Skimmer Skirmish

[Bill Dix]

One of the pleasures of a day at Nickerson is watching the Black Skimmers performing their aerial acrobatics.

D500, 500PF, ISO 1250, 1/2500s @ f/7.1 manual, HH.

[annmpacheco]

Love this Bill, always my "go to" opportunity when they chase and interact. I like the crop, open beaks and fanned tails. A suggestion would be to dodge the eye areas to bring them out of "hiding"
well done

[William Dickson]

Very well captured....good light and processing to get the lovely detail on the underwings. Lovely interaction ...Agree with Ann's suggestion. Nice work

Will

[John Mack]

Love the action and those open bills. Both birds look nice and sharp.

[Tim Foltz]

Bill, I haven't seen this behavior in years, the skim me action here has steadily declined over the last few years. Nice light and action.

-Tim

[Colin Driscoll]

Superb action and helpful of them to both be in the same plane of focus. Yes to the eyes.

[dankearl]

Nice flight interaction photo... I would crop tighter...

[Bill Dix]

Good suggestion, Ann. Here's a repost. Dan, this is already a pretty large crop (approx. 50% of orig. width, 25% of pixel count), so I didn't want to push it too far.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

I like this one, Bill. It captures the behavior nicely and I can hear the loud squawks. Good detail. Well done.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[gail bisson]

Looks like you guys had a great time. Feeling like I missed out on something but at least I am not divorced (which is what would happen if I took another birding trip this year!!
The repost is an improvement except for the eye on the lower bird which looks odd.
Great interaction.
I think the IQ is not up to your usual standard. Is this a big crop? I have a feeling it is because you got both birds sharp at a DOF of 7.1 so they must have been a distance away.
Gail

[Matt Sutherland]

Good job, Bill. Good details & exposure, great interaction. Like the repost, too. I understand not wanting to push the crop too far, but if mine I would experiment with taking a little off the left and adding back a little more to the bottom.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, everyone. Matt, I'll look at an alternative crop; your idea would probably be better for this image than the standard 3:2.