taken on bunche beach a few months ago. still working on the ends and outs of Ps. this was totally processed in Ps. used ACR on main stuff then Ps for sharpening and resizing.
D300, Bigma at 420mm, f/6.3, 1/3200s, 0EV, ISO 400
HI Mr H - lots to like here - good HA and eye contact, nice details in your blacks, exposure looks spot on, like how you have got him coming towards you and got him at the right time (before he has flown past you)
Wings fully up or down is the preferred angles - but I really like the detail on the forward wing.
Just as a general tip - when shooting at the ocean - keep a eye on the waves in the BG - they can be a advantage or disadvantage depends how you use them.
Due to the method of feeding, and adaptations made to accomodate this (which are remarkable in themselves; the longer mandible, thin lateral complession of the bill, extremely long narrow wings) the bird's fully down wing postion is pretty much shown in the image here. Much lower, while feeding at least, would cause them to hit the waters surface. The fact that the bird has only roughly half of the wing motion of other birds, forces the evolutionary compensation of unusual wing legnth.
The image presented here is technically well done, including exposure, detail, and even the catchlight. Composition is good, as well as the angle of flight. That said, and from someone who confronts the birds quite often, I think that the feeding behavior is so much or what makes a Black Skimmer a Black Skimmer, that an image, no matter how excellent technically and compositionally, is somehow lacking without it. Primarily the bill slicing through the water leaving a straight line wake, but the banking to make another run and other motions involved are also of photographic interest. This is obviously an opinion, and has a lot to do with how I approach skimmers photographically. I do have a bias in that I try capture birds doing their "thing" , not that I am often successful in that endeavor. Does this mean every skimmer image should include this behavior? A good arguement can be made that this is a ridiculous conjecture. One the other hand, does every flight capture need to have the bird flying toward the viewer at a specific body and head angle?
Just something to think about. regards~Bill
Just looked at a number of my skimmer images, and I was incorrect about skimmer wing postions. Although when feeding, the wing only lowers to a certain point, in normal flight the wing does decent much lower! SOrry about the erroneous info.
Last edited by WIlliam Maroldo; 05-29-2009 at 08:49 PM.
Reason: I made an error
hey bill, thanks for the time you took to make the comments. do you have the images of the skimmers you are referring to or have you just seen others? while i do agree that those are the best of the best, you do have to be in the right place at the right time and spend the time finding that situation. being an "every other weekend warrior" photographer, due to the fact that i work twelve-days-on-two-off, i take what i can get concentrating on getting as much right in the camera as possible so i dont have to use all types of Ps filters to cover up my mistakes. thanks again.
Hey my good Doctor...:) A very nice capture indeed...I like it as presented...good clear sharp eye contact and head angle, good details in the blacks and placed just right in frame...I like the curved position of the wing tips...well done...keep them coming...:cool:
Harold: I wasn't trying to say that there was anything wrong with your image, you did a good job! I was just making sort of general comments about Skimmer images. I was referring to my own images, however this website has many excellent examples of what I was talking about, many far better than mine. Nonetheless, to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak, I included a high-key skimmer image I did recently.
Indeed, you are correct, finding such situations is not particularly easy, and thanks for reminding me! regards~Bill
Hi William to answer you specifically No you don't have to have a skimmer skimming to be a good image but images with birds flying away from you and looking away tend to be weak and throw aways !!!!
I like Harold's image as presented and probably would only sharpen the eye area a bit more. Wing position is fine since he got lots of the back side which looks good. Excellent image !!!
Nice image, composition is mostly feel and the photographers own voice (IMO).
The HA is spot-on and solid exposure techs. I agree with Lance regarding the ocean. Not referencing your shot harold. I captured some Gulls a few weeks ago after shooting with Al & Fab,s and the head position was between two waves,..pulling the eye totally off the main subject; good counsel Lance.
Harold....Nice image on all accounts.
William...Nice frontal view but it looks like you cut the image out and and put it on a blank backround. I might suggest you do a bit of blending.
I'm sorry, this is Harolds Post, but since I have already intruded I would like to respond to DMills. Actually I did fill in a number of smaller darker areas (waves)in the background with the same white as the surrounding area. It was not cut and pasted at all, but now that you mention it I can see your point. Taken under overcast conditions, and turned out pretty much as shown, except for the waves in the background. I have a number of other Skimmer images in which I purposely set out to create high key images. Now I'm wondering how much of the background, which incidentally is quite subdued, should be removed. I guess I could start my own post, and a sample image, to show what I'm talking about. regards~Bill
Last edited by WIlliam Maroldo; 05-30-2009 at 12:26 AM.
Sanibel Skimmer II
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