Gracklemania!!

[Fabs Forns]

Nothing is prettier than a sun illuminated Boat-tailed Grackle, with the purple and blue iridescence showing. As of lately, I've had pretty good luck getting them in flight, quite an adventure, mind you, because they sure are fast rollers.
Wakodahatchee wetlands yesterday morning.

D3, 500/4 VR plus 1.4X, tripod mounted
f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO 400

[David Roach]

I see you're still working on those reflexes and they're still pretty "darn" good!!! Love the colors, the wing detail, the eye and especially the layers of that "boat" tail!!!

[Randy Stout]

Fabs:

Nice capture of a hard to catch in flight bird. I find its hard to consistently show the iridescence, but this is a very nice display. Sharp, good angle to sensor, good wing position, open beak, complimentary background.

The one thing that helps catch them in flight is they make so much noise when flying you can hear them coming!

Cheers

Randy

[Bob Malbon]

Fabs, No small catch! That is just perfect! Bob

[Mike Lentz]

Great light, tack sharp and catching him in flight puts it up a few notches! Wonderful image, Fabs!

[DanWalters]

Nice flight shot. I like the colors and the open bill.

[Marina Scarr]

Love the colors and action captured here and a wonderful BG and wing position. The open bill is an added plus. I think for a final product, I would clone out the white specs on the bird's head and the one on the tail.

[Gus Cobos]

Excellent all the way around...sharp details, good color rendition, wings on the full down stroke, sharp eye, good head angle, and the pale green background showcases your subject quite well...congrats on a very fine capture...Miss Fabs...:):cool:

[Desmond Chan]

Wow, another great flight shot !!

Like the sharpness and the open bill pose. Nice background, too !!

[Kobus Tollig]

Great bg. Super exposure and comp. Open beak a bonus. Great shot well done

[Stu Bowie]

Excellent exposure on those difficult colours Fabs. Nice and sharp, and great to see the open beak. He is separeated from the BG nicely. Congrats.

[Juan Aragonés]

Fantástica Fabs! The exposure is excelent and I really like the wing pose, opened bill, BG and the fantastic iridiscences of the glossy plumage. Muy buena :-)

[Fernando Cerra]

Fabs, this grackle has a big personality, you captured it well ! congratulations for an excelent job.

[Glenn Bartley]

Wow! So cool Fabs. I love the shininess and calling pose.

[Tim Rucci]

Hi Fabs,
I like the capture and I know how difficult it is to catch those buggers in focus since they do move about pretty quickly. Your timing was perfect to catch the downstroke with the wing tips slightly tipped upward. I really like the open bill too.

The only possible nit I could come up with on this one is that it appears to me to have a green/amber cast to it. I took the liberty and attempted to neutralize it and I hope you don't mind the repost above. At first glance at the image, I felt that the beautiful purples of the bird were being somewhat masked by the color cast. This was my attempt at adjusting it.

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Tim thanks for taking the time to edit the bullet :)
Looking at both closely, I think a version between the two would be appropriate, because they do have some green in the iridescence, plus the reflection of al that green water. I blurred the average for both and both have have a green cast, of course, a very large percentage of the image is green.

Thanks again!