Barrow's Goldeneye take-off run

[Bruce Enns]

Hi, Here is another from my BIF practice with Barrow's Goldeneyes. This is a male during his take-off run. I've intentionally placed him towards the left third of the frame to include the footstep splashes, which also adds some tension to the photo. I've used a pano crop to cut out a somewhat distracting and probably unnecessary background. Please tell me what you think.

Canon 50D, Canon 100-400 L, manual exposure, 1/1000 @ f/6.3, ISO 800, post-processed in LR2.3 and PS CS4

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!
Bruce

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool running pose and wing position, I would sharpen the bird and the splash a bit more.

[Peter Hawrylyshyn]

Bruce -
i like the action, pose and agree with axel
i'd also crop off some of the right side ( IMO bird is pushed to far to the left) - - maybe between the 2 splashes. there should be more room on the left for the bird "to run into".
overall, nicely done and thanks for sharing
peter

[Kim Rollins]

Bruce -

Well captured.

I think some sharpening of the 'bird and splash' to be good idea, I would be careful about sharpening else where because reflection is about right to me.

Cropping not a bad idea and I would suggest through the middle of you last name on right.

Thanks for sharing this.

[Bruce Enns]

Thanks very much for your comments Axel, Peter and Kim.

Cheers!
Bruce