to Wikipedia, schools of them will leap into the air at high speed. Their noses are so sharp that they have been known to cause injury, and in a few cases death, to fishermen when they leap across low fishing boats. Being attracted to light, they are a particular menace to night fishermen in some of the South Pacific islands.

    D500, 500f4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 1250, 1/3200s @ f/9 manual ( I had been set to capture flight interactions between skirmishing skimmers and terns, without much luck.)

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    Nice setting on this and good skill to not clip the wings. I do find it a bit tight in the frame on the sides but hard to add canvas with that grass -- perhaps a pano crop could help? To me, the blacks look a bit blocked around the neck area. I like the catchlight and the prey item and especially that we can see its eye -- amazing how much damage they can cause I had no idea. TFS

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    Love the image, Bill. Blacks and whites appear spot on, nice background.. I might try adding canvas so not as tight in the frame. Thank you for sharing.
    Joe Przybyla

    "Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams

    www.amazinglight.smugmug.com

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Very nice Bill, just a tad tight in the frame and I would suggest the blacks on the neck/shoulder are a bit dense.

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    Good one, Bill. Nice look at and description of a Needlefish. Nice going getting the entire Skimmer in without clipping either wing. Like the grasses in foreground.

    Geoffrey




    http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

  6. #6
    BPN Member Bill Dix's Avatar
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    Thank you all. There was actually only one tiny spot near the juncture of shoulder and wing in which the blacks were truly blocked, but I've opened up the blacks just a bit on the whole neck area. I've also given him a little room on both sides. I considered a pano crop, but since Geoffrey liked the grass, I left it in.

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